Boston Vote: This But That

Word among psychologists is that little surprises keep our minds sharp. Yesterday's Boston municipal elections did its part.

The at-large City Council was the highest interest in a very low interest election, but for the wrong reasons. Results are here. My picks are here. A wrap-up of the overblown postcard thingummy is here at Universal Hub.

Who's counting? The city and Globe are. City voter turnout was a shameful 13.6%, one of the lowest on record. White neighborhoods were disproportionately highly represented this time. This contrasts with turnouts around 50% in Brockton, Fall River, and Quincy. The no-President and no-Governor election didn't seem to bother their voters. However, places like Quincy got a boost from a heavily contested mayoral race (the incumbent lost big). As a bonus, Dick Howe offered great live blogging of their contested elections with an analysis centered on the new mayor.

Incumbent Stephen I'm-too-good-for-this-job Murphy and John I-used-to-be-a-teacher Connolly both won. It will be fun to watch them at the swearing in and maybe the rest of the Council will have giggles if they end up on the same committees.

To Connolly in his originally anonymous card, Murphy is a do-nothing with exit ambitions. Murphy''s personal response attack card uses exclamation points, as in, WE DESERVE BETTER THAN COWARDLY ATTACKS BY A DESPERATE CAMPAIGN!

Yes, watching them together should be fun. Although to act the spoilsport and having met Connolly, I'm sure he'll smooth things over.

My ballot card had incumbent Felix Arroyo though. As UH notes clearly too, this one of my guys did not bother to get out the vote. Our at-large Latino's lethargy seems to have made the difference. He came in fifth for four seats and may as well as come in ninth.

The contested incumbents held their seats with strong showings, above 80% each.

We have two newbies who may or may not make a difference. Connolly has solid ideas for funding, Council power, education and more. The new guy in Allston-Brighton, Mark Ciommo, has his own very specific to-do lists.

This certainly was no revolution. The old guard is still in those big old chairs.

Murphy does little and is not likely to start now. Flaherty is the carrion bird waiting, just waiting for his chance to become mayor. Sam Yoon is still agitating for big changes, but the power fulcrum has hardly budged.

Again, I do regret that Felix did not get it together. This defeat fits his normal casual attitude toward the job though.

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Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Boston, City Council, Sam Yoon, Felix Arroyo, John Connolly, Steve Murphy, Mark Ciommo, Flaherty