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No surprise in mayoral race; district city council races shape up
By adamg on Tue, 09/26/2017 - 9:17pm
UPDATED at 10:05 p.m.
Mayor Marty Walsh will face off against City Councilor Tito Jackson in the November elections, according to preliminary results from the city elections department. Jackson will his work cut out for him: Walsh is leading by a better than 2-1 margin.
In District 1 (East Boston, North End, Charlestown), Stephen Passacantilli of the North End and Lydia Edwards of East Boston look set for a match. Incumbent Sal LaMattina is retiring.
In District 2 (South End, South Boston, Chinatown, Downtown), Edward Flynn (son of Ray Flynn) and Michael Kelley look to be the finalists to advance to November. Incumbent Bill Linehan is retiring.
In District 7 (Roxbury), Kim Janey topped the ballot, with 25% in a field of 13. She'll face Rufus Faulk in November. Former state Rep. Carlos Henriquez finished way behind, behind even perpetual candidates Roy Owen and Clarence Clemmons Muhammad.
And in District 9 (Allston/Brighton), incumbent Mark Ciommo secured a ballot listing for November, as did challenger Brandon Bowser.
In addition to these races, voters in November will also select four at-large councilors and district councilors in the five districts that did not have more than two candidates.
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Comments
No comments in 7 hours ???
I guess we get the democracy we deserve.
Thousands and Thousands of people marching in the street against Trump, against hate, for better schools, posting and posting about all the problems in the City, and less than 15% turnout?
¿Quiénes son los payasos?
I voted for Tito. No matter
I voted for Tito. No matter what the circumstances, I believe he will help us struggling, working stiffs stay in our homes and find more help and programs for our angry youth who are turning to violence.
Easy boy
It was pretty well known it would be Walsh and Jackson winning the primaries, so that kept a lot of people home - especially if there was no council race. And even where there council races, again the top 2 candidates were a given.
The question is whether this small sample actually represents how the electorate at large feels. We have 6 weeks to find out...
Why I didn't vote this time
The idea that we have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to have a primary to whittle 4 mayoral candidatures down to 2 is insane. I propose that if the number of candidates is 5 or less, then there is no need for a preliminary vote and all 5 should be on the November ballot. How does this primary further the goals of democracy?
Now the city council run-offs DO make sense. Having to choose between a dozen candidates likely leaves the winner with a whimper of a "mandate". They should have only had this preliminary vote in districts with more than 5 candidates and left it at that.
Well, it'd be just as much a
Well, it'd be just as much a waste of money to have a preliminary election in one district yesterday, which would have been the case under your metric.
There's no easy solution here short having everyone on the ballot in November.
Instant Run-Off
If this country switched to an instant runoff style of voting where voters ranked their preferences as opposed to choosing only one we'd get better candidates and better choices. They'd be less fear of sending horrible people to office while still expressing our preference or displeasure.
Oh, and we wouldn't need to pay for stupid primaries.
Then you will like my platform!
Number 20 on my platform :
https://ballotpedia.org/Pat_Payaso
Runoffs are a good idea
Otherwise you can have a situation where someone wins with 26% of the vote, which doesn't represent a majority of the electorate. The problem this time is that you had two candidates with strong campaigns and two others who were pretty much invisible. We had a similar situation in the Somerville mayor's race last week.
There's no way for the city to determine that some of the candidates aren't serious and therefore cancel a preliminary election.
Instant Runoff Voting is a better system than preliminaries, but preliminaries are much better than single-vote plurality election.
I am hearing multiple
I am hearing multiple different points about why we should not have primaries and why people did not vote.
The issue is the two top candidates are not supposed to be pre-determined. Who made this decision? Most voters did not make that choice, it was made by activists and donors. They are well within their right of pushing their candidate but that does not mean you should feel compelled to do whatever they tell you to do. The primary is supposed to be a chance to test drive a candidate you like without running the risk of electing the one you hate.
If ABC are all running for Mayor and you love C, hate B and are ok with A do you really want to have all three on the ballot at once? It just means you will vote for A because A has a better chance of winning. Where as in a primary you should have the chance to vote for C and if they lose you can then go vote for A.
