Press release:
Sonia Chang-Diaz is the winner of the September 16th Democratic Primary in the Second Suffolk, according to election results announced following today’s recount. Chang-Diaz is now the Democratic Nominee for State Senate in the district, and will appear as such on the November 4th ballot.
“I’m honored to have won the support of the voters of the Second Suffolk in this election, and I’m looking forward to joining Barack Obama, John Kerry and the rest of our Democratic ticket on the ballot this November,” said Chang-Diaz.
“I also want to thank the city Election Department and all the volunteers for their efforts today, working to make sure the votes were fairly and accurately counted. It was a smooth, efficient process, and I think all the voters of the district can feel confident in today’s results.”
So there it is. Apparently, the margin of victory was 213, quite close to the original count of 228. No explanation as yet for the variance, but it’s clearly not enough to affect the result.
We hope and expect that the Democratic party structure will now unite around Chang-Diaz — John Walsh has already done so, as he had previously said he would as to whoever won the recount.
In 1984, indicted Somerville state senator Vinny Piro beat challenger Sal Albano in the Democratic primary. Albano ran against Piro again in the general election with stickers, and won. A messy recount followed, but Albano prevailed. Here’s a Harvard Crimson article about that election.
A community cable access TV show, the night before the election, may have played a crucial role.
That Chang-Diaz is clean; it is hard to see how someone would be able to come up with a scandal to hang on her. Albano won because people heard Piro talking about the need for money to “grease some guys” and figured out what that meant…you’re not going to hear anything like that about Chang-Diaz.
I’m guessing it is human imperfection–and that if every election were recounted, there would probably be a similar “variance” but when margins are larger it’s not worth bothering with.
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p>Congratulations to Chang-Diaz: as to “uniting around” her, does she have a real opponent in the general? (Please don’t tell me Wilkerson is running as an independent). I understand that she is pretty much guaranteed to be the next Senator for Second Suffolk.
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p>Most of the variance is probably due the fact that 17 ballots were missing from the count today.
The recount in the Plymouth 9th added a single vote to the winner’s margin.
which is why I posted the comment above. Chang-Diaz has no Republican opponent on the ballot, only a Socialist Workers party candidate.
they’ll get along
Who Cadillac and Mumbles are supporting?
Oops! They got no one! MA-GOP in shambles…
She will be taken care of by the Governor no doubt. Her criminal and civil problems will have no impact on her attaining a position somewhere in the Gov’s network. We reward people who break the law, as long as they have good connections.
That is the single largest problem with out democratic state government. Hiring friends and relatives. When Question 1 wins, firing them would balance the budget.