Primary election results and analysis: Low turnout for primaries, one hot State Rep's race
Published on September 27th, 2000
STONEHAM, MA - The results of the two contested races relevant to Stoneham in the Sept. 19 State Primary are as follows:
oFormer Newton Mayor Thomas Concannon, Jr. will probably run as the Democratic challenger against incumbent Republican Lee Johnson in the General Election for the position of Middlesex Register of Probate. Concannon beat out eight other Democrats.
However, candidate John Buonomo of Somerville lost by only 40 votes, and his organization has asked for a recount.
oAfter defeating Dennis Sullivan, Ed Sullivan, the Incumbent Democratic Middlesex Clerk of Courts, will be unopposed the rest of the way.
Casey and Rotondi
The numbers are in for the two primary races for the state rep's seat in the 34th Middlesex District (all of Winchester, precincts 3 and 5 in Reading and precincts 1, 2 and 3 in Stoneham).
Out of 1,728 Democratic ballots cast, Casey received 1,428 votes, or 82.6 percent of the Democratic vote.
Rotondi received 539 of a possible 620 Republican votes, or 87.6 percent of the Republican vote.
What these numbers don't immediately reveal is the miserly turnout in all three towns: 8.5 percent in Stoneham, 6.6 percent in Reading and 11 percent in Winchester. More voters may show up for the Nov. 7 General Election when they know the seat is on the line.
Also, the Constitutional Party, International Third Party, Natural Law Party, New Alliance, Reform Party, Green Party, Libertarian Party, and Socialist Party voters are not accounted for above because they did not field primary candidates. There aren't many of these folks (85 in Stoneham), but every vote counts.
But more interesting than the handful of people who could not vote are the thousands of Democrats, Republicans and unenrolled voters who could vote but didn't (12,339 in Stoneham). What they do in November will determine who represents Stoneham precincts 1, 2 and 3 at the State House.
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