LoPresti Defeats Travaglini

Although the Democratic primary race for the state senate seat in the Suffolk and Middlesex district was far from a friendly competition, that changed last night as the whole thing turned into a neighborhood party.

At the East Boston headquarters of the eventual winner, incumbent State Senator Michael LoPresti, Jr. '70, supporters sat munching grapes and cheese. Swing music crept out through crackling speakers, and campaign staffers announced precinct-by-precinct results in a friendly fashion, calling LoPresti's opponent, Boston City Councillor Robert Travaglini, "Bobby" or "Trav."

Travaglini added to the amiable atmosphere by visiting LoPresti's headquarters to concede the race before all the votes had been counted.

The friendly tone of election night was markedly different from the campaign, when Travaglini and LoPresti waged a bitter campaign to win progressive votes. The race got underway this summer when lesbian activist Marguerite Gerstell dropped out of the race, because LoPresti received the endorsement of the Greater Boston Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance.

The departure of Gerstell, who had been expected to rob LoPresti of some much-needed support, left the two candidates to slug it out--sometimes nastily--over which one was more genuinely devoted to liberal goals.

In his victory speech, LoPresti told the crowd, "We are a people who believe in issues. We believe in what's good. We won't stand for smear, and we won't stand for dirty tactics."

A man who coaches ice hockey, and has employed a chauffeur for the past several years, LoPresti has developed a strong base of support in Winthrop and Cambridge.

The tallies from East Boston precincts, where Travaglini clobbered the incumbent, were announced before those from Cambridge, and some LoPresti supporters became concerned.

"I'm so nervous," said Donna Petraglin, who said she has stayed home taking care of three children so that her husband, Silvio Petraglin, could put in long hours for LoPresti throughout the campaign.

But her husband, who is LoPresti's coordinator, tried to boost the crowd's morale. "Hey, wake up everybody. This isn't the end. I got good news too," Silvio Petraglin said. "Cambridge did it before, they'll do it again."

And Winthrop poll worker Lea Burke, who held a LoPresti sign outside a voting area for four hours yesterday, said she had been confident all along that LoPresti would take Winthrop. In between campaigning and attending what was expected to be LoPresti's victory party, "we had a poker game," said Burke, who is retired from Burke Real Estate.

LoPresti won Winthrop handily, thanks in part to the effort of his Winthrop precinct captain Charles P. Warwick, who has spent 30 hours a week organizing campaign workers.

"Mr. LoPresti's a great guy," Warwick said. The MBTA bus driver said he thought Winthrop residents were especially loyal to the incumbent state senator because he fought a plan to construct a sewage plant in Winthrop.

Before the votes from Cambridge--where LoPresti was expected to win by large margin--had been tallied, a campaign worker announced that Travaglini had conceded, and the song "Celebration" burst out of the speakers.

In a gesture LoPresti's political consultant called "classy," Travaglini came to the Ramada Inn and told precinct captain John Crisostamo and his wife Rosemary, "Good victory, Johnny, good victory."

LoPresti consultant Michael Goldman, whom the candidate praised for having "put together this campaign," said he was not surprised that Travaglini conceded before all the votes were tallied. He added that the LoPresti campaign had expected to lose big in East Boston, so the less than staggering defeat there told LoPresti supporters that their man would win. It was "Michael's race--if he worked hard he was going to win," Goldman said.

Throughout the evening LoPresti supporters behaved magnanimously toward the challenger. "I believe Bob when he says he did not intend to run as negative a campagin as he ended up running. I think he was sorry he ran that campaign," Goldman said.

"Bobby's a good kid too. They're both hometown guys," said Donna Petraglin, adding that Travaglini lives across the street from her parents. Asked whether her parents are friends with the challenger, she said "Everybody is."