Political power shifts in Lynn

LYNN – Like a director scrapping a script, Lynn voters altered local politics this year, sending one major player off stage and ushering in another to change City Council dynamics for the year ahead and, perhaps, longer.With Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy?s April re-election announcement, the wheels on local political candidacies began to turn, and talk among locals interested in elections initially focused on possible mayoral bids by legislators, especially state representatives Steven Walsh and Robert Fennell.Those candidacies never materialized. In fact, both men and state Sen. Thomas M. McGee stayed out of the mayor?s race, leaving Council President Timothy Phelan – to no one?s surprise – to jump in.Pitted against one another as opponents, Kennedy and Phelan drew on parallel political backgrounds in their bid for the city?s top local office. Both trained as lawyers, both claimed deep family roots in the city and both accomplished the relatively rare achievement of holding city elected office for nearly 20 years.Even as they started sparring in June over the city?s development future and the best way to attract and keep local residents in the city, the mayoral candidates found themselves on the local campaign trail with men and women representative of the city?s different populations and ethnic groups.Ariana Murrell-Rosario, a Spanish-speaking businesswoman, launched a bid for the Ward 4 council seat oriented around better representation for homeowners and Highlands residents. Former candidate Miguel Funez made a bid for a council at-large seat, hoping to draw in part on Spanish-speaking voters? support that propelled Committeewoman Maria Carrasco into office.Cambodian-American Jake Keo cast himself as a neighborhood improvement advocate in his Ward 5 candidacy, while Jesse Jaeger, a school improvement advocate-turned-council candidate, made a similar pitch to East Lynn voters.Two women new to politics waded into the council races each with backgrounds in neighborhood, youth sports and local school activities. Dianna Chakoutis sought out votes in West Lynn to win the Ward 5 seat, while Debra Plunkett asked East Lynn voters for their support as she took on veteran councilor Wayne Lozzi in Ward 1.While council candidates with diverse backgrounds talked about making neighborhoods cleaner and safer, the political fight between Phelan and Kennedy spilled into the Council Chamber on City Hall?s top floor where councilors overruled Kennedy?s attempts to veto a foreclosure mediation law and voted to investigate mayoral confiscation of a council worker?s computer.The more than 100 people who clapped in support of the “homeowners? bill of rights” at April and May council meetings provided Phelan with one of his biggest shows of support. But voters, following a round of summertime debates, filed into polling places across the city in September and handed Kennedy a preliminary election victory in every one of the city?s precincts.That strong vote proved to be writing on the wall for Phelan, who lost handily again in the November final election, leaving Kennedy to laugh and cheer along with supporters as she made the rounds of the Franco-American veterans post on election night.The assorted first-time candidacies for School Committee and council boiled down to only one victory for a political newcomer: Chakoutis, who will be sworn in as a ward councilor on Jan. 6.Kennedy will also take the oath of office for a second time as mayor on that night. She hopes the stage for her second term has been set by economic revival, with a Chelsea soup company planning to open shop off the Lynnway early next year and Market Basket drawing up designs for a Federal Street store.What she can do to bring potentially larger projects to Lynn remains to be seen: A proposed North Harbor project opposite North Shore Community College is not a done deal, and Kennedy in September postponed an announcement about a major international investor planning to build nea