The results of Boston’s preliminary election are in and it’s Marty Walsh vs. John Connolly vying for mayor. This afternoon was a whirlwind of municipal government polling and coverage and finally the field of who will be Boston’s next mayor after Thomas Menino’s unprecedented 5-term, 20-year dynasty will be narrowed to two worthy candidates.
Not surprisingly, according the Boston Globe’s graphic, most of the voting turnout per neighborhood was densest in West Roxbury and Dorchester, two neighborhoods that housed the majority of the 12 candidates.
It appeared early on that John Connolly was a preliminary favorite amongst the Boston populous and but once votes started to be counted, it was Marty Walsh who hit the ground running pulling away from the very beginning. Connolly hung on to second for the majority of the night while Dan Conley and Charlotte Golar Richie closed the gap in a dogfight for third.
As far as voting turnout went, it was a rather lackluster performance at the polls with roughly 23% of registered voters having casted their respective ballot by 6pm, and just 17% by 3pm, and reportedly just 24% total. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Sure, municipal government elections aren’t the most alluring of referendums but in this case, significant nonetheless as one of the two finalists will be the first Boston mayor to take office in two decades.
The next phase of choosing someone to helm Boston comes on November 5 when general elections take place to choose, between the two lone candidates, who will occupy the City Hall office.
While Connolly may have been tapped early as a potential winner, no single person running for office had emerged as a runaway candidate with the field proving to be well-rounded and, in most respects, even.
An interesting item to consider was Boston Magazine‘s position that the “majority-black precincts” would dictate the outcome of the election, as such a correlation took place in Deval Patrick’s inaugural run for governor where “those precincts accounted for 22% of the total city vote.”
Congratulations to both and , as well as their campaigns for running an honest and upstanding race. Best of luck to both candidates moving forward as they vie to become Boston’s next mayor.
