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Former aide to DiMasi wins seat

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 16, 2009 10:27 PM

By Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff

Aaron Michlewitz, a former aide to embattled retired House speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, won his old boss’s legislative seat in a landslide in today’s special election.

Michlewitz, a 31-year-old Democrat from Boston's North End, won 2,190 of the 2,745 votes cast, or about 80 percent of the vote. Independent candidate John A. Keith, a real estate agent from the South End, was a far-off second with 407 votes, and Republican David Trumbull, of Beacon Hill, earned 120 votes, according to an unofficial tally of all 12 precincts by city election officials.

Officials said 9.59 percent of the district’s 28,646 registered voters cast their ballots on what turned out to be a sunny day. But Michlewitz’s victory had long been forecasted, given his standing in the heavily Democratic district, which includes the North End, South End, Chinatown, Beacon Hill, Back Bay and parts of Roxbury.

The seat opened in January when DiMasi resigned after 30 years in office, amidst a corruption investigation. Earlier this month, he was indicted in federal court on charges he arranged for a state contract for software company Cognos, LLC in exchange for thousands of dollars in kickbacks.