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It's Menino vs. Flaherty in November

Menino Flaherty

In today's preliminary election, Mayor Thomas Menino topped a self-imposed 50% margin - if just barely - and he now enters the campaign against Michael Flaherty with a far larger bank account.

With 251 (out of 254) precincts in:
Menino: 40472 (50.5%)
Flaherty: 19094 (23.84%)
Yoon: 17006 (21.2%)
McCrea: 3315 (4.1%)

Flaherty's speech, in which he announced his new slogan, "We can't wait!"

Arroyo
Arroyo, top challenger
vote getter:

The at-large City Council race will consist of incumbents John Connolly and Stephen Murphy and challengers Felix Arroyo, Ayanna Pressley, Andrew Kenneally, Tito Jackson, Doug Bennett and Tomas Gonzalez.

In the district races, incumbents LaMattina (North End, East Boston, Charlestown), Ciommo (Allston/Brighton) and Turner (Roxbury) all cruised to easy first-place finishes.

LaMattina, who got 73% of the vote, will face Chris Kulikoski. Ciommo (60%), reprises a 2007 battle with Alex Selvig. Turner, facing federal indictment, got 53% of the vote and will re-battle Carlos Henriquez.

Double celebration for Connolly: He topped the at-large race and his wife Meg gave birth Monday to son Edward Ronan:

New son
Neighborhoods: 


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Comments

I voted at 7:30pm and was asked to "please show ID with your current address" and then "can I see it again I need to check if its expired" followed by "hey mary, his ID matches the address in the book, do I need to ask for anything else?"

Apparently, something on her paper said she had to ask for my ID? Like my name was flagged or something? I voted in both the presidential and presidential primary elections last year.

Anyone know what's up with that?

(Fenway, Ipswitch street)

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They didn't check my ID there at all. Voted around 5, so maybe the shift had just changed.

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I work the polls. There are several common triggers to ask for ID.

Your name must have had either I or ID beside it. I is inactive, which most often comes when they didn't get back that annual mailer for voter census. Show ID with the current address, fill in a form swearing you are you, and you vote. Plus that gets you off the inactive list for the next election, in this case November.

Of course, the message here is to return the city elections form every year.

The ID usually goes on people who registered but did not provide the license number or similar ID on the form. Show current ID and vote. If you don't have ID, you get the pain of a provisional ballot with a couple of pages to fill in before voting off-machine. You paperwork goes to elections at city hall. If you check out as registered there, they open you ballot and record and count it.

Remember that Boston was in trouble with the feds for several reasons related to voting. They are real careful to obey the federal and state laws and regs.

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When I registered, I didnt have a state ID, just a passport. I wonder if that was why.

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Something verifiable with the current address is OK -- state driver's license, state ID, utility bill, bank statement, payroll statement, government check or other government ID. Many people didn't fill in the lines with the license number and such. Others show at the polls and present an ID, adding, "Oh, I've moved twice since then. This isn't my address anymore."

Oddly though, many vestiges are in the voting books. The state keeps people on the rolls for five years, even if a neighbor sees the name and tells the inspectors that the person moved to Wyoming three years ago. That's to prevent people being knocked off accidentally.

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is not what the Menino camp wants to see. If the two losing challengers agree to back the one left standing and practice the change theme of their campaigns, a unified front just might bring the man down in November.

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Menino will now benefit from unity in the communities of color, and in the areas where the vote will increase dramatically in November. In 1993, he beat Jim Brett by a few points, but Brett was never able to transcend his moderate-conservative base in Southie and Dorchester and Menino won 2 to 1, about the same percentage as his Davis-Mullen and Hennigan victories. You can't win in Boston from the right.

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That is a stretch. Flaherty surprised me in his first at-large run with his ability to engage minority voters as well as others across the city. Certainly there has been bad blood over the years with the Unity coalition but he and Yoon teamed-up on an email push last year for Obama.

While Flaherty has seemed to move within the spectrum, I would not put him to the right of the Mayor. And Menino has diminished his extensive goodwill in many neighborhoods with his obtuse demeanor and lack of effectiveness in delivering safe streets and quality schools (never mind zoning/development issues).

I can't help but wonder if some of the turnout for Chuck Turner tonight didn't have something to do with frustration stirred by Kineavy's email debacle...

