Crop of fresh faces eye victory in city council primaries

All eyes are on a new crop of City Council candidates — from Roxbury to Southie — as they look to post impressive victories in today’s preliminary election to gain traction before the Nov. 7 final.

“They’ll look at turnout precinct by precinct; where do they have opportunities to grow?” said former City Councilor Larry DiCara.

Three sitting city councilors — Sal LaMattina in District 1, Bill Linehan in District 2 and Tito Jackson in District 7 — won’t be returning to City Hall next year, with LaMattina and Linehan stepping down and Jackson running for mayor.

That created a scramble for the open seats, with three people running in District 1, seven in District 2 and 13 people running in District 7.

But despite the number of candidates, some clear favorites have emerged, DiCara and former City Councilor Mike McCormack said.

Stephen Passacantilli, a top Walsh lieutenant and City Hall worker, and Lydia Edwards, another City Hall employee who ran for state Senate last year, will likely emerge victorious in Ward 1, they predicted. And Ed Flynn, a former federal employee and former mayor Raymond L. Flynn’s son, is favored to square off against Mike Kelley — an aide to former mayor Thomas M. Menino — in District 2.

McCormack predicted Passacantilli and Flynn would win their preliminaries, but said the margins of victory would be just as important.

“If he’s still close after the primary then the general election becomes more of a Kelley vote, but if it’s a big number for Flynn, that doesn’t augur well for Kelley in November,” McCormack said.

DiCara said a late endorsement from LaMattina made North End resident Passacantilli the favorite, but said Edwards could pull votes in her home base of East Boston.

“If she wins East Boston, he gets the North End and Charlestown splits, it’s a fight,” DiCara said.

But District 7 is less predictable, although both DiCara and McCormack saw education advocate Kim Janey likely moving on to the general.