DiDomenico bests Flaherty in close race

Everett City Councilor Sal DiDomenico won a razor sharp victory in the special senate election Tuesday to fill the unexpired term left by former Senator Anthony Galluccio who resigned earlier in the year.

DiDomenico beat Flaherty by 120 votes in an unofficial tally.

Less than 10,000 voters came out in the sprawling district, which has Saugus at its northern edge and Cambridge to the south and west with everything else in between, including Somerville and Allston-Brighton.

DiDomenico did not carry Chelsea nor did he carry Charlestown, Revere or Cambridge – but in the end – it was Everett that carried the day for him.

In the end, Everett was enough.

In Everett, 3500 people came out to vote on a political landscape dominated by DiDomenico.

DiDomenico received 2500 votes in Everett to Flaherty’s nearly 700.

Chelsea candidate Michael Albano received 91 votes in Everett. In Chelsea, he received more than 300, coming in behind Flaherty and Attorney Dennis Benzan.

“We have prevailed. We have gotten our message out,” DiDomenico said joyously to a large crowd of his adoring followers at the Silver Fox in Everett.

He declared victory at 9:20 p.m.

About an hour later, the Flaherty campaign put out a short press release claiming there was voter fraud in Everett and proclaiming that Flaherty would be seeking a recount – as well as investigating possible fraud.

Officials for the DiDomenico campaign denied the allegations.

“We won. The numbers prove it,” said an official.

Voters throughout the district stayed away in droves on Tuesday.

Turnout was very light – and in some places like Chelsea and Revere, it was outrageously light.

A turnout of only 1,400 voters out of a possible 10,684 materialized in Chelsea

Flaherty got 454, Benzan, 365, Albano, 313, DiDomenico 254 and Denise Simmons, 61.

DiDomenico pledged himself to hard work on Beacon Hill.

He said he was ready to get on with the work of representing the district.

With his wife and children around him at the Silver Fox, he thanked everyone there for their aid in getting him elected.

“We prevailed. Our message got out,” he said.

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