It is also a chance for an outside candidate to shock the system by winning the primary. One of the main reasons why incumbents and strong candidates hate primary elections is it has the potential to show their weaknesses. If you are sitting in a seat and come in second place for the primary that could make it harder for you in the general. You don't only have to win, you have to place way up high. Every so often we see that get flipped and it changes the whole race. I like having that little switch in the middle to let people gauge where they are at.
An example of a 'shocking' preliminary election
was Somerville's in 2003, where incumbent Mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay finished third in a three-way preliminary and therefore didn't survive to the general election. Joe Curtatone (barely) topped the ticket in both the preliminary and the general election, and has been our Mayor ever since.
The preliminary was so close that Kelly Gay got over 31% of the vote and was still eliminated.
Hypocrisy
I tell some of my friends that we all live in a hypocritical State of Mind. However the levels of hypocracy that I've been seeing in today's world and dealing with some incredibly difficult social issues has made me want to puke.
For example the Constitution of the United States.
Where in the Constitution it says you have to stand for the flag. When people are running around with the flags on their body, laying on a flag, doing a whole lot of things that I would consider unpatriotic where's the beef. Where in the constitution does it say when is right place or right time to practice your constitutional right of civil disobedience. Let us stop stop hiding behind your flag and let's deal with the issue of racial agenda economic and social inequalities.
I for one
was really bummed out when I heard the numbers this morning. No one, not even people who DID vote (myself included) can be allowed to complain when voter turnout is so depressingly low. It is a group failure. A shrug of the shoulders at Democracy.
I understand not voting in the national elections, I really do. Their outcome is almost meaningless to the masses, who are screwed either way. But in YOUR city? YOUR town? 15% is gross.
Let's face it
If a toilet put out to be used as a space saver we're running against a bicycle, there'd be more comments.
Apathy is what apathy is. Americans care more about athletes standing, kneeling, or whatever before sporting events than they do about hurricane damage in Puerto Rico. Them's the facts.
How to compile information about Boston Candidates.
It is difficult compiling information about Boston Candidates as we see for Cambridge 2017 Municipal Election at http://rwinters.com/elections
How is it more difficult?
How is it more difficult? Some individual spent the time to put that together for Cambridge. I know where to find similar information for Boston candidates, but I'm not interested in spending the time compiling it all onto one page.
There is no difference in difficulty. Your complaint is that no one has already done it for you.
"The Writing's on the Wall"
Election Turn Out Say's it all. Both Marty & Tito - Clown Candidates blowing "Hot Air" with the standard Politically Correct Bullsh_t = Gay Rights, Open Arms to Illegal Aliens, Confederate Statues, blah,blah,blah. Meanwhile the minority Nativebostonian's as they have been forever are shut out of the good Union jobs, Safe neighborhoods, & good Schools. The Boston Public Schools are more dismal than they where before busing. The lack of Vocational education so vital for our inner city kids is criminal. Parents with school age children do what my 4 adult Children were forced to do = Get out of the City as soon as you can. You owe it to yourselves and your Kid's futures.
Let Marty, Tito, and the entire Political elite class continue to decimate the hope and aspirations of all true Bostonians. Their well on their way, 14.5% voter turn our says it all !
P,S. - Thank You Marty - May Boston Latin School - "Rest in Peace"
Wut
What's a "true" Bostonian? Your surname is Irish. Certainly you don't consider yourself one, do you?
(Or are you being ironic?)
Walsh and Tito?
mehhh....I guess I'll be doing a write in vote for Micheal Bloomberg. A mayor who has experience running a world class city.
"Come back to Mass Mike!"...ordering bumper stickers now.
Oh and Ed Flynn is more of the same old townie, good old boys network. double mehhhh.
More info about results wanted
I can't find any voting results broken down by ward or precinct. Does anyone know if those are available yet?
To some they are
David Bernstein is reporting on ward-level results, so someone has that level of detail.
Link please?
I'm especially interested in Allston-Brighton, since I saw lots of Tito buttons and signs at the Allston Village Street Fair on Sunday, but few or none for Marty.
Link provided
http://www.universalhub.com/2017/rise-minority-women-boston-politics
CONGRATULATIONS RUFUS FAULK
If Tito wins, the BU biolab
If Tito wins, the BU biolab is going to turn into an expensive storage space.