Lynch Carries Close Democratic Primary

In a surprisingly tense contest yesterday, frontrunner State Senator Stephen F. Lynch won the Democratic party’s nomination for the 9th District congressional seat. Lynch beat out his closest competitor, Cheryl Jacques, by a margin of 12 percent--although early results showed a much closer margin. The special election drew a remarkably high turnout of about 110,000, much higher than any predictions.

But the real surprise of the day was that the race went on at all, in the face of emergency shutdowns, evacuations, and cancellations throughout Massachusetts. But polling booths stayed open and the primary for the 9th District congressional race went on as scheduled, following an order from the governor.

“This election should proceed. It is the strongest statement that we can make as Americans in the face of a terrorist attack,” said Acting Gov. Jane Swift at a press conference she held at the state’s emergency bunker in Framingham early yesterday afternoon. Swift retreated to the bunker, a remnant of the Cold War era, after yesterday morning’s terrorist attacks planes and buildings down in Washington D.C. and New York City.

In the Republican primary, State Sen. JoAnn Sprague defeated her only competitor, banker William McKinney, 62 to 38 percent. The seven-candidate Democratic primary received far more media attention during the campaign, however, both for the fireworks among Lynch (who received 40 percent of the vote), Jacques (28 percent), State Sen. Brian Joyce (16 percent) and State Sen. Marc Pacheco (14 percent), and because its winner is expected to triumph in the heavily Democratic district’s November general election. The winner of that contest will take over the seat formerly held by beloved Congressman J. Joseph Moakley, Jr., who died of leukemia last spring.

In New York City, where many spent the day stranded and stunned in Manhattan, city primaries were suspended by a judge’s ruling.

And a judge almost got the chance to suspend the elections in Massachusetts. Yesterday at noon, Secretary of State William F. Galvin announced that he would sue in the state’s Supreme Judicial Court to suspend the elections.

But late yesterday afternoon Galvin decided against standing up to the governor’s decision.

“[Galvin] decided not to go into court in part because of the opposition of the governor and the attorney general,” said Galvin’s spokesperson, Brian McNiff. “He remains concerned with the fairness and completeness of the election.”

According to Swift’s spokesperson, Sarah Magazine, extra security precautions were being taken to assure safety at the polls.

Even after the tragedy, voters did show up at the polls to cast their ballots in the special election.

“You’ve got to remember that one of the frontrunners comes from this neighborhood,” said a local official at one South Boston polling station, explaining why voters continued to turn out and vote.

The official--who declined to be named--named the pride South Boston holds in its lone local candidate, Lynch, as the reason why people came out to vote.

“Obviously today’s tragedy is a lot more important than what’s happening in this congressional race and a lot of voters understandably were focussed on that and not the election,” said Jacques’s spokesperson, Angus McQuilken.

--Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.