Lynn race is on

LYNN – “We’ve legitimized ourselves,” said Judith Flanagan Kennedy following her Tuesday night preliminary election victory.”We’ve gone from trying to get on the ballot to running for mayor,” she said as she savored her 3,235-3,024 win over Mayor Edward J. Clancy, Jr., who blamed his second-place finish Wednesday on tight economic times.”The 800-pound gorilla in the room is that people are hurting. They don’t run down to the voting booth saying, ‘I’ve got a great mayor,'” Clancy said Wednesday as he surveyed his 211-vote loss in the preliminary election.Over the next six weeks, the incumbent mayor and city councilor at large will campaign for the votes of Lynn residents in a race leading up to the Nov. 3 final election.”The second half of a mayoral campaign is a completely different race. You have to reach more people and you’re dealing with people who have to be sold the campaign product,” said former councilor Joseph Scanlon.Scanlon won the 1993 preliminary election over former Mayor Patrick J. McManus but McManus battled back to win the final election. Clancy experienced a similar roller coaster ride in 1981 when he topped preliminary balloting only to lose in the final election to former Mayor Antonio Marino.”I’ve been through my share of heated, contested races; this will be another,” Clancy said.Clancy said he will work with his campaign team headed by his brother, Jimmy, to increase voter turnout in his favor in November and, in the meantime, “explain, more eloquently I guess, what I’ve accomplished.”Flanagan said she will send City Clerk Mary Audley a letter formally withdrawing from the council at large race as soon as Tuesday night’s election results are official. She came in second in at large balloting behind Council President Timothy Phelan.In the mayor’s race, Flanagan posted a strong showing in Ward 1 and Ward 3 where she won all four precincts. She attributed the Ward 3 win to her children, who are active in East Lynn sports. She split Ward 2 balloting with Clancy, winning her home precinct, and battled for votes in the city’s central neighborhoods with him.Clancy had a strong showing in West Lynn, his home base and residence, winning Ward 7 handily against Flanagan and doing well in Ward 6.”The strength of her vote indicates a lot of hard work and sends a message that there is no free ride for anybody, no matter how long you’ve been in office,” former Mayor Albert V. DiVirgilio said.Former Councilor at large Loretta Cuffe O’Donnell expects voter turnout in the Nov. 3 election to far exceed the 14.9 percent turnout in the preliminary.”The issues that have to be taken up are ‘where is this city going and how are we going to get there?'”