richardhowe.com

The 1995 election shows how much the order of finish of the candidates can change from the primary to the general election. The previous election – 1993 – had seen six new councilors elected and that 1993 council voted for the ballpark, the hockey arena, and many other projects that helped transform the city. That progress brought an inevitable reaction, however, and in the 1995 primary election a group of new candidates waged a vigorous campaign advocating an abandonment of many of these projects. Their message was heard by the primary voters and they did well. That may have served as a wake-up call for the rest of the community, for in the general election, the order of finish from the primary changed drastically as you can see from the below. In the following lists, the names of incumbents are in italics and the order of finish in the companion election is in brackets.

1995 Primary – October 10, 1995

1. Steve Gendron – 4757 – [1]
2. Rita Mercier – 4263 – [6]
3. Bud Caulfield – 4158 – [2]
4. Casey Crane – 3872 – [11]
5. Bernie Lemoine – 3816 – [10]
6. Richard Howe – 3787 – [5]
7. Larry Martin – 3589 – [7]
8. Eileen Donoghue – 3546 – [4]
9. Rodney Elliott – 3501 – [12]
10. Matthew Donahue – 3493 – [3]
11. Grady Mulligan – 2817 – [9]
12. Peter Richards – 2718 – [9]
13. James Boenis – 2676 – [14]
14. Charles Caragianes – 2521 – [13]
15. Leo “Buckles” Nolan – 2446 – [16]
16. DJ Corcoran – 2155 – [15]
17. David Laferriere – 1790 – [18]
18. Brian Genest – 1734 – [17]
19. Timothy Evans – 1466
20. Patrick O’Connor – 1353
21. John Zagarella – 1037
22. Mark Goldman – 1021
23. Bobby Bishop – 706

1995 General Election

1. Steve Gendron – 8156 – [1]
2. Bud Caulfield - 8107 – [3]
3. Matthew Donahue – 7279 – [10]
4. Eileen Donoghue – 7221 – [8]
5. Richard Howe – 6834 – [6]
6. Rita Mercier – 6749 – [2]
7. Larry Martin – 6617 – [7]
8. Grady Mulligan – 6559 – [11]
9. Peter Richards – 6148 – [12]
10. Bernie Lemoine – 5734 – [5]
11. Casey Crane – 5550 – [4]
12. Rodney Elliott – 5392 – [9]
13. Charles Caragianes – 4894 – [14]
14. James Boenis – 5385 – [13]
15. DJ Corcoran – 3754 – [16]
16. Leo Nolan – 3467 – [15]
17. Brian Genest – 3022 – [19]
18. David Laferriere – 2885 – [17]

With the passage of yesterday’s deadline for filing nomination papers, the 2011 Lowell City Council field is set with 19 candidates. They are, listed alphabetically with incumbents first followed by challengers:

1. Kevin Broderick
2. Franky Descoteaux
3. Rodney Elliott
4. Bill Martin
5. Joe Mendonca
6. Rita Mercier
7. Jim Milinazzo
8. Patrick Murphy
9. Corey Belanger
10. Paul Belley
11. Fred Doyle
12. Ed Kennedy
13. John Leahy
14. Marty Lorrey
15. John MacDonald
16. Armand Mercier
17. Vesna Nuon
18. Van Pech
19. Fred Wanjiku

Four others took out papers but did not return them: Mary Burns, John Descoteaux, Robert Merrill and Patrick O’Connor.  My records indicate that the last city council primary was in 1999.  They were fairly regular before that (since 1965, primaries were not needed only in 1985 and 1991).  I suppose this year there will be the urge to debate the cost of the primary versus the benefit of eliminating just one candidate, but we’ve had that debate often enough and I thought last time, we all promised not to do it again.  We’ll see.