All incumbents staying put except one

[elements.livejournal.com]

The Journal and the News are both reporting on their websites that Mayor Curtatone and all the incumbent aldermen were re-elected today. All the (unopposed) school committee candidates were elected/re-elected as well, except for the Ward 4 incumbent, Charlene Harris, who didn't get on the ballot and ran a contested write-in campaign. The new Ward 4 school committee rep is James Norton.

Word also is that Tony Lafuente, who narrowly came in 5th in the alderman-at-large race, is asking for a recount. Depending on the source Tony was either 12 or 21 votes behind Bruce Desmond, who took the 4th place in at-large (the top 4 at-large vote-getters are elected).

Comments

[ron_newman]

In 1999, Bill White finished fourth by one vote ahead of Bruce Desmond, after a recount and a subsequent court case.

[elements.livejournal.com]

And thank goodness, because Bill is a great alderman, and it would have been a shame not to have him make the cut in that election.

[cos]

... but they're not reporting how close (or not) ward 7 was. That's the one with Rachel Heller running against incumbent Bob Trane. I'm sad to hear she didn't win, but I'd love to know how strong a challenge she was able to make...

[elements.livejournal.com]

Me too, I'd love to see how well she and Joe Lynch did in their challenges - hopefully will encourage them or others to repeat the challenge in another 2 years.

[lena-a-mermaid.livejournal.com]

Neither did so well. I don't think the results will encourage people to repeat the challenge.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I saw a Somerville Journal article say Joe Lynch lost by 600 votes, but it didn't say how many votes were cast total.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Here ya go: http://blogs.townonline.com/somerville/?p=21891
Upshot, 992 to 705.

There's a bunch of other articles with other numbers there, though I wouldn't be surprised if they change a bit more before finalizing; the articles that came out overnight don't entirely agree.

[elements.livejournal.com]

For repelling a first-time challenger, that actually isn't a very large margin of defeat (compare for example to Rebekah's numbers in defeating her challenger, or Sean O'Donovan's in defeating his). I'm not unbiased, but to me it looks like Trane has less strong a hold on his seat than the other incumbent Ward aldermen.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

Not sure about the whole ward, but precinct two, where I was a poll worker last night, was about 360 Trane 220 Heller, if I remember correctly. This is Trane's home precinct, so I imagine he did somewhat better than in the other two.

Heller

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

I was on the fence in picking between Heller and Trane (Heller seemed smart and passionate; Trane has always been super responsive to my emails and worked hard to fix things I care about) but then I received the two bright orange fliers sent out by Heller's campaign in the last days. They said some nasty things about Trane, and it pissed me off that (a) Heller stooped to that level in an alderman's race, and (b) the timing of the fliers was clearly intended to make it impossible for Trane to respond to her allegations. I'd asked Heller in person to differentiate herself from Bob a week or two ago, and she didn't mention any of the things she alleged in her orange fliers. That's lame, and she lost my vote, and my wife's vote, and the vote of at least one other person I know of because of that flier.

[ece-drihten.livejournal.com]

Trane took 7 with nearly 300 votes.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

I find it funny.....the so-called 'Progressives' constantly stoop to the level of politics that they rail against....the 'good old boy' stuff of lies, and stealing elections, etc. Maybe it means that they're getting desperate, who knows? I would also be interested to know what was alleged in the flier. If it's true, it proves once again that the local newspapers can make endorsements all day long, but they no longer really 'cover' the races like they used to.

[derekp.livejournal.com]

Can anyone tell me why the PDoS was formed? I was "recruited" once at a caucus and the person giving me her information couldn't really tell me what made them different from just plain old Democrats.

To me, it just seems like division for division's sake.

[derekp.livejournal.com]

What's the story with the Ward 4 School Committee incumbent not getting on the ballot? How inept do you have to be? You're running unopposed. All you have to do is get on the ballot!

When i heard she wasn't going to be on the ballot, I assumed it meant she didn't want the job. Guess not...

[ron_newman]

You need 100 signatures. For whatever reason (and she says there was some sort of family emergency), she either didn't return enough of them, or didn't return them on time.

However, I think electing the editor of the Somerville News to this position is a HUGE mistake.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

FYI - PDS stands for 'Progressive Democrats of Somerville'. The State Democratic Party has notified them many times that this term is illegal as it infers that this group is part of the recognized 'Democratic' Party. Maybe someday they'll take them to court to get them to actually stop using the term! In the meantime, they remain just a (small) group of people who are upset because not everyone in the world agrees with them.

funny description

[winterhill.livejournal.com]

I have never been to one of their meetings. I really should, to see for myself. But from all the bashing around the blogs, you'd think the PDS rules the world, with Pat Jehlen being the Queen of all things very good and her minions Marty Rebekah (and Heller) doing her bidding. My impression is they are a bunch of lefties who are trying to counterbalance the "good old boys" who run the city now.

[cos]

That threat is empty. It is true that Massachusetts has a law saying you can't use the words "Democratic" or "Republican" in a name unless approved by the parties, but I doubt either party would actually want to test those laws in court, because if they did, I'm sure they'd lose. In practice, many groups have used these words in their names for many years, without getting party approval. The parties rarely mention it or seem to care. When PDS annoyed the state party in 2003 (ironically, by getting a measure approved by 2/3 vote at the state party convention, which means that PDS annoyed the party by doing something that was apparently very popular among the party's most active members), the party sent a letter with this silly threat. They haven't followed up and I think they're kind of embarassed about it now.

[ron_newman]

From today's Somerville Journal blog:

Progressive Democrats: OK by the party

Posted on November 8, 2007 by Steve Bagley

If an organization wants to use the word ‘Democrat’ in its name, its request has to be approved by the Executive Committee of its home state’s Democratic Party.

In the case of the Progressive Democrats of Somerville, Alex Goldstein, Communications Director for the Mass. Democrats, told me the entire Democratic State Committee voted to approve the use of the word ‘Democrat’ for all Progressive Democrat groups across the state, including the Progressive Democrats of Somerville.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

As my mother used to say....
"You are your friends" - That's Irish for 'Guilt by Association'!

[two-stabs.livejournal.com]

*yawn*

[cfox.livejournal.com]

I was irritated at getting a recorded phone call on my landline (which seemed to be from the Lafuente campaign). At the time I had my hands full, so I didn't follow up, verify that it was his, or express my displeasure.

Next time around, I'll be keeping track, and will try to send the message that annoyance campaigns don't pay off.

[ron_newman]

I got a whole bunch of robo-calls. I think the majority came from Dennis Sullivan, informing me about his various neighborhood 'office hours' at local coffee shops. Also one from former mayor Gene Brune, asking me to vote for Jack Connolly.

Analysis appreciated...

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

All of the candidates for alderman-at-large won at least two precincts except one. Guess who?

What's curious to me is how does Fred Berman get more votes than Joe Lynch in every precinct in Ward Five (191 total, including 140 more votes than Lynch in 5-3)? I know strange machinations have gone down in Ward Five in the past, just wondering who can offer a take on why Fred outpolled Joe.

Re: Analysis appreciated...

[gruene.livejournal.com]

Because you could vote for four at-large and only 6 were running, the default, if people voted randomly, would be 2/3rds of the voters would vote for Fred, while only 1/2 would vote for Joe.