Just talked to Flaherty's press person; Flaherty concedes to Galluccio. [UPDATE (by David, on Wednesday morning): And, as it turns out, Paul Nowicki actually came in second by wiping out every other candidate in his hometown of Chelsea. Finalish numbers according to RWinters: Galluccio 42%, Nowicki 26%, Flaherty 22%, Ross 10%.]
Update: Greg Reibman points us to the Cambridge Chronicle, which he says is updating its story all night:
With 81 percent of the precincts reporting in Cambridge, Galluccio won 918 votes. Former Norfolk County assistant district attorney Tim Flaherty won 578 votes in Cambridge
Since all the candidates are Democrats, Galluccio is the presumptive winner of the election, barring a colossal write-in campaign.
Galluccio bested Flaherty, Chelsea City Councilor Paul Nowicki and human rights lawyer Jeff Ross in a race characterized by general agreeableness and similarities among all the candidates.
“Agreeableness” in general ideology, yes … but it got extremely personal, too.
Congratulations to Galluccio; we hope he'll be a fine senator.
First Eldridge and then now Flaherty.
Mota might want to decline the endorsement for 1st Suffolk.
I kid, I kid …
We don't necessarily endorse with an eye to electability, though I did think Flaherty had a good shot. I don't know what the count was — anyone got those #s?
Endorsements are about the candidate considerated “best” not the candidate who will win. BMG needs to keep making the point
dumb question perhaps, but Flaherty must have conceded on the basis of return numbers. Where could I find these numbers? They're not on the elections division web site yet.
Complete unofficial results from Cambridge and Boston
Galluccio won convincingly. Congratulations to him on an obviously well-run campaign!
Cambridge Chronicle will be updating this story all night.
Vivian -Flaherty most likely conceded based on his internal numbers (people calling in from polling places) but try different municipal election departments to get real numbers
You're my state senator now. Congratulations.
How about apologizing to us constituents for lying to us repeatedly about your drunk driving episode, so we can get things off to a good start.
Will, apparently the voters were far less concerned about the issue then you were. Poor style points for an election night backhanded congratulations. So much for your “good start”
Sniping at the winner on election night is poor form. Galluccio never went negative and took his hits quietly. You can give me a 3 and I will wear it proudly given Will's post
Where to begin. I think “soreloser.com” was poor form. And if you think I'm shutting up about my issues with that guy cuz he won, you've got another thing coming.
perhaps a bit childishly because I have felt Anthony, who is a decent and hard working man, has been subjected to personal attacks. I thought Charley's initial post was on spot – he wasn't thrilled that Galluccio won over BMG's endorsed candidate but he wished him the best as the State Senator.
As for your “if you think I am shiutting up about my issue” comment – pardon me but did I tell you to shut up? Take Anthony to task all you want. He won, elected officials feet should be held to the fire.. And I will stand up for the guy when he votes right. I will grant you that soreloser.com was poor form – I make mistakes with immediate access as much as the next guy (ah for the days you had to wait to mail a “I am pissed off letter”).
Congrats to Mike Flaherty for a soild campaign, same to Councillor Nowiciki for being a tough candidate and to Jeff Ross for making a first run.
which is why I said “congratulations,” because I didn't care enough about Galluccio to take time away from drinking and cavorting (mine, not his). If I had actually worked for his opposition, then you'd be seeing a sore loser. As it stands, I'm just giving him a prod in the right direction.
Ok Will. Your word is good with me. Prod him whenever needed but give him tonight to celebrate.
Whatever his personal demons, he has turned the right corner some time ago. Give the guy a break.
He has to apologize to no one. He has already taken his lumps and hopefully will remain in recovery.
From the Allston-Brighton TAB (similar post).
<
p>
one giant loss for the Massachusetts Democratic Party.
everyone running in this race was an egomaniac. Isn't that a prerequisite to running for office?
It is very hard for a Cambridge City Councillor to make the leap to the legislature because of the nature of City Council elections in that city. (Not impossible, obviously.)
To get elected to the city council you need to assemble a deep and narrow slice of the vote. Deep because they have to give you their #1 votes and narrow because you only need 1/9 of the ballots cast. So you put together a coalition of, say, Cambridgeport residents plus pokeman fanatics, and that is your base. Not generally a strong place to begin a winning campaign in a more-conventional election.
Good grief. I landed over 300 for a representative Town Meeting seat. How is it they couldn't mobilize more voters? I confess I didn't follow the race at all [not my district and I was out of the continent all summer], but really — why couldn't either man mobilize more voters?
We still haven't seen the final numbers from Everett, Saugus, Chelsea, and Revere. I heard that Flaherty actually finished 3rd behind Nowicki in the final count, but I can't find those tallies anywhere.
I have them here: http://rwinters.com
Interesting that the media carried the story as Flaherty conceeding to Galluccio as the deciding voice when in fact Nowicki finished 2nd.
1800 votes won a state senate seat?
The “total votes cast” figure is over 10,000.
keep in mind, like you, many people were probably out of town for the summer; this was a special election primary; it was raining all day; and, as far as I'm concerned, none of the candidates were anything to get excited about.
for a second I thought that the morons in the Masachusetts electorate just didn't give a crap.
I'm glad it was raining and some folks may have vacationed this summer and missed one or two days of campaiging. I knew there was a good reason for 1800 voters electing a state senator.
You wonder why this state is a disgrace?
Over 10,000 votes were cast. Sure, turnout at special elections is lousy, but let’s not get carried away.
he got 4,400 votes overall.
It should come to know surprise that the papers went with the “Flaherty headline” after all he has bigger name ID then Nowicki – But hopefully that should make Nowicki's 2nd place finish feel all that much more rewarding… Congratulations to both Galluccio and Nowicki!
That victory was a long time coming. Good luck in the Senate.
Is one of vindication especially with the mainstream media (Globe, Chronicle) and alternative media (BMG) stacked against him along with most of the political establishment of his own town Galluccio still pulled off a win, despite the relentless personal attacks against his own shortcomings. I wish a great site like BMG did not take the ranting ravings of Mr. Prisby seriously, but in the end the important thing was that the voters rewarded dedication, experience, and committment to people over trivial personal attacks. So I am very satsified, also look for the Council race to change drastically now that Galluccio will not run for re-election leaving all his substantial voting bloc up for grabs, look for most of the votes to benefit David Maher and Edward Sullivan.
Wow, you've got a lot of gall. What evidence do you have that Mr. Prisby has done *anything* other than tell the truth? Were you there? Were you in that four-car accident?
Write it down, right here, jconway. Otherwise retract it.
Ironically, jconway, your obsession with demonizing those who dare to bring up Galluccio’s drinking is exactly why that topic got discussed so much around here. It’s a pretty basic principle: if you don’t want people to talk about something, don’t talk about it yourself.