By Josh Resnek
Mayor Carlo DeMaria will take the oath of office in January for another four years following his 210 vote victory over Councilor Fred Capone.
Nearly everything about the electorate is different this time from the last time DeMaria took the oath of office.
Nearly half the voters who came out to be heard in November, did not vote for the mayor.
Nearly half the voters rejected him.
Two hundred and ten voters does not a majority make in the modern world.
In the post Trump era, losing a close political match can be perceived and is, as being the same as winning.
Here’s the modern thinking.
Because 50 million voted for Trump, his cries that he won when he clearly lost hold a great deal of power and fascination over those who voted for him.
Many of those millions do not believe Biden won. They refuse to acknowledge that Biden is the legally elected president.
Here in Everett, many of Capone’s supporters still cannot come to grips with his loss.
It was so close…and yet…by the standard electoral reasoning…so far away from a victory.
To his credit, Capone hasn’t complained that he lost, or that the election was stolen from him.
There remains the matter of his supporters, fully half the voters who came out in Everett who wanted Capone and not Carlo DeMaria.
What happens in this situation?
Capone’s supporters are still largely in disbelief that he lost. They feel he was and is and remains the better man between the two.
On the DeMaria side of the equation, nothing could be further from the truth.
DeMaria’s die hard supporters believe as he does that he will be the mayor forever, that he cannot be beaten, and that those who do not care for DeMaria can all drop dead.
The DeMaria core, minus Sergio Cornelio, has not yet cracked or crumbled, although their man came very close to losing this last time around.
In fact, Capone’s supporters believe that DeMaria lost, that winning by 210 votes was as good as being rejected by the great mass of voters in this city.
What does this point to?
The city is politically divided, absolutely divided. It is divided as never before in modern political history here.
DeMaria controls every aspect of municipal government in Everett, and this will soon include the School Department.
He maintains his control because he got 210 more votes than Capone did.
The recent changes on the School Committee will give the mayor more leverage than ever before over managing the public schools as he sees fit.
Changes on the city council insure that DeMaria will continue his control of that political body.
The city council’s relative inconsequence is magnified by the mayor’s near complete control over it.
Capone’s large body of support is not going away or disappearing any time soon.
DeMaria’s core of support remains strong but for Cornelio.
Cornelio is a crack in the dam, Cornelio is the bricks falling out of the wall protecting DeMaria’s secrets.
What exactly happens in the next two weeks, two months or two years is impossible to predict.
This we know, there is a great deal of noise surrounding the mayor right now.
Law enforcement noise. Boston Globe noise. Law suit noise.
The mayor did not do himself a favor promising retribution to those who were against him in his victory speech last month.
The mayor needs quiet to do his business as he does it. Noise isn’t good for business.