Today at Boston City Hall, mayoral candidate Charles Clemons won a slight but noteworthy victory -- nabbing the top spot on the ballot that voters will use when they narrow the field from twelve candidates to two on September 24.
“I’m excited about it,” said Clemons, a former Boston police officer who co-founded TOUCH 106.1 FM, a station focused on Boston’s African-American Community. “I’m glad that it happened.”
But Clemons also told WGBH that his victory ratchets up the pressure on his campaign.
“It makes it more challenging for me,” he explained. “Because I have to make sure that I stay in front.”
Clemons’ name was the first one selected in a drawing that saw Geraldine Cuddyer, chair of Boston’s Board of Election Commissioners, pull names from a hand-turned latticework hopper.
Bill Walczak, the founder of the Codman Square Health center, won the Number Two spot, on the mayoral ballot, followed by Charles Yancey, Rob Consalvo, and Charlotte Golar Richie. The bottom spots on the ballot went to David James Wyatt, Dan Conley, and John Barros.
Clemons said he’d celebrate winning the top ballot spot by campaigning -- and by giving his mother “a nice, big hug.”
This year’s Boston mayoral race is the first truly open contest since 1983, when Ray Flynn topped Mel King in the final, and the turnout for the ballot-position drawing seemed to reflect that. Before the proceedings started, Cuddyer called the approximately 100 people present that it was the biggest such crowd she could recall.
