Kennedy trounces Phelan

LYNN – Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy won a resounding victory over City Council President Timothy Phelan Tuesday, securing another four-year term in office by a 9,258 to 6,403-vote margin.With 31 percent of the city?s 51,400 voters casting ballots, Kennedy won 26 of the city?s 28 precincts, losing Ward 6 precincts 3 and 4 to Phelan. She won 59 percent of the mayoral vote to 41 percent for Phelan.?I have a sense that a clear majority of voters want me to continue the job I?m doing,” she said.Sporting a pink and black feather boa and clutching a Coors beer, Kennedy, 50, accepted congratulations from supporters at the Franco American Veterans post, savoring a win that stood in sharp contrast to the narrow margin of victory she secured over former Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. in 2009.?It feels a lot better than 27 votes,” she said.Kennedy said she won reelection because voters see her administration improving the city, even if progress on some fronts appears to be slow.?People are seeing positive changes: We didn?t get into trouble overnight and we won?t get out of it overnight,” she said.Kennedy improved on her September preliminary election victory over Phelan in which she won 24 precincts and received 57 percent of the vote. Her Tuesday victory included strong wins in Ward 1 where Union Hospital became a major campaign issue on Oct. 10 when hospital executives unveiled changes planned for the Lynnfield Street facility.Kennedy won Ward 1 Precinct 1 806 to 563 votes – a margin that she expected prior to the election to be narrower.?The voters knew that, of course, I care about the hospital,” she said.Her strong reelection win caps off a campaign season that established Kennedy and Phelan by early summer as the two mayoral candidates. Over the course of the summer into fall, the pair debated seven times – a number that Kennedy, looking back, said should have been halved.?The longer the debates went on, the more it got to be personal,” she said.But Kennedy credited the debates and televised campaign forum coverage provided by local community cable access station LynnCam with informing voters and increasing interest in the election.?I think plenty of people tuned in,” she said.Tuesday?s win is the latest in a string of political wins for Kennedy that began in 1991 when she won a School Committee seat as a write-in candidate. She won a City Council at large seat in 1997, left the council in 2005, and ran and won again in 2007. Her 2009 mayoral win – validated in a subsequent recount – made her the city?s first woman mayor.During a 9:23 p.m. victory speech Tuesday, she thanked police officers and firefighters who supported her re-election and their union leaders as well as her family, including husband Kevin, daughter Mia, son Colin and her mother, Rita.Leaving the polls at Sisson School shortly after 7 p.m., voter Michelle Dudley offered a succinct explanation for why she voted for the mayor.?Judy?s good for Lynn,” Dudley said.{{tncms-asset app=”editorial” id=”918b871c-469b-11e3-805f-0019bb2963f4″}}