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Menino may be under 50% in a 3 way race, but I don't think he has anything to worry about. Sam Yoon is not going to deliver every one of his votes to Michael Flaherty. Flaherty is in pretty good shape for a 2013 run for mayor, and Yoon has emerged as a credible city-wide candidate. But they'll both have to figure out what to do during the next 4 years, since they've both abandoned their City Council soapboxes for this year's run. It'll be really interesting to see who emerges in the (largely) all-new council as a contender for city leadership.

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I voted for Yoon because I liked his ideas.

I'm voting for Flaherty because he's not Menino.

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I couldn't have said it better.

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IMAGE(http://eeka.net/2inchgoodbetter.jpg) http://1smootshort.blogspot.com

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Ditto

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I look forward to hearing what Flaherty has to say. I thought better of him as the campaign proceeded, and he may be ready to mount a genuine challenge for this home stretch.

Menino has been good for the city in some ways, but he's like a solid journeyman ballplayer who should've called it quits. The growth and then deterioration of Downtown Crossing is symbolic of his tenure as mayor. That combined with the thuggishness and cult of personality coming out of City Hall is enough to make me look elsewhere.

I'm a bit sad that Yoon decided to run this year. With another term or two on the Council, he would've had a stage to raise important issues and firm up a stronger leadership profile. I voted for him but never got excited about his campaign. Some interesting ideas and a sincere interest in Boston's communities, but I didn't see the qualities of leadership we need.

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It is too bad about Yoon but I do not understand the impulse for people who are new to politics to want to jump to the top so fast. Your right he should have stuck it out a little longer.

The good news is of that 20 or so percent he got in the election many of them seem to be young and internet based people. He will easily be able to keep in touch with them through his Twitter and Facebook pages and will be able to maintain a leadership position in the city, albeit in an unofficial capacity.

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y-o-u-'-r-e

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Yore

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Yoon has been a city councilor for while.

Yore rong.

[size=9]www.[color=#FF0000]C[/color][color=#FF9933]O[/color][color=#CC00CC]L[/color][color=#339900]O[/color][color=#3300CC]R[/color] OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition![/size]

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I understand he was a city councilor... you make it seem like he was there for 10 years or something. I consider short period of time then running for Mayor to be jumping in. McCrea is not even on my radar.

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Young candidate of color, seizing the moment, and so on?

Yoon was positioned to eventually make a run for bigger office, but he jumped too soon. Now he has to reassess and, if he wants to run again, rebuild.

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I'm not sure what his thinking was. Maybe he thought that Menino would step down and by the time he figured out that was not happening it was too late? He may have seen an opening and figured if he did not jump now someone else could jump in and hold it for 15 more years.

I think he did get Obama fever and in that same vein may have suffered from the low Obama approval ratings and the barely visible Patrick approval ratings, both are men of color who were chosen more so for their persona then their experience in elected office. The road to change for Obama is a little bumpy and the road to change for Patrick has all but imploded. Having a change theme may have hurt in the end as well.

All and all he picked up a good number of votes and made professional contacts. I bet he becomes the ED of some organization in the city and then runs for a seat in the legislature later on.

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I'd be really tempted to write him in.

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The race already has a liberal

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Why does Yoon want to push Flaherty ahead when he was so close to him in the final results? Come back in four years. Besides, Flaherty reveled in kicking the whatever out of the councilors of color, of tenants and anything progressive for years. Now, it's gonna come back and bite him.

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I don't know what ballots people were looking at but I only had two candidates on mine: Mayor Tom Menino and Not Mayor Tom Menino.

From what I see on the city's website, Not Mayor Tom Menino is winning right now with 51% of the vote.

I have no doubt Not Mayor Tom Menino will win in November, as well.

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First of all, it's looking like Tom Menino beat 2 Not Toms by a few votes. I really thought Michael Flaherty would finish in a stronger 2nd place - but his Southie and Dorchester machine was embarrassed by a near-tie with Sam Yoon.

Now, can you imagine anyone who voted for Menino in the preliminary changing sides in November? I can't see that happening in any significant number.

On the other hand, I can see a lot of Sam Yoon voters staying home in November. I could also imagine some who liked both Yoon and the Mayor, deciding that Menino is their best second choice. And "some" - only a few percent, really, is all Menino has to pick up.

