King vs. Weber, Pepen vs. Ruiz.
Voters in District 6 (Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, Mission Hill) today solidly rejected one-term incumbent and crash-plagued incumbent Kendra Lara, while voters in neighboring District 5 (Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale) gave the boot to ethics-plagued incumbent Ricardo Arroyo.
In District 6, newcomer Ben Weber cruised to victory over fellow Jamaica Plain resident Lara. Weber will face off in November against William King of West Roxbury.
In District 5, former Wu City Hall aide Enrique Pepen will compete against former BPD officer Jose Ruiz in November.
Lara and Arroyo shared similar progressive records but also, over the past year, scandals that were too much for voters to ignore: In Lara's case, crashing into a house on Centre Street while driving without a license, even if she was doing 27 instead of more than 50.
Arroyo faced two issues: His $3,000 $3,000 ethics fine for representings his brother in a lawsuit against the city after becoming a councilor and the way now disgraced US Attorney Rachael Rolllins tried to help him in his unsuccessful race for DA by using her office to try to kneecap winner Kevin Hayden.
In District 3 (Dorchester), John FitzGerald is leading the rest of the field to replace outgoing incumbent Frank Baker by a large margin. Unofficial city numbers look like he will make the final with Joel Richards.
In District 7 (Roxbury), incumbent Tania Fernandes Anderson won one of the two slots in the November final. If current numbers hold, she'll face off against perpetual candidate Althea Garrison. Perpetual homophobic and Islamophobic loser Roy Owens kept up his record of losing. Also finishing far, far from the top, well behind even Owens: Anti-vaxxer Padma Scott.
Other districts did not have preliminaries today because they did not have more than two candidates. Also not having a preliminary today: The three incumbents and five challengers seeking at-large council seats.
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Comments
Great news
By M. Sanchez
Tue, 09/12/2023 - 9:55pm
Great news. Weber and Pepen will both win in November and bring some respectability back to the council.
Surprised
By Anon
Tue, 09/12/2023 - 9:59pm
Very surprised to see they both did not make it to the general. Maybe there is some hope left in this city after all. Holding people and especially those chosen to represent others accountable for their actions is a wonderful thing to witness. Kudos D5 and D6 voters.
This should help to destroy
By anon
Tue, 09/12/2023 - 10:05pm
This should help to destroy any legitimacy that the JP Progressives ever had.
After a tremendous winning
By Ben
Tue, 09/12/2023 - 10:10pm
After a tremendous winning streak the furthest left has now had a string of losses after Mayor Wu's victory. Arroyo twice, Lara and Rollins all out. Toss Chang-Diaz into that group. And Mejia is lucky Flaherty bowed out or she'd be at risk.
Did you happen to notice who Wu endorsed in D5?
By adamg
Wed, 09/13/2023 - 11:20am
Hint: He'll be on ballot in November.
Peppen is also too the left
By redheadedjen
Wed, 09/13/2023 - 11:53am
Peppen is also too the left so the left did not lose both.
Letting Arroyo Off Easy
By MM
Tue, 09/12/2023 - 10:11pm
I don't think it's fair to Arroyo to attribute his loss entirely to Rollins -- it's worth remembering his conflict of interest violations or multiple sexual harassment allegations (which, to be fair again, he has never been charged over). He was pretty involved in his failure, too!
Biggest failure
By anon
Wed, 09/13/2023 - 8:39am
was his (and Mejia's) insufferable stumping for Janey. He actually argued before the Council that holding an interim mayoral election would "disenfranchise" voters.
Yeah, it’s not fair or
By anon
Wed, 09/13/2023 - 9:58am
Yeah, it’s not fair or entirely accurate. Even way before his troubles, there were grumbles in his district that he had a habit of not showing up to meetings, wasn’t great about returning calls, etc. for a district councilor, those things are the majority of the job. I’m sure the press didn’t help, but voters that like your work are very forgiving if you do your job.
this result
By W.C. Plains
Tue, 09/12/2023 - 10:40pm
This result shows that people are paying attention and that those that voted actually recognized that they had agency here. That alone is worth celebrating in this terribly cynical age. On to November
5 Surprised Me
By Waquiot
Tue, 09/12/2023 - 10:45pm
Then again, when I voted at my 2 precinct location, Ruiz and Pepin were the only candidates with supporters asking for support. Arroyo kind of stopped caring at one point.
Weber coming in first in 6 also was interesting. November could be interesting, but it would be tough to bet on King.
As someone that has talked to
By anon
Tue, 09/12/2023 - 10:59pm
As someone that has talked to (and been watching) Ben Weber, he is a huge flip flopper. That does not bode well for him. Mr. Weber also seems to be more concerned that the Mission Hill School was shut down than he is about the sex crimes against children that occurred there.
This surprised me...
By b from Ros
Wed, 09/13/2023 - 1:09am
Certain candidates seemingly carpet bombed the neighborhood, my mailbox, and my doorstep, with fliers.
While others seemingly made no effort.
My gut considered both of these red flags. But who knows.
What is the right amount of lit?
By epeemike81
Wed, 09/13/2023 - 11:10am
Just curious: what is the Bluenu Approved acceptable range of mailers?
solidly
By anon
Wed, 09/13/2023 - 7:37am
??? What was the turnout?
Well
By Michael
Wed, 09/13/2023 - 10:17am
If you are able to vote and don't show up, you're saying "whatever you guys decide is fine with me", so really we're only able to count the numbers based on who gives a shit
Here
By emac
Wed, 09/13/2023 - 8:26pm
Click on the candidates in the link below (Weber, Pepen, etc.) to see the prelim results and counts. Solidly:
Pepen 40
Ruiz 31
Arroyo 19
Weber 42
King 37
Lara 20
Fitzgerald 43
Richards 19
Walsh 18
Patton 9
https://ballotpedia.org/City_elections_in_Boston,_Massachusetts_(2023)
Good riddance, I suppose
By jmeltzer
Wed, 09/13/2023 - 9:02am
Let's hope the replacements don't screw up. :-)
ranked choice voting
By anon
Wed, 09/13/2023 - 9:07am
Can we all agree how silly it is that Massachusetts still doesn't do ranked choice voting? If it did, then there wouldn't be any need to be a time+money wasting preliminary election yesterday. All candidates get listed on the ballot in the general election, and the consensus candidate wins.
Hell, with ranked choice voting the Mayor today probably would not be Wu, but Andrea Campbell.
Lest we forget
By Hardy Har Har
Wed, 09/13/2023 - 7:13pm
The Ranked Choice Voting 2020 Committee spent $10M so they could lose by 9% to the No Ranked Choice Voting Committee 2020, who spent $8,475.74.
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