LYNN — In the most closely watched race in the city, challenger Cinda Danh came within 10 votes of beating Fred Hogan in the hotly contested race for the Ward 6 council seat.
“I feel so happy, excited, scared, relieved, and really humbled by the support of the Ward 6 residents and the voters,” Danh said. “I think it calls for a time for celebration and I think it shows a need for new leadership and change within our city, and that is something that’s exciting.”
Hogan and Danh received the most votes, with 312 and 302 respectively, in Tuesday’s primary and will be moving on to the general election in November, where the race will be decided. Donald Castle came in third with 152 votes, but he and two other candidates, David Ellis and Jimmy Gonzalez, 56 and 40 votes, were eliminated.
“Ward 6 had a lot of action in it and I just give my hat off to every candidate that ran a great race, and this is what the American way is all about,” Hogan said. “It’s about people coming out and doing their thing in the community and voicing their vote. We’re going to have to work harder as a team and just keep doing what we’re doing in Ward 6.”
Despite the loss, Castle said he felt good after the race.
“We worked hard and there’s a lot of good candidates,” he said. “We brought our message to everybody in the ward and it didn’t work out, but it’s a great city, and people worked hard.”
Although Ward 6 was the only race impacted by the primary, results showed that City Council President Darren Cyr could be facing a battle in Ward 3. He came in first by only 22 votes over challenger George Meimeteas, setting up a rematch in November.
All four at-large incumbents on the City Council won. Seven candidates are vying for four seats.
Buzzy Barton topped the ticket for the Councilor-at-Large race with 1,519 votes, followed by Hong Net with 1,444 votes, Brian LaPierre with 1,385 votes and Brian Field with 1,381 votes. Challengers Jose M. Encarnacion, Lennin Ernesto Pena and Joel Hyppolite didn’t have much of a showing with 611, 598 and 300 votes respectively.
The seven incumbents all won their respective ward races. Only Ward 2 Councilor Rick Starbard was unopposed.
In Ward 1, Wayne Lozzi defeated William O’Shea by 139 votes, with a 506 to 367 tally.
Cyr received 168 votes to Meimeteas’ 146 in Ward 3.
In Ward 4, Richard Colucci defeated Natasha Megie-Maddrey by 96 votes, or 166 to 70.
Ward 5 Councilor Dianna Chakoutis won the primary by 46 votes over challenger Marven Hyppolite, with 123 votes to his 77.
Ward 7 could be a runaway in November for John “Jay” Walsh, who defeated Alexis Reynoso by 195 votes, or 261 to 66.
The six incumbent School Committee members received the most votes. Eight candidates are vying for six seats.
Donna Coppola topped the ticket with 1,606 votes. John Ford came in second with 1,389 votes, followed by Lorraine Gately with 1,360; Brian Castellanos with 1,187; Jared Nicholson with 1,172 and Michael Satterwhite with 1,047 votes. Challengers Sandra Lopez and Tiffany Jean Magnolia received 785 and 603 votes respectively.
Only 6 percent of more than 52,000 voters came out to support candidates on Tuesday. Ward 6 saw a higher voter turnout than the rest of the city, but was still a paltry 14.5 percent.
The general election is on Nov. 5.
