By PAULA GARCIA
BU News Service
Signs crowd a pole outside a Bay State Street polling station. (BU News Service Siying Du)
Boston – Candidates for the city council advanced in Tuesday’s preliminary election, in some cases by a wide margin between first and second place.
In District One, Salvatore Lamattina took the top spot with 73 percent of the vote, far ahead of Brain J. Gannon’s 15 percent. In District Four, Charles C. Yancey, who also ran for mayor, took 65 percent of the vote. Terrance J. Williams trailed Yancey with 16 percent.
Josh Zakim won the majority of votes in District 8, 45 percent, followed by Michael J. Nichols who received 27 percent.
Things were tighter in other districts and in the race for at-large councilors which featured a field of 19 candidates. Voters selected eight. Ayanna Pressley took the most votes, 17 percent, just 1 percent ahead of Michael F. Flaherty. Stephen J. Murphy and Michelle Wu took third and fourth, respectively.
In District 5, Timothy P. McCarthy was the winner with 25 percent of the votes, Jean-Claude Sanon followed with 20 percent.
Earlier in the day, campaign signs the city councilor candidates crowded fences outside of polling places. At the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Raleigh Street, two volunteers with the Michael Nichols District 8 campaign held signs encouraging voters to support Nichols.
¨It´s been very quiet, ¨ said Mark Merante, a Nichols supporter, about both the voter turnout and campaigning in the area.
Merante said that he had arrived around 10 a.m. and by 1 p.m. had not seen any other volunteers from competing campaigns. Nichols ran against four other candidates for the District 8 position.
“City council elections are more about local and neighborhood issues,” said Merante as he noted how the city council candidates faced different issues than those faced by the mayoral candidates.
Merante said that for residents in District 8, which starts in Back Bay and goes west to the border between Brighton and Watertown, the main issue is the removal of the Bowker overpass.
The overpass connects Boylston Street to Storrow Drive. It runs above Commonwealth Avenue, Beacon Street and Interstate 90.
According to Merante, who is also a resident of Tremont Street, residents of the area want the overpass to be replaced by a street level connector that beautifies the surrounding areas.
Source:
http://bunewsservice.com/top-city-council-candidates-win-by-wide-margins/