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Progressives, Wu win in City Council races
By adamg on Tue, 11/07/2023 - 8:28pm
City results show incumbent at-large Councilors Ruthzee Louijeune and Julia Mejia easily winning re-election - along with more conservative incumbent Erin Murphy - with whom Louijeune is battling for the honorary top spot on the ballot.
Henry Santana, endorsed by Mayor Wu, is so far edging out Bridget Nee-Walsh, who had vowed to be another Michael Flaherty, for the fourth at-large seat.
Neither of the two anti-vax bellowers in the race will be drawing city paychecks come Jan. 1.
In district races, Ben Webber of Jamaica Plain, also backed by Wu, is holding a commanding lead over William King of West Roxbury in District 6 - where incumbent Kendra Lara went down in flames in the September preliminary. In neighboring District 5, where incumbent Ricardo Arroyo also failed to make the final, Wu-backed Enrique Pepen is leading over former BPD cop Jose Ruiz.
In District 3 in Dorchester, John FitzGerald looks to beat more progressive Joel Richards, but that's Frank Baker's district, so that doesn't mean the council will be getting more conservative as a whole. FitzGerald entered his victory party preceded by bagpipers.
In District 7 in Roxbury, incumbent Tania Fernandes Anderson is easily defeating perennial also ran Althea Garrison, who has said this could be her last ever race.
In District 8, new incumbent Sharon Durkan, who won in a special election after Kenzie Bok resigned, looks to beat Montez Haywood, whom she beat in the special election. Wu also backed her.
In District 9 (Allston/Brighton), incumbent Liz Breadon is fending off a challenge from Jason deBlecourt.
Traditional boston.gov results (slower).
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Comments
Called it.
Wu sweeps all and Joe Battenfeld stomps his feet. Enjoy!
One of the candidates gave me
One of the candidates gave me his flyer. But wasn't looking at me and turned away like I was invisible. I started to just say I was on my way to vote at my polling station nearby and was polite. Frustrating.
This year
I only met one candidate. And I kind of forced myself on him. Then again, I voted for him in the preliminary and general elections.
Also, going through Forest Hills Station at around 8 almost every morning since July, I saw a grand total of zero candidates out there asking for votes. 2 years ago Wu was out there 6 days before the general begging for people's votes. I didn't vote for her for policy reasons, but I've always admired her hustle. It appears to be a dying trait.
That the candidate in your story was at least handing out flyers is head and shoulders above what almost every other candidate did this year.
Enrique Pepen knocked on my door
Enrique Pepen knocked on my door before the preliminary and spent several minutes relating his background and his policy positions. He answered several questions and seemed very sincere and motivated.
Same here!
Pepen was going around door-to-door in our neighborhood before the previous election. He introduced himself, spent a little while chatting and left a really good impression overall!
What did he say about his policy positions?
I wish he had knocked on my door. Whoever I donate to loses, every time!
Yup
He’s the one.
If Ruiz had gotten to me first, I probably would have voted for him. As it was, neither him nor Arroyo nor Sanon made an effort to meet me. Pepen got my vote because he asked for it.
Boy, you’re easy
Can I have five hundred dollars?
I would
But Jeff F already asked for it.
7000 numbskulls
I can only guess the 7000ish votes for Vitale and Nelson were "I'm voting for anyone but the incumbents".
Good luck with that life...
Some of those votes might've been for entertainment
With so much turnover on the council this year, some people might've cast ballots for them because they want to keep a couple of crackpots around for the lolz.
Considering
The underwhelming pool of candidates for a vacant seat no less they were bound to get votes. With Bridget and Henry being the cream of that crop it’s safe to say the job has become unwanted.
Consolation
Braithwaite, who raised nothing and didn’t campaign at all, beat Vitale by 1700 votes.
What do 31,000 UNDERVOTES out
What do 31,000 UNDERVOTES out of 73,000 votes on the boston.gov website mean?
Undervotes
That's where the ballot says "vote for 4" and you vote for 3. You undervoted by 1.
