Thielman defeated...

In a close race last night, Sean Garballey, democratic candidate for state rep in the 23rd Middlesex special election prevailed by a four hundred and twenty five vote margin against Jeff Thielman.
Alas and alack, this is a setback for liberals and progressives in Arlington, Jeff would've made a superb state representative.
But the voters of Arlington have nominated otherwise and there is naught Humble Elias can do about it now.
A number of factors contributed to Thielman's heartwrenching defeat.

First time candidate Andrew O'Brien a man who STILL remains an enigma to the town, garnered some twelve hundred votes district-wide and ran reasonably well in the West Medford precincts. Given the fact that all anyone knew about him was his die-hard anti-casino bona-fides and his Irish name, one must conclude there is still electoral power in the olde sod connection.
The shortness of the special election season for this office was a potent hurdle for the Thielman campaign, it prevented sober reflection as to whether or not sending a twenty two year old man to the state legislature was really a good idea.
Moreover, the Garballey campaign was driven by a weird sort of emotionalism, a " Townies-rule" mood mated to an odd but fervent belief that Sean was some kind of young Galahad. Garballey also made appeals to something he called "The Real Arlington" which he never quite explained in any detail, but one suspects it is a sort of townie-paradise wherein no one from Cambridge ever moves into Mom's old house and renovates.
Hard to beat feelings like that.
There were also some significant defections from the liberal ranks, certain notable Marzilli supporters either sat on their hands or else were out banging the pots hard for Sean. Their reasoning is a little obscure, certainly so far as I know not much has been offered in return, Then again thet may believe that differences with the town hall gang must need conciliating given Marzilli's ascension to the state senate.

Lastly, Diane Mahon and the aforementioned Town Hall machine just did a better job and hustling their target precincts, they lost this fall against Marzilli and indeed lost many many challenges to Jim in past primaries, but what the hell this time they won.

Meanwhile back in the hall there were mutterings of people voting for the republican candidate, John Worden next month, which was to be expected. I can't see much coming of that, Worden is past sixty five years of age and while he has friends all around town he might have to explain just why he got into the state rep's race having dropped moderatorship of Town Meeting allegedly for reasons of "health".

For all that, I wish Sean well. He is a nice kid, nevertheless I can't say I think he will be much of a success as a state representative; the legistature is a real snake pit, the leadership knows fresh meat when they smell it and windy appeals to "The Real Arlington" won't go very far I assure you.
But ya never know...people can still surprise you.