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Menino wins fifth term

Menino
Call him Hizzonah again.

Boston today gave Tom Menino a record fifth term today, re-electing him by a 57-43 margin over challenger Michael Flaherty.

"Let's be clear: We haven't made history with this election, but we will in what we create of it," Menino told supporters. History will not record the win until we make "a new Boston Miracle for our kids," he said. "Complacency is the highest hurdle we face. Let's fend off the temptation to rest on past accomplishments."

Flaherty thanked his supporters: "I wanted to deliver for you so bad, so bad today." And he praised Menino. He indicated he's not done with Boston politics: "We've raised expectations of Bostonians throughout every single neighborhood. We've given a voice to people who have not been heard for years."

Flaherty said the fight must continue, for charter schools, to combat drop-out rates, for transparency at City Hall and against youth violence: "We should do better, we can do better, because Boston deserves better." He said what he and supporters have learned is that "change takes some time."

WBUR has audio of both Menino's and Flaherty's speeches.

Arroyo:

Connolly:

Murphy:

Pressley:

On NECN, Flaherty supporter and firefighters union President Ed Kelly was less conciliatory, saying he hopes he and the mayor can finally resolve their differences before another firefighter dies - a reference to Lt. Kevin Kelley, who died when the brakes on his firetruck failed on a Mission Hill street.

In the race for at-large city council seats, incumbents Steve Murphy and John Connolly easily won re-election. They'll be joined by newcomers Felix Arroyo and Ayanna Pressley, who replace Flaherty and Sam Yoon.

Connolly got the most votes in his second successful council race: "The strength and breadth of support that I received today from Boston residents is truly humbling," he said.

In the contested district races, the four incumbents who had challengers - Sal LaMattina (North End, Charlestown, East Boston), Michael Ross (Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Mission Hill), Mark Ciommo (Allston/Brighton) and Chuck Turner (Roxbury, Fenway) all won easily - even Chuck Turner, who faces a variety of federal extortion and conspiracy charges (interestingly, 1,268 people cast blanks in the race between Turner and Carlos Henriquez).

From city elections department (which also has numbers for the district council races).

Preliminary final results:

THOMAS M. MENINO 		63123 	57.27%
MICHAEL F. FLAHERTY 		46768 	42.43%

At large:

JOHN R. CONNOLLY 		49060 	18.37%
JOHN R. CONNOLLY 		51308 	18.35%
STEPHEN J. MURPHY 		50962 	18.22%
FELIX G. ARROYO 		45099 	16.13%
AYANNA S. PRESSLEY 		41847 	14.96%
TITO JACKSON 		        30173 	10.79%
ANDREW P. KENNEALLY 		24215 	8.66%
TOMAS GONZALEZ 		        18297 	6.54%
DOUG BENNETT 	         	16817 	6.01%
Neighborhoods: 


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Comments

Precinct 13-7: Menino: 166 | Flaherty: 251
Precinct 13-8: Menino: 192 | Flaherty: 154

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Just trying to help.

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I wish I could have voted. Damn emergency trip :(

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John Keith reports results from Ward 5, precinct 1:

Bill Linehan 426
Blank 611

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So what becomes of Mike Flaherty?

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Mike continued to work at his law firm while a city councilor. If memory serves correctly, he earned $250,000 from it, last year.

So, he shows up at the office at 8:59 AM tomorrow morning with his shoes shined and a new tie on, I assume.

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that's beautiful.

I don't vote for unopposed incumbents on principle, so this makes me smile.

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fails to recognize that Linehan doubled his votes in 5-1 from two years ago. He also tripled his votes in the SE, a neighborhood where many people will not vote for an unopposed incumbent from across the bridge.

Also I could be mistaken but didnt John Keith fail to get 400 votes in the entire 3rd suffolk. Funny, there's no way Landmarks could have signed off on the glass house he's been lobbing stones from.

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I didn't get 400 votes, I got 407, fifteen percent of the turnout. If memory serves, the highest percentage of votes received by any non-Party candidate in the history of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (or, at least, since 1900).

There were only seven blanks submitted in the race. So, percentage-wise, I did better than Councilor Linehan.

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Well done- not.
:(

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I pretty much didn't get anything I wanted.

Awesome.

Even TURNER??? Aw, wtf, people.

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Well we didn't kick out Menino for Menino Jr.

Here's hoping to better candidate in 4 years, as I do want to see Menino go eventually.

Note to challengers: you really don't have any credibility if you suddenly decide to run for mayor and run opposite of everything the incumbent is for, and things you didn't bother to promote while on the city council.

Like I've said, flip flopping is nonsense as long as truly being pragmatic. Floon decided it was only worth the fight once it came to crunch time to get his name into the race, and that worried me because it shows you have absolutely no idea which way he'd turn once the job was his.

The lame pandering to get out the student vote (Late bars, late food, late MBTA) was the icing on the cake.

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This Chuck district resident was really disappointed to see that.

At least Ayanna Pressley won. But it hardly makes up for Menino, Turner, Maine... :o\

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http://1smootshort.blogspot.com

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If there's a move to make Rob Consalvo president in January, then the conspiracy theory (that Menino quits partway through his term so his godson can become mayor just like he did when Ray Flynn quit) might be true.

