Longtime councilor ousted in election
Watertown's Devaney fell 5 votes short
Watertown residents bid adieu to a long-serving and embattled town councilor, Newton voters ousted a pair of incumbent aldermen, and Worcester voters elected the city's first female mayor in elections Tuesday.
Incumbents ruled the day in Cambridge's council elections, but the panel will be without a member named Sullivan for the first time since the 1930s.
Watertown Town Councilor Marilyn Petitto Devaney, who faces felony charges in a recent confrontation at a Waltham beauty supply store and has been an aggressive critic of town administration, came five votes short of maintaining the at-large council seat she has held for 26 years.
Barring a recount, her 1,816-vote tally placed her fifth in a race for four at-large seats, a stunning reversal of fortunes for the 69-year-old, who outpaced challengers by a wide margin in previous elections. Her closest competitor, incumbent John Donohue, finished with 1,821 votes.
Devaney could not be reached for comment yesterday.
She has been charged with assault and battery with a curling iron in an April 13 run-in with a Waltham store clerk, who accused the councilor of trying to use her status as a five-term member of the Governor's Council to write a personal check without a driver's license. When her check was refused, Devaney allegedly threw a shopping bag at the clerk, hitting her in the chest. Devaney has pleaded not guilty and faces a Dec. 13 trial.
Taking Devaney's place among the top four was challenger Susan G. Falkoff, who received 2,162 votes.
Town Clerk John Flynn said Devaney could petition for a recount by Nov. 16.
Voters also sent incumbents packing in elections for the Newton Board of Aldermen.
Ward 3 at-large incumbent Leslie Burg lost her seat to challenger Greer Tan Swiston, 3,952 to 3,865. Swiston will join incumbent Ted Hess-Mahan, who received 4,231 votes, as one of two at-large councilors for Ward 3.
In the local Ward 5 alderman's race, newcomer William F. Brandel defeated incumbent Christine Snow Samuelson, 1,139 to 482. School Committeewoman Gail Glick also lost her seat to newcomer Geoffrey Epstein, 4,092 to 3,015.
A glass ceiling of sorts was shattered Tuesday in Worcester when Konstantina B. Lukes, who took over the mayor's job on an interim basis last year when Timothy Murray was elected state lieutenant governor, won the job, according to unofficial results. If those results hold, she would become the first popularly elected female mayor in the city's history. But some votes were still to be counted in the tight race.
She had 7,432 votes to Frederick C. Rushton's 7,327 votes, a difference of 105 votes, according to City Clerk David Rushford.
Rushton said he would decide whether to call for a recount after city officials tally provisional ballots tomorrow.
"It's best to make a decision on the facts," he said at a press conference yesterday. "The true count lies in those boxes in City Hall."
In Cambridge, all incumbents up for election held onto their seats. But Eddie Sullivan failed to continue the family tradition of service on the council.
When his cousin, Michael Sullivan, stepped down from the council in July after criticism about his retaining the seat while serving as Middlesex clerk of courts, Eddie Sullivan filed to run. Sullivan came in 10th place in the race for a seat on the nine-member body.
Meg Woolhouse of the Globe staff and correspondents Christina Pazzanese and John Dyer contributed to this story. John Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com. 