I'm assuming it's a total of all missed votes on all submitted ballots as opposed to 31,000 ballots with any number of missed votes. But it could be the latter.
It means Progressives and Liberals couldnt bring themselves
to vote for any of the anti vax, anti mask, anti BLM, at large candidates thus being only 3 progressives in the mix, this is what happened.
It means
That a lot of people went to the polls thinking "I'll vote for these two, and the heck with those two, and the rest of them meh."
It means you're right!
It's proof that Wu employees mole people who live underground and only emerge on election day to cast thousands of ballots in order to throw races to liberals before descending into their catacombs to await the next election.
/S
Bye Westie
Old West Roxbury is toast politically. The District 6 result shows it again. The road diet is being implemented as we speak. Wu won huge tonight. Their guy King got destroyed. MacGregor only won because of a split progressive vote and will probably have an opponent next year. Tough times at the Corrib.
Considering the turnout
Winning with a turnout of 15% isn't exactly a mandate, but a wins a wins, that's a couple years to see what they can do.
Well…
Putting WR and JP in the same district was a cruel trick. King wins ward 20 (WR) 4300-2900, but Weber wins wards 10, 11 and 19 (JP) 6300-1700. (Also, King wasn’t a terribly strong candidate, Ruiz gave Pepen a real scare in 5 while 6 was a 20 point drubbing.)
But yes, Centre St. pavement has been stripped, up next it gets repaved and repainted and only bikes are allowed in all of West Roxbury.
It's been that way since the
It's been that way since the 80s. You need to be a candidate that can appeal to both neighborhoods. Others have found a way and succeeded in both. Nothing new there. Running as a grievance candidate mad about bike lanes and 'wokeness' isn't going to cut it.
Magoo sez
Magoo is very very excited to be elected to city council. But Whoo is Magoo the Owl asked. Magoo.
Great, election observation
Great, election observation assholery.
"Progresives"
Tend to win when people dont show up to vote. This will continue to be an unpopular governing body, hopefully a little less difunctionally although some of the most dysfunctional "progressives" are on track to be reelected.
We need better turn out if we want better government.
You don't know much about "elections"
It's actually the reverse: Conservatives tend to win when people don't turn out to vote.
Yes, it is generally older
Yes, it is generally older conservative people that vote than young liberal people.
Cool cool cool
What's "difunctionally"?
Unpopular?
You are talking about people who just won a popularity contest.
Don't vote, don't bitch.
Lots of people didn't vote
I would say that the composition of the upcoming City Council reflects the desire of those who voted, but with less that 20% showing up to vote, it's hardly an endorsement overall.
Yes
And?
Fun fact
With Pepen’s election, for the first time in the 40 year history of District 5, the councilor representing the district will not be from Hyde Park. Yay Rozzie!
Question
Ruiz performed really well in Hyde Park, any idea why? Residency? Or was Ruiz campaigning over there while Pepen hung out in Rozzie Square (Tuesday morning, for example).
Neighborhood might be the answer
Someone commented before the preliminary that there were a lot of Ruiz signs out in Hyde Park. He probably worked hard down the south end while Pepin did the same in the north. Pepin most likely got the Arroyo voters.
To be fair, I think that either candidate on Tuesday would have tried hard to represent the entire district. The incumbent, on the other hand, kind of checked out after September 2022. So many Bulletin articles would mention how Arroyo wasn't involved in this or that issue.
small correction
"Unofficial and preliminary results (which do not include early and mail-in ballots) "
This is generally not the case. The vast majority of mail in and early voting ballots are counted in the local wards just like the regular votes are. For instance, in 20-16 yesterday, 187 mail in/early ballots were delivered to the polling place with the box that has all the important stuff (delivered by cop), and another 17 came around 6 PM, again via police officer delivery. This is pretty much how its been for the past few years. While some late ballots might not make it to a polling station before 8 PM, those are very much exceptions, and more likely to happen in presidential elections when there's a lot more votes coming in.