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Election roundup: One race ends, another begins

Final (if still unofficial) city and districtwide results. The city has yet to release ward-by-ward numbers, but NorthEndWaterfront.com tallied them for the North End, Beacon Hill and downtown.

Jim O'Sullivan ponders the race geographically, since it pits two guys who don't live anywhere near the geographic center of the city. He notes that while Walsh beat Connolly bigtime in Dorchester, Connolly won almost as impressively in the rest of the city.

The Herald, being the Herald, casts the race as a cage death match and expresses its hope for some bloody class warfare, noting that Walsh is "scrappy," while Connolly is "Harvard educated."

The New York Times wades in, provides its obligatory reference to busing in the 1970s.

So Dan Conley won't be our next mayor, but he could be on the next Dancing with the Stars.

Ayanna Pressley topped the at-large ballot, which means she automatically gets onto the list of potential mayoral candidates in 2017.

James Aloisi looks at the mayoral election of 1913/1914, which gave us James Michael Curley.

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Comments

I thought the turn-out was pretty anemic, considering it's the 1st real chance in 20 years to do something about all the crap people continually whine about, vis a vis "the Mumbles Machine." And when you look at the map of voter turnout, it seems obvious that it was the usual suspects that turned out to vote. The "new" Boston seems to be voting at pathetic levels - at least at my reading of the map. As a matter of fact I would hazard to guess that if you look at the n'hoods that have been most gentrifying recently their voter turnout is less than when they were dominated by "the locals." It would be interesting to test that idea, if someone had the data and the time (I mean, you'd have to be really bored). So they complain on-line about the T and the fact that the bars aren't open until 3:00, but they don't vote.

So in the end we're going to see the Boston GlobeFoundationPioneerInstitute come out strong for Connolly by subtly (or not so subtly) painting Walsh as a union thug. And Walsh will probably try to activate the union-wing of the progressives by painting Connolly as a privateer. Not sure that will work with Connolly, but given that Walsh has the style of an extra from The Departed, he'll have to really push his progressive endorsements (especially from womens' groups) to prevent that characterization from sticking. I get the feeling that the coming month and a half is going to be a charisma-less miasma of bullshit. Well, hey! I guess we get to keep whining! Boston Whingers for the win!!

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The current mayor's machine (its most influential elements, that is) will get behind Walsh - I bet they have no use for Connolly.

And that is my biggest fear. Umpteen years of fiscal restraint in City Hall will then fall at the hands of Marty Walsh, as he gives and gives to the big 3 unions all the way. The long-term results, of course, are largely invisible (except to the Sam Tylers of the world) and will be far more damaging to Boston as a whole.

All of the above isnt anti-public employee. It's all about those in charge of public-sector unions. Failing to keep them in check is not an option.

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Thanks Verbal, heaven help us if people get off their arse and exercise their right to suffrage. You never know what might happen. Maybe we should have start allocating 1.5 votes per person to the "new" Boston voters to give their guys/girls a chance, you know just cause, right. I mean its only fair, right?

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The original post just stated that the 'new' Boston voters didn't vote, so the standard voter demographics held sway. It's disappointing in general that voter turnout was so poor, but I certainly don't hold it against the people who did bother to vote.

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Our household nearly didn't vote because there were so many choices, it was really hard to pick one, especially since no one exactly matched our views on issues, and there were reasons to not select those that were closest in match.

It was also a hassle getting into our polling place (Bates School) because there were supporters covering the sidewalks and the entry to the door. They were all much closer than 150 ft. It was particularly aggravating because the last election they had kept everyone at the proper distance.

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What's also interesting about this election campaign is that a group that Patricia Bauman's Bauman Family Foundation has given over $1.5 million in tax-exempt money since 2008 for "general support"--Working America--apparently allowed to spend $10,000 of that tax-exempt foundation grant money to hire canvassers for the campaign of Boston mayoral candidate Marty Walsh, despite the laws that prohibit tax-exempt foundations from participating or intervening in any political campaigns. And is mayoral candidate Walsh one of the class-collaborationist local construction worker union leaders who supports the Indianapolis-based Simon Properties Group's plan to reconstruct the publicly-subsidized Copley Place Project by adding a 52-story skyscraper of mainly luxury apartments to the Copley Place Project--despite the opposition of most Back Bay and South End neighborhood residents to Simon Properties Group's mammoth over-development construction project?

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