Walsh, Jackson win preliminary mayoral election

Katie McCreedy

Mayor Martin J. Walsh and City Councilman Tito Jackson each gathered enough votes to advance in the general election for mayor this November.

Both Walsh and Jackson voted in their local precincts early Tuesday while visiting the area and made a final push to get voters to the booths. Walsh received 62.53 percent of the vote, totalling 34,869 votes. Jackson finished with 29.06 percent of the vote, totaling 16,202 votes.

Walsh won a particularly challenging district for his campaign: District 7, Jackson’s home district.

“I congratulate Councilor (Tito) ​Jackson​ on advancing, and I look forward to six weeks of positive conversation in all the neighborhoods of Boston,” Walsh said in his speech Tuesday, which was provided to The News in an email from his office.

In his speech, Walsh said he has high hopes for the success of his campaign moving forward and is appreciative of his team’s exhaustive work.

“For the next six weeks, we will continue this conversation in every corner of every

neighborhood in our great city,” Walsh said in the statement  “We’re going to keep listening to the needs, the hopes and the dreams of every Bostonian.”

Jackson is also ecstatic at the success of his campaign, as it is particularly difficult to take on an incumbent candidate. If elected, Jackson will be the first African-American mayor of Boston.

“As mayor, uplifting everyone in Boston will be my main focus. That means fighting displacement, gentrification, and the astronomical cost of housing in Boston,”  Jackson said in his speech Tuesday, which was provided to The News in an email from his office.

Jackson spoke to his team and supporters at the Harperside Lounge after the votes were tallied, excited about his successful progression forward in the race.

“We want to let every voter in Boston know that they have a chance to choose a progressive leader on November 7th,” Jackson said.

Robert Cappucci received the third most votes, finishing with 6.7 percent. Cappucci and Joseph Wiley, the fourth candidate, have yet to reveal who they may endorse for the election moving forward.

In the last two mayoral election cycles, voter turnout was low for the preliminary election, with only 23 percent of registered voters casting ballots in 2009 and 31 percent in 2013, according to the City of Boston’s Election Department. Because this was an off-year election, where no high-profile state or national elections also occurred, voter turnout was just 11 percent of registered voters, at about 43,000.

Boston voters also narrowed down the election for new city councilors in many districts. Most notably, Jackson’s position as District 7 councilor was up for grabs. Thirteen candidates ran for the position, but ultimately Kim Janey, a senior project manager at the Massachusetts Advocates for Children, and Rufus J. Faulk, who is currently pursuing his doctorate in law and policy at Northeastern, will move on to run for the position in November. Districts 1, 2 and 9 also narrowed their candidates for city councilor.

Northeastern’s closest voting center is slightly off-campus, at the community center on 101 Norway Street. Many students didn’t vote on Tuesday.

“I didn’t even know there was an election going on,” said Sarah Fiery, a first-year physical therapy major from Massachusetts.  

Sneha Kumar, a graduate student studying engineering management, said she didn’t see any signs on campus advertising for any of the candidates.

“In front of my apartment off-campus there was a sign, but that’s it,” Kumar said. “It’s unfortunate because I feel like like there should be advertising to vote — it’s so important.”

The general election will take place Nov. 7 and voter registration is available online until Oct. 18.