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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[ron_newman]

I'm surprised; I expected Lynch-O'Donovan to be a cliffhanger.

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.

Re: Heller

[ron_newman]

What did the flier say? I keep hearing about it on other blogs, but nobody has yet said what she accused him of.

[ron_newman]

Unofficial results from the city website. Also, Precinct-by-precinct results.

[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.

Re: Heller

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

Essentially, she implied that he is the hand maiden of developers and that he had acted unethically in approving or supporting projects as a result of receiving campaign support from developers and having once worked for a real estate company that has had business in the city. I don't have the fliers anymore, so I can't report on exactly what they said, but the tone was sleezy and I think it was telling that the "brought to you by the Heller campaign" blurb was in about 6 point font. If Trane has acted unethically, fine, I want to hear about it, but she should have told me that when I asked her in person to draw a comparison.

Re: Heller

[derekp.livejournal.com]

I too was on the fence about Trane/Heller. I'm a newcomer to Ward 7 after having spent a few years in Ward 2, but I ultimately could see no reason not to return Trane to office. He had been more than responsive in the limited interaction I had with him.

I liked that Heller personally asked for my vote, and I was excited by her plan to utilize the web to keep her constituents in the loop. Ultimately, I too was put off by the last minute move to negative campaigning.

It's funny because it was Heller's people that actually swung by my place at 6:30 last night reminding me to get out and vote. Aparently they had me down as a supporter. One of her people swung by my condo 2 days after we moved in and asked if I supported some completely non controversial positions Rachel did (positions I know Bob also supports). I said of course I did, and they said, "Great! Glad to have your support!" I just wanted her off my porch so I went along...

[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...

[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.

[ron_newman]

One reason PDS was formed was to try to push the Democratic party in this state closer to its stated platform. At that time, the highest-ranking Democratic elected official was House Speaker Tom Finneran, whose positions often seemed more like those of national Republicans (anti-gay, anti-abortion).

[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.

Re: Joe Lynch lost by 600 votes

[fefie.livejournal.com]

This is sad. With the Mayor and several of his employees campaigning hard for O'Donovan in the last few weeks, Lynch's loss is not a total surprise as he was a first-time candidate. In Ward 5 we get to put up with do-nothing-until-next-election O'Donovan for 2 more years.

Re: Heller

[gruene.livejournal.com]

"I ultimately could see no reason not to return Trane to office"

I take the opposite attitude when I'm on the fence. If there's no strong reason to reelect an incumbent, and the challenger seems a reasonable alternative, I'd rather throw the bums out.

[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.

Re: Heller

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

For someone excited about utilizing the web to benefit her constituents she sure didn't do a good job utilizing it to mobilize support. I emailed her once, and though she did reply (and quite satisfactorily), her response took nearly two weeks to arrive. Also I was surprised I never got an email from her campaign reminding me to vote.

I never heard anything from Trane until the night before the election when I noticed a flier someone stuck in my door.

Re: Joe Lynch lost by 600 votes

[ron_newman]

I am not surprised that Lynch lost, but I'm very surprised by the margin.

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.