Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua’s victory in the city’s preliminary contest shocked exactly no one in the Merrimack Valley. While Boston has had an issue-focused mayoral primary campaign and other races across the state wrapped up with few fireworks, Lawrence has been consumed by one thing only: Lantigua’s unstoppable march to the November general election.
Many voters are tired of the Lantigua saga. The mayor has a motherlode of problems hanging over him, not the least of which are ongoing state and federal investigations of his administration and a recent lawsuit filed by Attorney General Martha Coakley over alleged campaign finance violations. For the news media, he’s been a shadowy incumbent who refuses to engage reporters or to debate his opponents.
Yet despite his trials and tribulations, there was never any doubt that Lantigua would prevail. For most voters in the predominantly Latino city, he’s an accessible and responsive chief executive. They point to the attention he’s given to cleaning up the city and fixing streets as reasons why he got their nod.
Lawrence has a history of voting shenanigans, and officials from Secretary of State William Galvin’s office turned up to watch for irregularities. Voter turnout was steady for a preliminary: 32 percent.
The real question was which of his five challengers would emerge from the preliminary battle to take on Lantigua. That task now falls to City Council Vice President Dan Rivera. Lantigua’s 5,725 votes, nearly 50 percent of the tally, put him at the top of the six-way race, considerably ahead of Rivera’s 2,799 votes, or roughly 23 percent.
Rivera is Lantigua’s polar opposite, a personable Gulf War veteran with an MBA from Suffolk University. His supporters believe that he would bring a youthful, professional presence to a City Hall tarred for decades by incompetence and scandal.
The remaining votes were parceled out among State Rep. Marcos Devers; Juan “Manny” Gonzalez, a firefighter; Nestor DeJesus, an accountant; and James Patrick O’Donoghue, an inventor. Earlier this month, at a debate CommonWealth cosponsored with the Eagle-Tribune and Rumbo newspapers, Devers, Gonzalez, O’Donoghue, and Rivera, all pledged to back the person who emerged to run against Lantigua in November.
If the four defeated candidates get their supporters to the polls for Rivera, Lantigua’s days in Lawrence could be numbered. But nothing is ever as it seems in Lawrence politics. Devers is the wildcard. He has a rocky on-again, off-again relationship with Lantigua and surprised many by running for mayor (for the third time) so shortly after he had been reelected to the State House. He appears to be keeping his options open, according to an Eagle-Tribune report, which promises to insert more drama into a contest where tempers are already running high.
–GABRIELLE GURLEY
BEACON HILL
Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter is considering a run for attorney general, saying the spotlight on the high profile Aaron Hernandez murder case has “clearly changed my level of name recognition and face recognition.”
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Planes were grounded at Logan Airport as a fire broke out in the fuel pump area, NECN reports.
A new fire department contract in Gloucester will keep all fire stations open 24 hours a day, but it will also increase the city’s costs by 25 percent, the Gloucester Times reports.
CASINOS
Tito Jackson joins Matt O’Malley and Charles Yancey in backing a citywide referendum on the proposed Suffolk Downs casino.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
The Washington Navy Yard shooter probably bought his gun legally, Time reports. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz issues an open letter to customers asking them to no longer bring firearms into the company’s stores.
The US poverty rate remained unchanged last year at 15 percent, NPR reports (via WBUR).
Get ready. The coming budget crisis may be the worst, Time reports.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren takes on big banks in a Globe op-ed.
ELECTIONS
Lynn Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy handily beats City Council President Timothy Phelan in a preliminary election that saw only 16.6 percent of registered voters turn out, the Item reports. Voters in Lynn also gave strong backing to building a new Marshall Middle School.
Two-term Brockton Mayor Linda Balzotti will face off against School Committee member William Carpenter after the two combined for 80 percent of the vote in the four-person preliminary.
Gubernatorial candidate Juliette Kayyem, a former state and national homeland security advisor, tells Emily Rooney “we have too many guns” and says the state and country need further controls in the wake of the Navy Yard massacre.
CommonWealth profiles Suffolk County DA and Boston mayoral candidate Dan Conley, “The Man Behind the Badge.”
The Globe looks at the divided loyalties of Boston’s black community in the mayoral race.
The Boston Teachers Union membership seems poised to ratify this afternoon its leadership’s endorsement of Felix Arroyo and Rob Consalvo in next Tuesday’s Boston mayoral preliminary. Adrian Walker says the BTU is teeing up a big test of its clout — a test it’s likely to fail.
A new Herald poll has John Connolly running out in front of the field, with Conley, Marty Walsh and Charlotte Golar Richie packed behind him.
Mike Ross proposes tripling Boston Mayor Tom Menino’s goal of adding 30,000 new housing units; Ross is aiming for enough new housing to raise the city’s population to 1 million.
Scot Lehigh welcomes Martha Coakley to the campaign trail with an all-out evisceration of her opening day and its “sugary diet of empty-calorie cliches.”
The Herald endorses Steve Murphy, Ayanna Pressley, Philip Frattaroli, and Michelle Wu for Boston city council.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Charter boat operators on the South Shore say a proposal to close off a large portion of Stellwagen Bank to recreational fishing would put them out of business.
The New York Times looks at New York’s working homeless.
An improving economy hasn’t lifted wages.
EDUCATION
New Bedford High School students say budget issues have caused a slew of problems including scheduling confusion such as assigning Hispanic students to Spanish classes even though they already speak the language, overcrowded classes. and running out of lunches in the cafeteria.
Boston University has the second highest application fee in the country, and five other Massachusetts schools, including UMass Amherst, are among the 25 colleges and universities with the highest application fees, according to U.S. News & World Report.
Actor and Dorchester native Mark Wahlberg, a ninth-grade high school dropout, finally earned his high school diploma at the age of 42 through a Boston online program.
TRANSPORTATION
The FAA has agreed to extend a review of the new flight path that sends some departing planes out of Logan Airport over Milton after a flood of noise complaints from residents.
New York’s MTA plans to install WiFi in subway cars.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
A new state report suggests the Massachusetts clean energy sector employs 80,000 people, including those working in energy efficiency positions, CommonWealth reports. Of those, 20,000 work directly in clean energy jobs.
The Globe hears from Wiscasset, Maine, residents about the downsides of a nuclear power plant getting shuttered.
MEDIA
Time selects Nancy Gibbs as its top editor and the first woman to hold the post.
Wired magazine issues an amazing correction as the reporter confused nipples with a pulse, Poynter reports.
