As if it could be any other way.
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and City Councilor Michael F. Flaherty Jr. were the top two vote-getters in the city preliminary election, setting up a fierce, head-to-head contest between the two men over the next six weeks that will decide who leads Boston for the next four years.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting shortly after 10:30 p.m., Menino had 51 percent of the vote, while Flaherty had 24 percent, according to unofficial results posted on the city Election Department website. City Councilor Sam Yoon was third with 21 percent, and South End businessman Kevin McCrea had 4 percent.
Menino, who is seeking an unprecedented fifth term in office, was widely expected to win the top spot in the election. The big question for the evening was: Who would be the second-place finisher who would battle him in the Nov. 3 final?
"People said, 'Wait your turn.' I said, 'The city can't wait,'" Flaherty said tonight at his victory party at the Venezia Waterfront restaurant in Dorchester. "There are those who didn't think we'd be here. They believed that the political machine of one could overtake the power of many. To them I say one word. Courage. Courage to change. For opportunity, for hope, and for Boston."
“The journey has just begun,” he said. “Tomorrow in Boston will be a new day. A new day for Boston, a new day for all of us.”
Flaherty said he called Menino and ”I look forward to discussing Boston’s future with him over the next six weeks.”
Menino used his speech at the IBEW Local 103 union hall in Dorchester as a call to arms for the general election, hoping to energize his supporters for what could be a grueling campaign. He called on supporters to plant new yard signs and “flex those Twitter fingers.”
“We have 42 days. Let’s make the most of them so we can make the most of this great city,” Menino said.
“We will craft new partnerships, create new jobs, improve our schools, and make our streets safer, and build on a history of innovation. ... Come join us. Together we'll continue to move Boston forward," he said.
Yoon told supporters at his party at the Carver Lodge in Dorchester that he had no regrets and was glad his campaign was able to bring critical issues to the forefront, such as the concentration of power in City Hall.
“We needed to speak truth to that,” he said. “We were in it from the beginning because we knew what matters.”
“There is nothing I regret about doing this, and nothing you should regret, not one iota," he added.
The race appeared to energize more voters than in any preliminary mayoral election since Menino took office, with turnout nearing 82, 000 voters. That was about twice as many as voted in each of the last two preliminary elections, in 2005 and 2001.
The competitive mayor's race, and an unusually large, 15-person field vying for at-large City Council seats, made for a lively day of voting, last-minute campaigning, and get-out-the-vote efforts by the different campaigns. Warm, sunny fall weather made it a perfect day to go to the polls.
MassVOTE, a nonprofit voter rights organization, had predicted that of the city's 353,683 registered voters, about 45,000 to 50,000 -- 12 to 14 percent -- would vote. In the end, 23 percent voted.
The highest turnouts were in South Boston and West Roxbury, both hotly contested battlegrounds. South Boston, Flaherty's home neighorhood, had logged more than 4,000 voters by mid-afternoon. In West Roxbury -- home both to many city employees, who have supported Menino, and firefighters, who are backing Flaherty -- roughly 4,900 residents had voted.
Brendan Adams, 36, who said he works in the schools, voted for Flaherty because he said he was concerned about the student dropout rate.
“The Boston Public Schools, they’re a mess,” Adams said. “We need new leadership. We need someone who’s actually going to be sitting behind the desk, not just cutting ribbons all day.”
Richard Fallona, 81, a retired clerical worker who was wheeling a shopping basket and voted on his way to the supermarket, said “it was more or less a conflict between Menino and Flaherty,” but he ended up voting for Menino.
“He’s kept at it,” Fallona said. “He’s kept Boston moving."
Milton Valencia and Martin Finucane of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/09/menino_takes_ea.html