The Menino machine is back
Boston Mayor Tom Menino looked pretty satisfied with himself Tuesday night as he relaxed in the Eagle Room at City Hall and examined the precinct-by-precinct returns in the gubernatorial race. Menino had spent part of Election Day with Governor Patrick getting out the vote in the city’s minority neighborhoods. By about 9 p.m, with all 254 precincts reporting, Patrick had won a whopping 70 percent of the vote in Boston, giving him a 76,000 vote margin over his Republican challenger Charles Baker.
Similar scenes played out in other urban areas of Massachusetts. In Worcester and Springfield, for example, Patrick beat Baker by a combined total of 24,000 votes. The turnout for Patrick in Boston puts an end to speculation that Menino’s political machine was running out gas. It was last seen sputtering in 2008 when Menino dispatched his ground troops for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary. Then-Senator Barack Obama bested her in Boston. Menino’s ground troops had also backed former Attorney General Tom Reilly against Patrick in the 2006 Democratic primary race for governor. Patrick went on to trounce Reilly by more than 3-to-1 in the city.
On Tuesday, however, the Menino machine was running at full tilt.
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