Clearly, it wasn’t a big anti-incumbent night across Massachusetts, not with Mayor Michelle Wu cruising unopposed to victory and Boston voters re-electing four at-large city councilors yesterday etc. But there was something stirring out there, with incumbent mayors losing in Everett and Gloucester and mayoral allies in Quincy getting pummeled. Even school committee members in Cambridge were getting the boot. … It doesn’t seem tied to any ideological or partisan shift per se. Just an old-fashioned fed-up, throw-the-rascals-out sentiment, tied to arrogant spending and pay raises and incompetent leadership. Hopefully, it will keep our one-party incumbents on their toes heading into 2026. … Fyi: WCVB has an excellent roundup of election results from around the state.

Update – From Michael Jonas at CommonWealth  Beacon: “Competitive mayoral races abound, just not in Boston.” … I like the old Barney Frank quip at the end of Michael’s piece. It’s so true about small-city politics

Update II – 11.6.25 – From Contrarian Boston: “Massachusetts mayors caught behaving badly with sneaky pay grabs and other controversies sent packing by fed-up constituents”

Update III – 11.6.25 – And in related post-election day news, from the Globe: “Quincy mayor, already facing controversy, took thousands of dollars in illegal campaign donations, state says”