Somerville Primary Election Results
According to the Somerville Elections Department, Joe Curtatone and Tony LaFuente beat Mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay in today’s preliminary election. The results are fairly close: Kelly Gay had 3197, LaFuente 3412, and Curtatone 3572. It looks like more than 10,000 people came out to vote, though not much more than 10,000. (That’s about 1/8 of the city’s population: 80,000 people in 4 square miles.) I’d be surprised if Kelly Gay’s campaign doesn’t turn into a write-in campaign, although I now hear that Somerville doesn’t allow write-in candidates.
Addendum 9/25: Today’s Boston Globe has an article about the defeat of Mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay in Tuesday’s primary election. Unfortunately, the author doesn’t talk with anyone who voted for the mayor, give a fair account of problems in Somerville, and clearly separate the mayor from the lawsuits that are blocking the development of Assembly Square. He does give a good overview of the problems incumbants face when they run for re-election in lean years and mentions that several other local mayors in areas facing budget cuts did not fare well in their communities’ primaries.
September 24th, 2003 at 11:16 am
I have two comments/observations on yesterday’s primary election. (I hope you don’t mind if I post them here, j. Please delete them if you think they are inappropriate.)
First, I was a little frustrated about being bombarded by phone calls by Mayor Kelly Gay’s campaign, especially since, for me, this was a time when I needed the phone free for emergency calls from home. If anything, it put me off wanting to vote for the mayor, and I wonder if candidates realize how ineffective and annoying this is as a campaigning method?
Second, the people campaigning near the voting stations were very inconsiderate. Several people with signs for one of the candidates were sitting on the steps of our apartment building yesterday and did not move when I tried to enter. Then, this morning I saw that they had littered our sidewalk, steps and entryway with soda cans, water bottles, food, leaflets, etc. That seems incredibly wrong to me. Is there an office where I can file a complaint about this?
September 24th, 2003 at 1:43 pm
I replied more specifically to v off-blog, but for those of you who are curious, I recommended that she contact the city’s election office and, if she knew which candidate’s camapaginers left the litter and blocked her path home, the campaign headquarters. Behavior like that can cost votes and reflect poorly on the candidate.
I *hate* campaign phone calls, too. Although I have to say that they’re more amusing now that I have training in evaluating information. Sometimes, it’s difficult not to point out the flaws in the information or start an argument with the caller. It’s much easier to just tell them I’m not voting for their candidate and hang up.