Passacantilli squeezes past Edwards; Flynn coasts home vs. Kelley
A tight finish between two City Hall employees in one of yesterday’s preliminary elections set the stage for intense undercard races in this year’s mayoral election, as voters in three council districts narrowed the fields for November.
Stephen Passacantilli and Lydia Edwards will duke it out in District 1, which includes Charlestown, East Boston and the North End, after the preliminary election ended with only 77 votes separating them.
Passacantilli, a top Walsh operative in his 2013 mayoral campaign and a City Hall worker who has raised more than $300,000 in campaign funds, came away with 47 percent of the vote while Edwards, another City Hall employee who ran for state Senate last year, got 46 percent. Sal LaMattina, the current District 1 councilor, announced he would not run for re-election earlier this year.
And in the closelywatched District 2 race, covering Chinatown, Downtown, South Boston and parts of the South End, Ed Flynn placed first in a landslide, earning 56 percent of the vote to Mike Kelley’s 32 percent. But in a statement, Kelley said he wasn’t finished.
“We came into this race with the cards stacked against us, knowing we were the underdog. Then, 45 percent of the vote said no to the establishment candidate. We have the data we need now and the room to grow and win,” Kelley said. “I feel very good about our path to victory.”
District 2 Councilor Bill Linehan announced he was stepping down earlier this year, leading seven candidates to vie for his seat. Flynn, a formal federal employee and former mayor Raymond L. Flynn’s son, and Kelley, an aide to former mayor Thomas M. Menino, quickly emerged as favorites, with Flynn raising nearly $200,000 and Kelley topping that amount.
In District 7, education advocate Kim Janey topped the 13-person field with a quarter of the vote, and TenPoint Coalition director Rufus Faulk came in second with 12 percent of the vote.