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Yep, then add in the people who didn't vote but will in November. Menino will easily get 60%. I voted for Yoon and will vote for Menino. There are a lot of people like me who were caught between the impulse for fresh blood and loyalty to Menino's constituent services. I'm not likely to vote for Flaherty, as he strikes me as an untested Menion 2.0 (he even claims this in his media materials). It's one thing to take a risk on something new and different. But why take it on something that is substantially similar?

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Generally candidates know what the results are by 9, given that polls close at 8. Websites and Twitter are just relying on the tv and newspaper websites, which in turn just report what city hall has - which is very slow. To do something better, websites ought to be relying on campaign volunteers who are getting the counts at precincts, and reporting based on their information.

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OMG no wonder he lost! Just saw an ad on NECN - it is 10:10 p.m. and he already conceded! Heck of a job, Jim Spencer!

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Jesus cut him some slack. He probably paid for the whole day. The fact that a guy named Yoon that looks like he's 20 can do honest battle against someone named Flaherty (and from Southie to boot) is testament to a well run campaign

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About 744 votes (1%) separate Menino from Non-Menino in the primary.

74458 votes as of 10:00PM.

MENINO 37600 50.50%

NOT-MENINO 36858 49.50%

FLAHERTY 17971 24.14%
YOON 15591 20.94%
McCREA 3114 4.18%
WRITE-IN 182 0.24%

[size=9]www.[color=#FF0000]C[/color][color=#FF9933]O[/color][color=#CC00CC]L[/color][color=#339900]O[/color][color=#3300CC]R[/color] OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition![/size]

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Exactly, and once the claws come out it will be much easier pulling from Menino's pile of ritualistic lever pullers than from the discontented.

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I allege.

[size=9]www.[color=#FF0000]C[/color][color=#FF9933]O[/color][color=#CC00CC]L[/color][color=#339900]O[/color][color=#3300CC]R[/color] OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition![/size]

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If so then he conspired with "write in"

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Yoon and McCrea beats Flaherty by 1% (without Write-in.)

[size=9]www.[color=#FF0000]C[/color][color=#FF9933]O[/color][color=#CC00CC]L[/color][color=#339900]O[/color][color=#3300CC]R[/color] OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition![/size]

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While not *every* McCrea voter would have necessarily voted for Yoon, it would have been quite a few of them. It would have been a lot closer for Yoon and Flaherty if McCrea had not run. This is why I stated I voted for Yoon over McCrea even though I'd have preferred McCrea. Ah well.

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Okay, so (1%) is made to look sooooooo little, but if your guy won, which ever you supported, you would enjoy the fact that your hard work, dedication and commitment and reasons for such, were shared with that much, just (1%), more of the people of Boston; you'd have a different perspective of just (1%)...

Give it to them, let'em have it...don't HATE!!!

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Today, %1 = 744 votes.

Where's the hate?
[size=9]www.[color=#FF0000]C[/color][color=#FF9933]O[/color][color=#CC00CC]L[/color][color=#339900]O[/color][color=#3300CC]R[/color] OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition![/size]

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I'd love to know how the mayoral vote broke down among those who cast ballots for Chuck Turner. Then I'd love to know where in that district all the caves are.

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I voted for Carlos Henriquez and Sam Yoon. Not sure about the other 2739847238947 people in my precinct.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
IMAGE(http://eeka.net/2inchgoodbetter.jpg) http://1smootshort.blogspot.com

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Menino beats Not-Menino.

Flaherty tries again in 4 years after lawyering for a bit.

Yoon becomes a national asian folk hero and travels the country. You'll never see his name on a ballot again.

McCrea runs for city council in 4 years and again doesn't make the cut. Rides his motorcycle to Honduras and tries to stage a coup.

John Connolly runs for mayor in 4 years and finally someone beats Menino.

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Look for good progressive candidates in the future like Sheriff Cabral, Sonia Chang-Diaz, Linda Dorcena-Forry, Mike Ross and Ayanna Pressley. Flaherty is the logical successor to Jim Brett, Peggy Davis-Mullen and Maura Hennigan, Old Boston all.

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the election is in November

[size=9]www.[color=#FF0000]C[/color][color=#FF9933]O[/color][color=#CC00CC]L[/color][color=#339900]O[/color][color=#3300CC]R[/color] OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition![/size]

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This is a non-partisan municipal election, so it was a "preliminary," not a "primary."

