By the numbers:
At Large Council race:
Ayanna Pressley 37,506 21.42%
Felix G. Arroyo 35,465 20.26%
John R. Connolly 32,803 18.74%
Stephen J. Murphy 26,712 15.25%
Michael F. Flaherty 25,790 14.73%
Will Dorcena 8,736 4.99%
Sean Ryan 7,373 4.21 %
The race between Bill Linehan and Suzanne Lee may be less than 100 votes apart (remember, remember every vote counts!) [UPDATE: As of 10:30 pm, the results show 100% counted, and Linehan edging Lee 5,065 to 4,078. -ed.]
Source of numbers – boston.gov at http://www.cityofboston.gov/elections/currentelections/
Thank you, Deb, for the info. I planned to drive to my birth-city Boston today, but instead grabbed coffee at the Little Green Coffee Shop, handed lit to my former Savers co-worker Aquilino, who was glad when I told him “Tendrá un fieston en mi casota,” bought a holiday gift from Red Rover and station(a/e)ry from my Walmart… Councillor Pressley strengthened her campaign skills since Warren faced her on peoplesseat.com
Too bad I had to work when U.S.-Senate-web-elect Steve Grossman graced our hometown barbecue.
Congrats especially to Ayanna who had been referred to as “likely odd-man (sic) out” for much of the race.
And just think: a black woman and Latino man were the two top vote-getters in the Boston City Council race.
A weird piece about it by Andrew Ryan on Boston.com: http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/downtown/2011/11/flaherty_falls_short_in_his_co.html?p1=News_links Ryan focuses on Flaherty although there is no real story about the winners. Ah well.
If a full-court press by the mayor’s “machine” was only able to squeeze out Flaherty by a .53% margin, well, I’m witholding my awe.
Of course I’m psyched that Ayanna and Felix came out on top. But I’ll have to do a lot of quick vomit swallowing when Menino’s apparatchiks start taking credit for the results and festooning themselves with patched together “progressive” garlands.
It’s great to see Ayanna and Felix up on top of that ballot — something I don’t think too many people would have expected. Boston needs more fresh voices and these two certainly fit the bill.
I have to admit, all that said, I’m a little sad to see Flaherty off the council. I think it’s useful to have a guy (or gal) who can play the shadow-minister to Menino’s reign.
I know all the others will point out that they’re not afraid to side against Menino, but it’s something I have to imagine they all weigh very, very carefully and won’t do it unless they don’t really have much of a choice, Menino’s being particularly egregious in some decision, or it’s something Menino doesn’t care very much about. (Then again, when Menino gets ticked off because someone calls out the schools for serving expired lunches, it looks like nothing it too trivial for him to get upset about.)
As someone who thinks Menino has far too much power and has stayed in his position way past the ‘best by’ date, I think *someone* needs to be willing to step up and play that role on the council, pointing out his missteps, oversights and what not. It would be a thankless role, but an important one.
Will there be a recount in the Linehan/Lee contest? 87 votes is an extremely small margin of victory.
With a margin that tiny, I suspect that even Linehan would have to admit that Lee would more than justified in requesting a hand re-count.
…suggesting she could be Mayor.