Menino, Flaherty advance

The 2009 Boston mayoral election will be between incumbent Mayor Thomas Menino and City Councilor-At-Large Michael Flaherty.

Menino won more preliminary election votes Tuesday than the rest of the field combined, with nearly 51 percent of the ballots cast, while Flaherty finished with 24 percent.

City-Councilor-At-Large Sam Yoon claimed 21 percent of the vote and South End businessman Kevin McCrea trailed in fourth with 4 percent.

The total voter turnout of nearly 82,000 comprised only 23 percent of the city’s registered voters, though The Boston Globe reported it was higher than in any other Menino has faced in his four terms.

Menino and Flaherty will face off in the Nov. 3 election that will decide whether Menino wins an unprecedented fifth term.

After sixteen years in office, Menino is the nation’s longest-serving mayor, and was generally expected to take the top place in Tuesday’s primary.

As second-place finisher, Flaherty now represents the 49 percent of the vote Menino did not receive.

Supporters chanted ‘we can’t wait’ at Flaherty’s election night party in Dorchester as he described his vision for the remainder of the race and for the city’s future.

‘ ‘I will be a mayor for you, and Boston will be a city for all of us,’ Flaherty said. ‘It’s time to put that mayor behind the empty desk.’

‘The journey has now begun,’ he said.

Across the Southeast Expressway, Menino addressed supporters at his own victory party and congratulated Flaherty campaign for his win.

‘No matter the vote totals, your voices have been heard, and Boston’s better for it,’ he said.

Yoon gave a heartfelt address to supporters in Dorchester.

‘ ‘For the first time in Boston, we made this election about power,’ he said. ‘We put a focus on the way that power can be abused, on the way that trust can be abused.’

McCrea, who was often known as the dark horse of the election, told reporters in Roxbury he was satisfied with the outcome of the preliminary and that he plans to continue advocating for transparency at City Hall, an issue which he made a cornerstone of his campaign.

‘My message hasn’t changed and it isn’t going to change until we get real change downtown,’ he said.

The preliminary election also narrowed the candidate fields in race for city councilor. Bostonians will elect four of Tuesday’s top eight in November.

The City Council candidates advancing are John Connolly, Stephen Murphy, Felix Arroyo and Ayanna Pressley, who together took the majority of the vote, followed by Andrew Kenneally, Tito Jackson, Doug Bennett and Tomas Gonzalez.

Former Boston University Medical Campus Director of External Affairs and biolab supporter Egobudike Ezedi, who became an opponent of the biolab when he declared his candidacy for City Council, finished ninth.