Turnout Low For Mayoral Run-Off

In an unsurprising election yesterday, current Boston mayor Thomas M. Menino (D) and City Councilor Peggy Davis-Mullen (D) nabbed places to run in the Boston mayoral race this November.

The process—a “nonpartisan runoff”—is one of the quirks of the Boston political system. Only two candidates are allowed to run on Nov. 6, so the pool is narrowed in an earlier election.

Early results showed Menino holding a lead of approximately 73 percent, while Davis-Mullen commanded about 23 percent of the vote.

The loser in the election, Althea Garrison (R), claimed just over 2% of the votes. Garrison is a regular candidate on the Boston political scene, known for changing loyalties from Democrat to Independent to Republican and changing sex from male to female.

Although she has now obtained a spot in the upcoming mayoral election, Davis-Mullen still has a wide gap to close in a little more than a month.

“The better that Peggy does in the polls today, that obviously helps to increase the momentum going into November sixth,” said Davis-Mullen spokesperson Karen E. Sharma in an interview early yesterday.

While not mounting a considerable challenge to the incumbent, the Davis-Mullen campaign did surpass expectations, according to Sharma.

“[Menino’s] goal was to have us under 20%,” Sharma said.

According to Sharma, yesterday’s election brought out a “50 year record low turn-out in Boston.”

Mayor Menino, who postponed scheduling debates until yesterday’s run-off vote, has yet to take to the campaign trail.

With a war chest of over a million dollars, and a high approval rating to boot, many pundits have said the incumbent needs to do little in order to win.

Last week, Davis-Mullen won the endorsement of the rank-and-file of the powerful Boston firefighter’s union.

But—with about five weeks left until election day— the rest of the city seems to favor re-electing the current mayor.

—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu