REVERE — Two years after he was knocked out of the corner office by Mayor Brian Arrigo, Daniel Rizzo has successfully returned to Revere politics. The former mayor was elected to the City Council after topping the ticket on Tuesday night.
Rizzo was elected to a City Councilor-at-Large seat after receiving 3,878 votes, higher than any other candidate on the ballot.
Rizzo was one of a dozen candidates vying for five Councilor-at-Large seats. He was elected as the city’s mayor in November 2011, and served one term, from January 2012 to January 2016. Prior to that, he was elected to the City Council for six terms, or 12 years. He is the president of Rizzo Insurance Group, Inc.
“I feel tremendous,” Rizzo said. “I’m just very, very grateful to the voters and to the people who are willing to stand with me and just looking forward to serving our community.”
Rizzo said he considered the vote a “great affirmation and confirmation of the work we’ve done” over the past 16 to 18 years as both a councilor and recently as mayor.
He said he was thankful to his committee that worked hard during the campaign — it takes a team to receive almost 4,000 votes. In 2016, he said he didn’t have the same upbeat volunteers and supporters that he had with him on Tuesday night.
Rizzo joined the four incumbents — Jessica Ann Giannino (3,767 votes), Steven Morabito (3,103 votes), George Rotondo (2,797 votes) and Anthony Zambuto (2,737 votes) — who retained their at-large seats.
Challengers who did not garner enough votes for a Councilor-at-Large seat were John Correggio (1,459), Dimple Rana (1,381), Wayne Rose (1,324), Michael Zaccaria (1,302), David Jose Ramos (726), Nicholas Moulaison Sr. (533) and Todd Braid (441).
A new incoming Councilor-at-Large was guaranteed in the election. The seat of Robert Haas Jr., an at-large member who died unexpectedly in June, needed to be filled.
The School Committee also saw a change, with the election of Gerry Visconti, who received 2,585 votes.
Visconti could not be reached for comment in time for The Item deadline.
There had been a vacant seat on the committee as Dan Maguire did not run. All five incumbents running — Carol Tye (3,613), Michael Ferrante (3,166), Stacey Rizzo (2,954) Susan Gravellese (2,941) and Frederick Sannella (2,638) — were reelected.
All six Ward Council races were contested, but all of the incumbents retained their seats.
In Ward 1, Joanne McKenna defeated Cheryl Whittredge 801 to 186 votes.
In Ward 2, Ira Novoselsky defeated Sebastian Guiseppe Mancuso 404 to 133.
In Ward 3, Arthur Guinasso received 686 votes to Anthony Saverio Cogliandro’s 475.
Ward 4 Councilor Patrick Keefe retained his seat with 840 votes to defeat Philip Joseph Russo, who received 350.
In Ward 5, John Powers beat Eric Lampedecchio 846 to 690.
And in Ward 6, Charles Patch Sr. defeated Arthur Henry DeMattia 1,008 to 345.
The only ballot question overwhelmingly passed by a 4,543 to 1,398 margin, which will provide a new real estate tax exemption for qualifying senior citizens in Revere.
Arrigo and numerous city officials had endorsed Question 1 in a recent press conference — the mayor previously said it would give a 10 percent tax exemption to senior citizens with an annual income of under $57,000 who own and occupy their homes, which on average would have saved a senior citizen about $451 last year.
“We’re excited,” Arrigo said on Tuesday night. “Now the work begins on making sure we implement it.”
In all, 7,421 people cast a ballot on Tuesday, representing just over 27 percent turnout.
