Democratic nominee Wayne Matewsky completed his campaign to be Everett’s representative in the Massachusetts House Tuesday night, narrowly beating out a strong write-in effort for former Mayor and City Clerk John Hanlon by 59 votes, 1,258 votes to 1,209.
Hanlon who came in third in last month’s Democratic primary for the seat, had been convinced to give it another effort by supporters and had launched an expensive and uphill battle to bet out the Democratic primary winner. However, despite the efforts of his many supporters, Matewsky’s core voters, especially in his home precinct where he dominated in the primary as well, helped to make the difference for the 32 political veteran.
“I’m just very happy with the result,” said Matewsky, when reached by phone on Tuesday evening. I want to thank the people who supported me and voted for me and stood by me during this very difficult campaign, in the cold of winter over the last three and a half months. Without the I would not have won.”
As with the Primary last month, Matewsky relied on huge advantages in his home precinct of Ward 1 Precinct 2, where he won by 112 votes and Ward 4 Precinct 2, where he won by 74 votes.
Also drawing votes away from Matewsky were independent candidates Rosa DiFlorio and Dennis Gianatasio, who gathered 747 and 401 votes respectively, s well as a handful of other write in candidates who combined for another 81 votes.
In all 3,696 voters headed to the polls on Tuesday, nearly matching the 3,894 voters who turned out for the Democratic Primary four weeks ago.
Matewsky said afterward that he is very proud of the result and said he expects that his supporters know who he is after 32 years in elected office.
“I’m very pleased to be the next State Representative from Everett,” he said. “I will work hard for this community as I have done for the past 32 years. The people know who I am and they know what kind of State Representative I’m going to be.”
There was no word from the Hanlon campaign on whether or not they will request a recount. City Clerk Michael Matarazzo said that any candidate can request a recount within the next 10 days. If they do, the recount will take place after the 10-day period.