Daniel Rivera on Tuesday edged out incumbent William Lantigua in the race for Lawrence mayor by a margin of just 60 votes. But 66 ballots are still in play — 54 provisional ballots filed by people who said they had registered to vote but weren’t on the voter list, three mailed-in ballots, and as many as nine absentee ballots still coming in from overseas.
Lawrence’s Board of Registrars will now have to decide which ballots should be counted, an exercise that should prove interesting. The chairman of the board is William Maloney, the city clerk, who is regarded by Rivera as a Lantigua stooge. Another member is Ana Medina, a big Lantigua supporter whose car is covered with Lantigua stickers, whose front lawn has a giant Lantigua sign on it, and whose small social service agency receives money from the city. She has also donated $400 to Lantigua’s campaign. The third member is Republican Laurence Collopy. A fourth position is currently vacant.
Rivera calls Medina a nice lady who attended his wedding, but he says she is not impartial. “There’s no way ‘impartial’ will happen here,” he says. Pam Wilmot, executive director of the Massachusetts chapter of Common Cause, says clearly the optics are not good.
But William Galvin, the secretary of state and the state’s top election official, says registrars don’t have to be politically neutral. In fact, he says, state law requires them to be enrolled in political parties.
Aside from the ballots being reviewed by the Board of Registrars, there are also questions being raised about 54 ballots where the mayor’s race was blanked, ballots that were challenged but still counted, and ballots Lantigua’s lawyer alleges were not counted when a handful of voting machines jammed.
All the controversy about the close vote has overshadowed the amazing turnout by Rivera supporters on Tuesday. In the September preliminary election, Lantigua cruised to victory with 5,725 votes. Rivera was a distant second with 2,799 and the other four challengers had a combined 3,435 votes.
In Tuesday’s final, Rivera’s vote total soared by 4,826 to 7,625, while Lantigua increased his tally by just 1,840 votes. An Eagle-Tribune analysis of the vote suggests Rivera prevailed largely because he won over most of the supporters of the four also-rans in the preliminary election and because the new voters who turned out for the final supported him by a 3-1 margin.
BRUCE MOHL
BEACON HILL
The Massachusetts House passes welfare reform legislation, State House News reports. A housing bond bill goes to the governor’s desk, WBUR reports. A tribal casino pact is also approved, WBUR reports.
First came decriminalization and then legal use of marijuana for medical purposes, and now a ballot question is in the works to fully legalize pot, State House News reports.
Rep. Brad Hill of Ipswich is recovering after a bone marrow transplant to treat cancer, the Salem News reports.
The Berkshire Eagle supports tougher gun laws.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
A 10-year-old effort to replace the harbormaster’s trailer and build a new maritime center for boaters in Marshfield’s Green Harbor section can finally move forward after the state awarded the town a $1 million grant for 75 percent of the construction cost.
Mansfield selectmen are hit with an open meeting law violation, for failing to post an exact meeting starting time.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
A report from the IRS Inspector General’s office says half the tax returns filled out by the agency’s Volunteer Office for low- and middle-income filers are completed incorrectly.
The Senate passes a bill banning discrimination against gays and transgendered in the workplace; passage in the House is not assured.
ELECTIONS
Boston Mayor-elect Marty Walsh suggests a stronger role for the usually marginalized city council. Walsh begins to assemble his team, but the Globe says neither of his campaign’s two top honchos — one of whom was previously broomed out of a top city job by scandal — will be taking City Hall jobs. The Herald notes that one of the big-name advisers Walsh brought on for his stretch run, former top Deval Patrick aide Doug Rubin, worked on the Walsh campaign for free.
There’s still much unsettled in Brockton after the election as four candidates for various offices who lost by 55 votes or less, including Mayor Linda Balzotti, ponder seeking a recount.
Joan Vennochi says Suffolk Downs helped to do in its casino plan by jettisoning Caesars Entertainment and casting doubt on the $1 billion plan just weeks before the East Boston vote. Meanwhile, Shirley Leung reprises a casino version of the old peace movement slogan, “What if they gave a war and nobody came.” Both Marty Walsh and his current boss, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, call a Revere-only casino a longshot; the Herald editorial page urges the state gaming commission not to give Suffolk an extension, and instead calls on the track to fold.
Ian Abreu, an unsuccessful candidate for New Bedford’s City Council, filed a complaint with police after someone placed about a dozen campaign-style lawn signs around the city that read “R.I.P. Ian Abreau,” with his name misspelled.
Nice guys finish third: World Series MVP David Ortiz receives the most-write in votes in the Boston mayoral election.
New York magazine speaks with Bill de Blasio’s campaign manager about Anthony Weiner and de Blasio’s Internet-famous son, Dante.
The GOP’s anti-Chris Christie movement swings into action.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Twitter’s stock is trending.
Marine researchers out of UMass Dartmouth will try once again to use high-tech video equipment to count fish, an approach that, if successful, would be a much more accurate method than how federal regulators estimate fish counts.
Facebook is opening an office in Cambridge; House Speaker Robert DeLeo is pleased.
Local startups say “patent trolls,” who have multiplied after a change in law by Congress, are threatening businesses and stifling innovation.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are on pace to repay their enormous bailouts.
HEALTH CARE
The US Food and Drug Administration is proposing a complete ban on heart unhealthytrans fat in the country’s food supply.
Fallon Community Health Plan lays off 62 workers, or about 6 percent of its workforce, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
TRANSPORTATION
JetBlue takes off in Worcester, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
Traffic is holding steady on the subway and bus lines, but ridership is down on commuter trains, boats, and the Green line, CommonWealth reports.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
More problems at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station: federal officials report that the power plant needs more oversight. The plant leads the country in shutdowns among other problematic indicators.
Dam: A Hopkinton homeowner launches a jihad against beavers.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Federal prosecutors argued yesterday for a life sentence for Whitey Bulger, saying he has “no redeeming qualities” that suggest any other outcome.
Two high-powered rifles are stolen out of an FBI vehicle left overnight in Andover, the Salem News reports.
Just the facts: The Supreme Judicial Court rules that police officers cannot offer opinions about a drunk driver’s ability or inability to operate a vehicle.
MEDIA
A security officer hired to protect the US Special Commission in Benghazi, Libya, told one story to the FBI and another in his book and to CBS’s 60 Minutes, the New York Times reports.
