About Last Night

Now that we've all had a chance to sleep on it (sort of), a few things from yesterday's fun and games:

First, let's not let the inevitability of it all take away from what Lisa Wong has done. She entered the race for mayor going up against an incumbent city councilor in Ted DeSalvatore who riled up an energized base, a long-time city councilor in Thomas Donnelly who had one of the best citywide organizations in Fitchburg politics, and three-term incumbent Dan Mylott, whose machine was probably even stronger than Donnelly's at the start. Mylott, of course, read the tea leaves and bowed out gracefully in August.

But Wong, who had never run for office in Fitchburg and has lived here for a relatively short time (especially compared to Donnelly), not only won, but won by a historic margin. On paper, this should have been much closer. Donnelly had run citywide five times in the past. He's been running citywide for 10 years. Wong did it for the first time. She won by a 3-1 margin. She found the formula in time for a preliminary election win that was surprising in her big numbers, and then she blew away all expectations in the general election yesterday.

For Wong, it was a perfect situation. The city was looking for aggressive change. She was THE change candidate in the crowd. She also proved herself to be a shrewd, smart and hard-working campaigner. She didn't make many mistakes -- and no big mistakes. She figured out a winning message and rode it home. Part of being successful in an election is knowing when it is your time. This was a great time for Wong to run, and she took full advantage of the opportunity.

This election was also the dawning of the New Fitchburg, make no mistake. For an establishment candidate to lose by 40-something points, it's clear a new era is at hand. The changes in Fitchburg -- both demographically and physically -- have been subtle in recent years, but subtlety went out the window yesterday, as New Fitchburg grabbed the city for itself.

Last night wasn't the culmination to just the Wong campaign's work, it was either the end game to the city's change and progress over the last few years, or the start of even more rapid change. The regional housing market has forced changes in Fitchburg in the last years, as new homeowners have staked the city as their home -- whether it was Ted DeSalvatore, a couple moving into Bridle Cross Estate or planning on moving into the Falls at Arden Mills or the Johnsonia, or me. At the same time, infrastructure changes have primed downtown for development, and some successes -- most notably recently Destare -- have started to find their way on Main Street.

This was a sea change that didn't register down the ballot, however, but part of that may have been in the fact that there were few Wong-like candidates on the rest of the ballot. Where else were there young, hard-working, dynamic candidates? Dean Tran may qualify, but he was running for re-election. Marcus DiNatale may qualify, but he's already a School Committee member, and a legacy of what is right now the city's most powerful political family. Shaun Cormier was young and energized, but maybe too young. He got his seasoning this year, and hopefully returns despite his low numbers. The only other "new Fitchburg" possibility came in the form of Kevin Starr, at 35 and with a young family, he qualifies.

Wong was given a powerful mandate by the voters last night, one that the rest of city government will have to acknowledge and respect as it moves forward. Whether she can use that mandate as a club on the City Council remains to be seen -- an unlikely way to do business, to be honest. But it gives her an initial clearance to do things her way.

With a big win comes big expectations. One of Wong's top political jobs in the early going may be to limit expectations. You can make the comparison to Deval Patrick, himself a mandated change candidate, who set high expectations, and has failed completely to meet them. Unfair? Perhaps, but it was a situation he created for himself.

Wong will have an easier time dealing with the City Council and government than Patrick does with the Legislature and state government, but voters didn't just vote for Lisa Wong yesterday. They voted for their dreams, visions and hopes for Fitchburg. If there are larger expectations for a new mayor to handle, I don't know what they are.