Galluccio's Win

Published Sep 12 2007, 02:33 PM by David S. Bernstein

Anthony Galluccio breezed to victory in the election to replace state senator Jarrett Barrios -- although you might not know it from some of the local coverage, but more on that another time.

According to unofficial results I got from the seven individual cities and towns, the tally was Galluccio 42%, Nowicki 27%, Flaherty 21%, and Ross 10%.

Galluccio not only won a plurality in Cambridge -- where, I wrote in the Phoenix, he had to deal with significant antipathy from many liberals -- but he managed a majority of the vote there, with 51%, according to my figures. In fact, he finished first everywhere except Nowicki's hometown of Chelsea, and topped 50%, narrowly, in the key area (in my opinion) of Everett.

In all, by my count, a little over 10,000 people voted. The key to Galluccio's victory, in addition to holding Cambridge, was the turnout he drove in Everett. With no Everett candidate, and a big city election there next week, some people were expecting particularly low turnout there. But in fact (again, according to my unofficial figures), Everett accounted for 27% of the total vote. It was Cambridge (lazy armchair liberals!) that stayed home, despite three of its own in the race: it contributed 20% of the vote. In 2002's primary that first put Barrios in the senate, each of the two counted for 26%. (The overall turnout was much higher then, as it was a regular primary that included a gubernatorial choice.)

As to the coverage, I will only quote for now this phrase from the Allston-Brighton Tab: "In Cambridge, which makes up the better part of the Senate district..."