BOSTON — Boston Mayor Marty Walsh will face-off against City Councilor Tito Jackson in November as Walsh seeks re-election to a second four-year term.
Walsh and Jackson bested a pair of lesser known mayoral candidates, retired police officer Robert Cappucci and Joseph Wiley, a health care worker, in Tuesday's nonpartisan preliminary election which generated lukewarm voter interest.
The top two vote-getters - Walsh and Jackson - advance to the Nov. 7 final election.
"Four years ago I was a state (representative) trying to let people know who I was and how I could be a good mayor," Walsh said Wednesday. "Now it's talking about my record, what we've accomplished and what we want to accomplish in the future."
If Jackson were to win, it would be historic. He would be Boston first black mayor. But he has his work cut out for him. Right now he has about $60,000 in campaign funds and Walsh has nearly $3 million.
Jackson said this race isn’t just symbolic for him. He calls himself the people’s candidate and he’s here to win. He said he was born here and was adopted as a child and said this race is for his family so he can give back to the people of Boston.
“We will uplift our whole city. We should be judged not by what we do for the people at the top of the tallest buildings in the city of Boston, but the folks who are at the bottom,” Jackson said. “That’s who we are as a city. By the way, that’s the city that took me from where I was to where I am today. It’s not because I’m extraordinary, I had extraordinary opportunities and everyone should have them.”
Elsewhere in Massachusetts, voters in Framingham were going to the polls for the first time since residents of New England's largest town opted to become a city. Voters will narrow from seven down to two the field of candidates seeking to become Framingham's first mayor.
In Lawrence, five candidates including former Mayor William Lantigua are challenging incumbent Mayor Daniel Rivera, with two advancing to November.