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Incumbent mayors throughout the North of Boston region had to be happy with the results of Tuesday’s preliminary elections.
Elected chief executives in Haverhill, Newburyport, Amesbury, and Beverly all scored convincing wins in their respective preliminary elections.
The mayors of Methuen and Peabody have lone opponents they will face in the Nov. 6 election, while those in Lawrence and Salem are in the middle of four-year terms. Gloucester Mayor John Bell is not running for re-election.
Though the turnout was pathetic in most communities, only Newburyport’s John Moak received fewer votes that all his opponents combined. (And he didn’t miss by much despite the fact there were four other candidates on the ballot.)
Most impressive was Amesbury Mayor Thatcher Kezer’s win. He’s spent the first two years in office battling an obstinate Municipal Council majority which should be thoroughly chastened by the fact one of its members — Alison Lindstrom — received only 232 votes in Tuesday’s mayoral election to Kezer’s 1,268.
Haverhill Mayor James Fiorentini had to be happy with his margin of victory (4,738-2,776) over second-place finisher James Rurak. But unlike another former mayor seeking a comeback — Beverly’s Tom Crean — at least Rurak made it through to the final election.
Crean lost to Euplio Marciano, who’d finished dead last in the three previous contests in which he’d run. No wonder Bill Scanlon, the Beverly incumbent, is smiling.