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I guess it didn't get fixed?

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I saw Michael Vaughan tonight on NECN at Flaherty De-Feat party. WTF?

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who the heck is Michael Vaughan?????

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...he is a lobbyist of sorts. Political oppertunist type. Hanger-on. Owns the Banshee in Dot. Not sure why anyone would care where he was or even who he is.

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Two numbers of note.

!) Connolly received more votes for city councilor than Flaherty did for mayor

2) Tito Jackson apparently lives in District 7 - Chuck Turner's district ...

What's that saying, again? When the Lord closes a door, he opens a window?

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Has he ever said or done anything interesting? The only newsworthy thing I can recall about Connolly was that last-minute attack ad against Murphy a few years ago. I'm sincerely curious- any theories as to what his voters are so excited about?

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I've met him a couple of times - and he comes across as someone who cares which is why i've become a fan - even though I couldn't tell you anything he's ever done. Strikes me as the kind of person who does the right thing - not the politically correct thing. Right or wrong - that's the impression I get until someone can give me evidence otherwise.

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He's probably a very nice guy, as you say. Tito Jackson struck me as a nice guy. Andrew Kenneally is also a nice guy. I guess it's unfair to expect so much from Connolly- since few city councillors have historically accomplished anything particularly grand anyway. For instance, I can't point to much that either Menino or Flaherty did while on the council either. Constituent services is all that really seems to be expected of them until it's time to try to become mayor.

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He's a young progressive leader that claim significant support in his native West Roxbury but reaches into all other neighborhoods too because he truly is not parochial in his concerns. He's focused on education and environmental issues. He sincerely cares about what's going on in every neighborhood. I think people respond to that. Not to mention he is clearly intelligent and goes about things in a thoughtful manner.

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If you haven't met him, watch one of the video spots on his site. He conveys precisely what Rob details here.

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Michael Ross (Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Mission Hill)... Chuck Turner (Roxbury, Fenway)

Actually, the Fenway is predominately within District 8, along with most of Mission Hill, the Back Bay, Beacon Hill and the West End.

District 7 is primarily Roxbury, with some bite-size slices of the Fenway, Mission Hill and the South End. They can have Chuck Turner, thankyouverymuch.

map

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I don't get it - what's the comparison between Ross & Turner?

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He was just referring to the neighborhoods I cited as being part of particular district - and objecting to being lumped in with the Alleged Indicted Co-Conspirator.

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I live in the 02130 and Chucky was on my ballot. Christ almighty. It's a sad day when we re-elect someone with a federal indictment pending.

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Some of us in the 'Bury don't want him!

BTW I ran into him on the way to vote yesterday morning. Had he not been on the way out when we were on the way in, I'd have reminded him to show his support for Henriquez.

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http://1smootshort.blogspot.com

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Unanswered Section 17F Orders^2
1/14/09 Yoon - Order requesting certain information under Section 17F re: a list of all city commissions and boards as of January 7, 2009, names, conditions of appointment and time period length, salaries and all meeting minutes from 2008. (#0153)

^2 - Section 17F of Chapter 452 of the Acts of 1948 (as amended):
The city council may at any time request from the mayor specific information on any municipal matter within its jurisdiction, and may request his presence to answer written questions relating thereto at a meeting to be held not earlier than one week from the date of the receipt of said questions, in which case the mayor shall personally, or through a head of a department or a member of a board, attend such meeting and publicly answer all such questions. The person so attending shall not be obliged to answer questions relating to any other matter.

page 4

Boston City Council
Legislative Calendar for the November 4, 2009 Session

available via
http://www.cityofboston.gov/contact/?id=55

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>:o\

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It doesn't have the word "stenographic" in the post (unless I missed it?)!

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I will delete any further posts in this thread that use the "S" word.

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In response to "Why is John Connolly getting all the love? What has he even done?" The Boston City Council does not have much power to do a heck of a lot -- this is, afterall, a city hall in which a sitting city councillor can't even get a list of city's commissions. How incredible is that?

Don't get me wrong -- I like John Connolly, I support him, I voted for him -- for all the reasons folks mentioned above. I think his "One Boston really resonated with people, and it felt like something that people wanted to hear. I'm even wondering if the "One Boston" strategy isn't laying the groundwork for a run for Mayor at some point.

But naturally there are questions about what has this guy done or that guy done on the City Council -- they're not actually able to do much, and that's why they focus so much on constituent services. It's a structural problem, and why we need charter revision.

On the other hand, I suspect that there are City Councillors who wouldn't have it any other way -- constituent services build up a good base of support, and don't require that you take any controversial stands or votes.

I don't know if that was what Zak meant, but that's what I got from his post.

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...rides in the continued participation of this very promising group of City Council candidates. It really was a good field -- smart, committed, lacking diversity in gender but definitely part of a new generation of potential leaders.

I'm not all that optimistic about Boston's next four years, for reasons extending beyond yesterday's vote. But for all our sakes I hope the Mayor has a successful term. I voted for Flaherty but tip my hat to Menino for weathering this serious challenge handily.

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Smash the patriarchy!

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