Chances are, you didn't. The general election for the race to replace former Senate President Robert Travaglini was yesterday in parts of Cambridge, Everett and Boston. Turnout was limited to less than 3% of eligible voters mostly because soon-to-be-Senator Anthony Petruccelli was running unopposed. Petruccelli won last month's primary against Everett City Councilor Dan Rizzo in a race that saw higher, but still light, turnout at around 17% of the electorate or so.
His election creates a vacant seat in his East Boston district, the First Suffolk. The East Boston Sun Transcript and the Hubster Blog have the candidates to replace Petruccelli currently as Carlo Basile, a "political operative", and Jeff Drago, a City Hall employee. The Hubster also mentions local activist Mary Berninger may be interested in running as well.
Update: I found a cached version of an earlier Eastie Watch column that has more information on the candidates:
Basile, a political operative in Eastie who helped Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Kerry Healy, may be the most conservative of the bunch because of his close ties with these two gubernatorial races. Basile’s got support in the neighborhood but whether his ties to conservative issues may hurt his candidacy among the growing population of progressive voters in Eastie is unclear.In addition, I noticed today that Felix Arroyo's Organizing Director, Gloribell Mota has set up a fundraising committee for the First Suffolk seat.
Drago, who has worked for several years inside City Hall, might be able to line up the support of Mayor Thomas Menino. However, its unlikely Menino will make any commitments until he sees the field of candidates so Drago can’t bank on the Mayor’s machine just yet.
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Beringer’s experience and passion fighting Logan expansion could make her a favorite among Eastie activists long opposed to Logan operations and expansion projects. However, Beringer is not the consummate political insider so big name support from Eastie’s elected officials may be hard to get.
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