Boston Mayor Menino elected to a record 5th term

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November 4, 2009

By Bob Salsberg The Salem News Wed Nov 04, 2009, 05:45 AM EST

BOSTON — Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has won an unprecedented fifth consecutive four-year term.

With 95 percent of precincts reporting, Menino had 57 percent of the vote to City Council President Michael Flaherty's 43 percent. Flaherty has conceded the election.

Menino has already been in office for 16 1/2 years, longer than any in the city's history.

History shows it's tough to unseat a Boston mayor. No incumbent has lost the seat in 60 years.

The last one was James Michael Curley, who was ousted by John Hynes in 1949 after a term interrupted by a five-month federal prison sentence for mail fraud.

Flaherty, 40, came into the race with history working against him: No incumbent had lost the seat in 60 years. The last one was James Michael Curley, who was ousted by John Hynes in 1949 after a term that was interrupted by a five-month federal prison sentence for mail fraud.

With 95 percent of precincts reporting, Menino had 57 percent of the vote to Flaherty's 43 percent.

"This is not the end. We've made significant progress, but sadly it was not enough this time," Flaherty said in conceding the race. "What we've learned tonight is that change needs some time."

Flaherty campaigned in an unusual partnership with City Councilor Sam Yoon, who had finished third behind Menino and Flaherty in the preliminary election. Though only Flaherty's name appeared on the ballot, the two campaigned as a "ticket," and Flaherty had vowed to make Yoon his deputy had he won the election.

That was not enough to tip the scales.

Menino's tenure has been marked by relatively little scandal, and a recent flap over deleted City Hall e-mails failed to generate much traction for Flaherty. A top mayoral aide, Michael Kineavy, took a leave of absence and the state attorney general's office announced it would investigate whether public records laws were violated.

Thousands of the e-mails were recovered and Menino had them posted on the city's Web site to bolster his contention the deletions were accidental, not an attempt to hide something.

In other mayoral races in Massachusetts, Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch has defeated former Mayor William Phelan in a bitter rematch of their race from two years ago.

Unofficial returns from the city of 92,000 residents just south of Boston showed Koch with 54 percent of the vote, to 46 for Phelan.

The campaign mirrored the 2007 race in which Koch ousted Phelan, then a three-term incumbent.

In Newton, Iraq war veteran Setti Warren has been elected the next mayor, becoming the first black to hold the job in the upscale western suburb of Boston.

Warren, a former aide to Sen. John Kerry, defeated state Rep. Ruth Balser. Balser has represented the city in the state Legislature since 1999, after eight years as a city alderman.

Incumbent Mayor David Cohen decided not to seek reelection after a dozen years in office.

In national races, Republicans surged to victory in governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey yesterday, wresting control from Democrats in both states as independents who swept Barack Obama to a historic 2008 victory broke big for the GOP. It was a troubling sign for the president and his party heading into an important midterm election year.

Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell's victory in the Virginia governor's race over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds and moderate Republican Chris Christie's ouster of unpopular New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was a double-barreled triumph for a party looking to rebuild after being booted from power in national elections in 2006 and 2008.

The outcomes were sure to feed discussion about the state of the electorate, the status of the diverse coalition that sent Obama to the White House and the limits of the president's influence — on the party's base of support and on moderate current lawmakers he needs to advance his legislative priorities.

His signature issue of health care reform was dealt a blow hours before polls closed when Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid signaled that Congress may not complete health care legislation this year, missing Obama's deadline and pushing debate into a congressional election year.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Maine voters weighed in on same-sex marriage in a closely watched initiative, and New York and California picked congressmen for two vacant seats. A slew of cities selected mayors, and Ohio voted on allowing casinos.

The president had personally campaigned for Deeds and Corzine, seeking to ensure that independents and base voters alike turned out even if he wasn't on the ballot. Thus, the losses were blots on Obama's political standing to a certain degree and suggested potential problems ahead as he seeks to achieve his policy goals, protect Democratic majorities in Congress and expand his party's grip on governors' seats next fall.

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Boston Mayor Menino elected to a record 5th term

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