By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

NORTH SMITHFIELD – As she waited with a dozen family members and supporters at the VFW Post on School Street, Paulette D. Hamilton didn’t appear to be a candidate heading for a major upset of a two-term incumbent.

She would take every polling place in the town, in fact, while cruising to a solid victory over incumbent Democrat Robert B. Lowe.

Hamilton, who also topped Lowe in the primary for his seat, pulled in 3,008 votes to Lowe’s 2,289, a margin of 56.8 percent to 43.2 percent, according to town election results.

Her victory was part of a night of change for a town that has seen many quick shifts of political power over the years.

Incumbent State Rep. Raymond C. Church, himself a former town administrator, lost a bid for re-election to his District 48 seat to Republican Brian C. Newberry, and Town Councilman David A. Lovett saw his fellow Democrat on the panel, Patrick M. Keeley, lose his bid for re-election.

Former Planning Board member Lucien E. Benoit was the top vote-getter in the council contest collecting 2,736 votes over Lovett’s tally of 2,693. Former Town Councilman Steven N. Biron, placed third while winning his return to the panel with 2,644 votes, and was followed by incumbents Paul J. Zwolenski, with 2,622, and Paul M. Leclerc with 2,610.

Caroly A. Shumway, a vocal critic of the Dowling Village commercial development, missed a seat with her tally of 2,149, Stephen M. Vowels collected 1,731, Frank M. Varrecchione, 1,108, and Leo O. Defond, a frequent critic of Lowe, 977.

As the magnitude of her victory settled in, Hamilton said she felt both “honored” and “energized.”

One of her supporters offered her a last bit of encouragement, “you are only just begun,” before Hamilton turned to address the gathering and Hamilton agreed.

“I just want to thank you all. This a great opportunity for the entire town and all of us,” she said as her sons, Dalton and Theron, and her mother, Olive Savard, looked on in the gathering.

Hamilton credited her supporters for getting out into the community and working hard during the campaign.

“You put this thing together during a small period of time with a great big hearts and I’m just so excited by that,” she said.

Hamilton said she plans to work with the newly elected council and believes she and the panel “will be able to work together in the best interest of the town.”

While local growth and Dowling Village may have been a key issues in the campaign, Hamilton said it was too soon Tuesday to say what her first step on that topic might be.

“I would just say that I want to work with the developer to make the footprint a little smaller so that it doesn’t effect the environment,” she said of the Dowling Village project at Park Square.

Hamilton said the biggest concern for the town continues to be bringing in “good clean businesses” to build the tax base, development such as office parks and medical facilities, and she will be announcing more about her plans in the near future.

Lowe, who got the results with a big crowd of Democrats, supporters and family members at Lindy’s Tavern, tapped his 30 years of experience in public life to accept the defeat.

“Taxes and sewers,” Lowe said while pointing to the impact of the town’s $30 million middle school project and a $22 million sewer construction program as factors in voter dissatisfaction at the polls.

“The bill for the middle school came due this year and people are uncertain about the sewer bond in this economy,” he said.

“There is nothing that I could do differently,” he said. “We kept taxes as low as we could.”

All of that amounted to a voter mood for change and one he could not beat back. “It’s not a good time for incumbents when the word change is out there and, as people say, it hits you like a tidal wave.”

Also Tuesday, voters elected Robert E. Lafleur, Christine Bonas and Frances R. Johannis to the School Committee and rejected a local referendum question seeking to purchase land at Homestead Gardens for $2.5 million.