Rizzo loses Senate battle

City Councillor Dan Rizzo lost his bid for State Senate on Tuesday by an unofficial margin of 2,349 votes.
In a day of low voter turnout throughout the whole district, Rizzo unofficially got 5,193 votes to State Rep. Anthony Petruccelli’s 7,542 votes.
Revere voters cast fewer than 5,000 ballots, which proved to be the key in the lynchpin for the Rizzo campaign.
A key area was also East Cambridge, where everyone thought Rizzo would mop up Petruccelli. However, there were over 23,000 registered Cambridge voters and only 1,600 voted. Those who did vote chose Petruccelli by a margin of 3 to 1.
Winthrop was another key area where Rizzo didn’t get the votes. Everyone conceded that Winthrop was Petruccelli territory, but many believed that Rizzo would carry some weight. However, Winthrop voters tallied 1,741 votes for Petruccelli and only 576 for Rizzo.
The North End was a similar result, with 771 for Petruccelli and 197 for Rizzo.
The biggest and most important story, though, was Revere.
Revere voters just didn’t support their candidate. Fewer than 5,000 votes were cast in Revere. Local elected officials from the state delegation and City Council could never get unanimously on the same page. What was thought to be a given at the outset – that being Revere people supporting the Revere candidate – was not so.
In the end, Revere cast 3,628 votes for Rizzo and 1,031 for Petruccelli.
Rizzo thanked his supporters at his time at the Comfort Inn around 9:15 p.m. – conceding the election with poise and pride.
“We’ve made great friendships here,” he said. “The City of Revere really came together. It was a great thing for the community. We didn’t allow the [Boston] machine to walk into office. We put up a fight…They heard us. I guarantee that.”
Other unofficial totals throughout the district were:
East Boston: 2,651 (Petruccelli), 333 (Rizzo)
Beacon Hill: 124 (Petruccelli), 27 (Rizzo)

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