2007 Worcester, Massachusetts mayoral election


The 2007 Worcester, Massachusetts mayoral election was held on November 6, 2007. It saw the reelection of incumbent mayor Konstantina B. Lukes, who had been appointed to the position earlier that year after Tim Murray resigned to become Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts.
Lukes became the city's first elected female mayor as a result of this election.

Election system

In order to be elected mayor in Worcester, a person must place first in the mayor's race and also finish among the top six in the at-large city council election, being also elected a councilor at large. An individual cannot be elected mayor without additionally winning at at-large city council seat.
In addition, the candidate elected to the office of councilor at large who receives the
second-highest number of votes for the office of mayor will become vice-chair of the Worcester City Council.

Candidates

Lukes saw two strong challengers, Rushton and Rosen.
Rather than issues, the election largely focused on the personality and the leadership style of Lukes.
Lukes and Rushton were the best-funded candidates. Lukes managed to raise $31,381 for her campaign. Rushton managed to raise $80,000 for his campaign.
Despite the fact that Lukes identified as a Democrat, the city's Democratic Party leaders sought to unseat her. They hoped to coalesce opposition to Lukes behind a single candidate, and ultimately Rushton became their candidate. Rushton would ultimately receive most of the endorsements from major Democratic politicians in the region. Rushton's brother-in-law, Worcester County's new District Attorney Joseph D. Early, appeared at campaign events for him, marking the first time in decades that a District Attorney had involved himself in a political campaign.
There was an unusually large field of candidates running to be at-large city councilors in 2007. This field large large enough that a primary was mandated for the at-large city council election, which was held in mid-September. Due to the laws requiring that a mayor also be elected an at-large city councilor, anyone who wanted to compete in the mayoral race would need to be on the ballot in the at-large City Council primary and advance to the at-large City Council general election if they hoped to be elected mayor. While it was not at all required that mayoral candidates declare their candidacies before the at-large City Council primary, four candidates already had declared their candidates. After the at-large City Council primary, in which Lukes placed second among all candidates, and Rushton placed third, two of the candidates, dropped-out of the mayoral race. These were Dennis L. Irish and Mike C. Perotto, who had respectively placed fifth and eighth out of all candidates in the at-large City Council primary. This bolstered the Democratic Party's hopes of coalescing opposition to Lukes around a single candidate, which had emerged to Rushton.
Rosen declared his candidacy after the at-large City Council primary, in which he had placed first. Rosen's entrance into the race posed an obstacle to the Democratic Party leadership's hopes of coalescing opposition to Lukes behind a single candidate.
As of early October, Lukes and Rushton were the only two candidates with campaign websites.

Finances

Results

The result was narrow enough that a hand-recount was conducted. In the end, only 116 votes separated Lukes and Rushton., this was the narrowest margin of victory in a Worcester mayoral election since the city started popularly electing its mayors in 1987.
Lukes finished second in the at-large city council election. Rosen finished first, Rushton finished fourth, and Coleman finished twelfth. Rushton, by the rules of the city charter, became the vice-chair of the Worcester City Council.