In a “classic South Boston” neighborhood election battle, David Biele (3075 votes) was victorious over Matt Rusteika (2282 votes), a margin of 57.5% to 42.5% in the election to replace elected Senator Nick Collins. Biele claimed victory at 8:30pm. Shortly thereafter, in a classy move, Rusteika came by David’s headquarters to congratulate him and wish him well. Biele supporters greeted Matt with warm applause. Then, after first shaking Biele’s hand, he shook the hands of the Biele supporters.
Both young men, Biele and Rusteika, are in their 30s and hail from long time families of South Boston. Biele is an attorney and Rusteika is a public policy professional focused on the energy sector. The campaign became heated in the two weeks approaching election day, as issues around transportation, development and the Edison plant were debated on social media and promoted in waves of literature disseminated over the summer.
Biele touted his direct involvement in many of the important issues facing the community, as a staff member of then-Representative Nick Collins and his plan to work with the South Boston elected delegation to be aggressive on pushing government to be more responsive to the needs of a neighborhood affected by a growing downtown Boston.
Rusteika hoped to leverage the growing angst in the neighborhood around the city related issues of permitting and zoning to cast himself as an independent voice and called for holding developers and their attorneys accountable to the specifics of their agreed to building plan.
Both the Biele and Rusteika families live in the City Point area. Family and friends of both candidates spent their time early in the campaign knocking on doors of residents, who were familiar with both men. Results would show that there was a relatively even split of votes in this section. In mid-summer, the campaigns shifted to the west side of the neighborhood, where Biele would benefit from his years working for Collins and dealing with civic associations. Rusteika would have an uphill battle there, where the residents were less familiar with him. This was evidenced by the margins of victory for Biele in those precincts. Ward 6 Precinct 1, which has the diametric existence within it of residents of public housing in South Boston Proper and those of the luxury high-rise residences in the South Boston Waterfront, gave Biele a 2 to 1 margin.
Senator Collins with 17,500 votes cruised to victory over a write in candidate with merely 763 votes received. Congressman Stephen Lynch handily won re-election as well with over 51,000 votes. In his first attempt at public office Mark Rooney was unable to unseat veteran Governor’s Councilor Chris Iannella.
South Boston has had a solid team of elected officials. David Biele now can help strengthen the delegation. South Boston will be well served by his election.
