Tierney Concedes Race at Rally

DORCHESTER--With booming rock music and cheering volunteers, the Dorchester campaign rally last night certainly sounded like a victory. But all the enthusiasm in the world couldn't make up for the defeat of their candidate, Joseph Tierney, who last night lost the city's biggest-ever landslide election for mayor.

Even when Tierney told the 125 supporters at his rally, "There won't be a new mayor for Boston," they would not relent.

They cheered him like a winner. For a full two minutes, they refused to let him concede and chanted "91, 91!" (the year of his next opportunity to run for mayor.)

But this time Tierney had come up empty in his bid. He garnered only 30,897 votes or 33 percent of the electorate, compared to Mayor Raymond F. Flynn's outpouring of 63,412 votes or 67 percent. Both are Democrats.

With his wife and two children at his side, Tierney told his supporters, "The people here did good enough, we just didn't do good enough."

Tierney blamed his loss on insufficient press coverage and a lack of aggressive fund-raising, but he chose to focus his concession speech on the positive aspects of his campaign.

"Nobody ever gave us a chance in hell," Tierney said. "But we showed there are some big things wrong in this city. At least South Boston saw it."

Tierney charged the press with holding back negative coverage on Flynn. "I am really pulled that [the press] let the mayor off the hook." he said. "They didn't challenge any issues."

Tierney warned Bostonians about the next four years under a Democratic administration. "Boston, I hope you learned your lesson," he said. "The city is in for some hard times."

But the landslide defeat and the concession speech did not sober Tierney's supporters.

Not a Loser

"You're not a loser Joe!" shouted 20-year old Danny J. Gill.

During the two hours before Tierney's appearance at the rally, his supporters had said they were still optimistic. Early news of Tierney victories in South Boston districts injected the crowd with a dose of hope.

"I say Joe is going to win the election by 50 votes," 15-year Tierney campaign worker Danny P. O'Neil said at 9 o'clock.