Boston Mayor Menino wins 1st round

BOSTON, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Boston Mayor Thomas Menino won more than half the vote in Tuesday's first-round election, leaving him well-positioned to win a fifth term.

With most of the votes counted, Menino had 51 percent of the vote in the four-way race, while Michael Flaherty, a councilman at large, picked up 24 percent. Councilman Sam Yoon came in third with 21 percent and Kevin McCrea, a businessman, trailed with 4 percent.

If Menino wins in November, he would be the first Boston mayor to serve five terms, a feat not achieved by storied politicians like James Michael Curley, who served four, and John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, grandfather of President John F. Kennedy, who served two.

Turnout was high, the Globe said, with about 80,000 people getting to the polls. That was twice the number who voted in the last two mayoral preliminary elections.

Flaherty spent heavily on television ads in the last weeks of the campaign, which put him ahead of Yoon. But it leaves him short of campaign funds for his head-on battle with Menino.