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.
[size=9]www.[color=#FF0000]C[/color][color=#FF9933]O[/color][color=#CC00CC]L[/color][color=#339900]O[/color][color=#3300CC]R[/color] OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition![/size]

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Yeah, no matter how hard I try, I can't get Not Menino over 50%. I think the true results should include the "not cast" (blank) ballots since these are, in fact, people voting - they're voting "none of the above". Included in the percentages, not in the raw numbers. No?

Day-after analysis will no doubt include a conversation about what will happen if the Mayor wins in November. Conventional wisdom has him staying just two years, turning the reigns of the city over to his handpicked successor (and .... wait for it ... godson) Rob Consalvo taking over (this of course, only possible if Consalvo becomes city council president in the interim). (Councilor Ross, my guess is Councilor Consalvo will be your #1 supporter in your nascent bid for US Congressman, next winter.)

Of course, the other city councilors will not sit idly by watching this happen. I heard today that City Councilor John Tobin has scheduled a hearing on changing the current [law] that automatically makes the sitting city council president the acting mayor, should the mayor step down or die.

Who would end up having the power to choose an acting mayor is not clear. Why remove the automatic ascension to power? The city council votes on who becomes president, anyway. Would they take another vote? That doesn't make sense.

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He got only 50% - not a decisive lead. His main challenger is very much like him in many ways, and can thus easily erode his support.

Then there is the e-mail thing, and that is NOT going away for two reasons:
1) Menino has no decisive lead here
2) It is now going to be a wedge issue in the Senate race because Martha Coakley has yet to find some IT dope to take the fall for the crimes of her snugglebuddies in town halls. (notice her patterns of prosecution where she doesn't go after those in power and finds a fall guy or fall nanny or out of state company to pay for all their sins)

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I think Coakley actually is a winner in all this. Yoon, I believe, was more likely to go on the offensive against Menino and the email scandal more so then Flaherty. A massive battle over emailgate would have made people wonder why Coakley was on the sidelines not doing her job. This way Flaherty does not make as big of a stink, Coakley gets to sit back and let other people deal with it.

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That's Flaherty's big weakness. Only 23% of voters showed up yesterday. I bet that number will drop a bit in November, if only because there are now half as many candidates, both for mayor and at-large city council.

You're going to have a guy who has a proven record of doing a decent job in the neighborhoods (I keep saying this, but our trash gets picked up, police, fire and EMS come when you call 911, etc.) vs. a guy who says he's Menino 2.0, which means more of the same decent services in the neighborhood, only he'll fill in the Filene's Hole, which, to be honest, is not really that much of an issue to the large numbers of Bostonians who have already abandoned Downtown Crossing (I admit it: We do our Christmas shopping at the South Shore Plaza, maybe this year at Legacy Place).

When you have the Same vs. More of the Same (or rather, somebody who is perceived as More of the Same), Same's going to win if only because it's familiar.

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Instead of:

Ciommo (60%), reprises a 2007 battle with Alex Selvig.

I think the better wording to be: "Ciommo (60%) reprises a 2007 6-way preliminary municipal election battle with Alex Selvig."

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Over a quarter of the voters rejected both Menino and Flaherty, something that is at once invigorating and crushing for anybody dissatisfied with the status quo. Invigorating because with a campaign almost solely driven by the premise that Menino has too much power, Sam Yoon came within 2300 votes of overtaking Flaherty. Invigorating because Kevin McCrea, who ran a campaign around the notion that business as usual shouldn't be tolerated, garnered over 4 percent of the vote. And crushing because had Yoon's and McCrea's votes been consolidated by one progressive candidate, we might be looking at a real referendum on the status quo in November. Instead we're forced to choose between Menino and Menino 2.0.
http://jackrabbitcountry.blogspot.com/2009/09/prel...

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Time for an upgrade Ben?

[size=9]www.[color=#FF0000]C[/color][color=#FF9933]O[/color][color=#CC00CC]L[/color][color=#339900]O[/color][color=#3300CC]R[/color] OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition![/size]

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And he says he was the winner:

Menino $25 per vote
Flaherty $26 per vote
Yoon $17 per vote
McCrea $ 4 per vote

He also posts a letter of congratulations from Ray Flynn.

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Boston/MA voters really are gluttons for punishment. This was a vote for business as usual, back room deals and cronyism. With several candidates that might have offered some change or improvement we picked Menino or Menino light...

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