City Council winners seen as young, competent, full of ideas

Pressley, 35, is a Chicago native who came east to attend Boston University and most recently worked as political director for US Senator John F. Kerry, who campaigned with her in Boston this past weekend. In that role, she maintained Kerry's relationships with officeholders and activists at all levels.

Arroyo, 30, is a community and labor organizer whose professional campaigns include winning better pay and benefits for custodians. Although he most often identifies himself as the husband, son, and brother of Boston teachers, he is perhaps best known as the son of former at-large councilor Felix D. Arroyo, until now the only Latino to serve on the council.

The other four candidates were Tito Jackson, who works on job creation in Governor Deval Patrick's administration; Andrew P. Kenneally, who spent a decade as a congressional and City Hall aide; Doug Bennett, a former Nantucket selectman who said he knocked on more than 100,000 doors; and Tomas Gonzalez, a community organizer and former Latino liaison for Menino.

In the district races, four of nine incumbents faced opponents, and each officeholder was expected to prevail, including Chuck Turner of Roxbury who cruised to another term despite facing federal indictment on allegations that he accepted $1,000 in cash in exchange for helping a nightclub win a liquor license.

Pressley would be the first African-American woman ever -- and the first black candidate, male or female, in nearly 20 years -- to serve as a citywide councilor in Boston. Arroyo would be the second Latino.

With voters able to select up to four names in the at-large race, the candidates and their supporters fanned out across the city, determined to pick up those votes that were still up for grabs.

"We know that it can make the difference," Pressley said this afternoon as she greeted voters at Dorchester's Adams Street Branch Library, her fourth stop out of five.

Pressley had about 200 volunteers out, according to her campaign director, James Chisholm, which allowed them to provide all-day coverage at the city's 50 largest polling places and at all precincts in predominantly minority neighborhoods.

Connolly, a first-term councilor who finished first in the preliminary, had more than 250 poll workers out. Though some candidates bounced from precinct to precinct, he spent nearly all of the 13 hours that the polls were open outside the Mary E. Curley School in Jamaica Plain, where he was often the only candidate present. That allowed for plenty of one-on-one time with voters, as Connolly began his pitch -- "I'm John Connolly, I'm a first-term councilor-at-large, former teacher..." -- near the sidewalk and continued speaking to receptive voters all the way to the school's side door.

"Good stuff, good stuff," one woman said, pledging her vote after hearing him highlight his proposals, such as a shared bike program and a high school dedicated to environmental sciences.

Though Murphy and Connolly won the most votes, some voters hoped for a clean break from the past.

"We need a whole new regime change here," said Michelle Baxter of Jamaica Plain, director of a Roxbury arts organization, after voting for Jackson, Gonzalez, Pressley, and Arroyo. "It's time for a new generation of good thinkers."

At West Roxbury's Holy Name Parish Hall, home to four of the busiest of Boston's 254 precincts, an assortment of candidates and their staff, family members, and volunteers crowded the pavement in front of the entrance. During the afternoon lull that befalls even the most bustling of polling places, there seemed to be 10 personalized campaign pitches for every one voter.

"Excuse me, I'm Doug Bennett," Bennett said, extending a hand as one voter approached.

"Can I give you a card for my son?" Kenneally's father, Tom, asked, wearing an Andy09.com T-shirt and offering a palm card.

"I'm Tito Jackson," Jackson said, flashing a broad smile and offering a campaign flier attached to a small baggie with a slice of banana bread. "I'd appreciate one of your four votes."

Jackson and his supporters dished out more than 1,000 slices of his Aunt Bertha's homemade banana bread, cut from 100 loaves that she prepared during a week of baking at their Grove Hall home. Most, but not all, of it went to the voters.

"Let me tell you something," Bennett said, continuing to greet voters opposite Jackson by the Holy Name stairs. "I ate the banana bread, and his [aunt] makes some good banana bread."