Peter Capano walked into the Brickyard Tuesday night and thrust his arms triumphantly in the air as the first of
Ward 6 Councilor Peter Capano celebrates his victory in the Eleventh Essex District state representative race Tuesday night at a party at the Brickyard.
several “Peter, Peter, Peter” chants were shouted in unison by his many jubilant supporters.
The 60-year-old Lynn city councillor won election to the Eleventh Essex District state representative seat Tuesday, defeating Lynn Museum Director Drew Russo and Councilor-at-Large Hong Net in a hard-fought election that featured three well-known and highly respected community leaders.
Capano received 1,840 votes to finish in first place. Russo was second with 1,422 votes while Net took third with 583 votes. Capano paved the way to victory with an impressive showing in the Lynn portion of the district, receiving 53 percent of the vote. Russo was first in Nahant, but Capano’s roughly 700-vote margin in Lynn was too much to overcome.
In his acceptance speech at the Brickyard, Capano said to the large crowd, “I want to thank everybody for all the work that you’ve done. I didn’t win this – all of you won this. We worked hard for a few months. We worked every weekend and during the week, we made phone calls and went door-to-door. And that culminated with today when we got out the vote and this is the result – we won!”
Capano’s daughter, Dena CapanoDiPardo, a history teacher at Lynn Classical High School, spoke about the pride being felt by the entire family.
“I am so proud of my dad,” said Dena. “He’s been in office a long time, and I’ve met a lot of people, especially through this campaign, that have made a connection with my dad through the years and I just see how much he has touched the people in Lynn, and I really feel he deserves this position, and I’m so happy for him.”
Ward 7 Councilor Jay Walsh was one of Capano’s earliest and most visible supporters throughout the campaign.
“I just want to congratulate Pete on his victory and Drew and Hong for running a great race,” said Walsh. “It was a battle to the end. We all worked hard and everyone ran respectable campaigns. I’m proud to call Pete my friend. I wish Pete well at the state level. We’re going to miss him on the City Council.”
With no Republican opponent on the ballot in November, Capano’s victory is tantamount to being elected as West Lynn and Nahant’s new state representative.
Capano, union president at General Electric, reflected on his victory and the excellent political campaign that he conducted with campaign manager, Sezan McDaniel. “I couldn’t have won this election without her,” said Capano. “It feels great – there’s nothing like it. “There was a lot of hard work that went in to this over the last few months. We had a big team, a combination of friends, union people that I worked with over the years, community groups, and people in the neighborhood that I’ve known my whole life.”
Capano said his campaign consisted of door-to-door visitations, functions, and meet-and-greets at residences. He has earned acclaim citywide an outstanding councilor for 13 years, known for his responsiveness to his constituents.
“I fight as hard as I can for the people I represent,” he said proudly. “I’m ready to get to work as state representative.”
And Peter Capano will soon travel to the State House in Boston for an inauguration to his prestigious position in the 160-member Massachusetts House.