Driscoll Elected New Council President

By Sue Ellen Woodcock

He was a member of the Board of Selectmen years ago and now Robert Driscoll Jr. will become the President of the Town Council starting in January.

When current council president Peter Gill announced he wouldn’t be seeking re-election Driscoll threw his hat into the ring along with Precinct 4 Council member Craig Mael.

Tuesday the voters went for Driscoll with 1,977 votes over Mael’s 1,224 votes.

“It was a great win,” Driscoll said at a gathering of supporters at the Cottage Park Yacht Club. “It was a team effort with a lot of people involved and I appreciate everything they did.”

The top vote-getter in town for any race was Richard Honan, who ran for Winthrop Housing Authority and garnered 2,395 votes. Fellow incumbent Frank Ferrara took 1,477 votes to secure the second open seat on the authority.

In the School Committee race there will be three new faces in January. Valentino “Tino” Capobianco, a 26-year-old Winthrop High School grad who at one time work for Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo, grabbed the top spot with 2,126 votes.

“We did a good job getting the youth in town out to vote,” Capobiano said. “I can’t thank my friends and family enough.”

Newcomer Laura Callis took 1,152 votes for the second seat on the School Committee and Ron Vecchia landed the third open seat with 1,921 votes.

In the Precinct 2 race for town council incumbent James Letterie pulled ahead of challenger Michael Bertino who garnered 287 votes.

In the Precinct 4 town council race, Board of Health member Heather Engman finished safely ahead with 362 votes over challenger Paul Caruccio who took 224 votes.

In the race for Library Trustee, incumbent Ron Bergman came away with 1,630 votes. Joining the board will be Thomas Connelly with 1,768 votes and Donald Sullivan with 1,490 votes.

Running unopposed were Councilor-at-Large Phil Boncore with 2,283 votes and Precinct 6 councilor Linda Calla is good for another term with 278 votes.

Town Clerk Carla Vitale, her office and election commission reported a smooth day of voting. Numbers were tallied by 9 p.m. at the town hall. Vitale said voter turnout was about 30 percent with 3,325 casting votes out of 11,555 registered voters.