After Josh Kraft dropped out of the race for Boston mayor, who will actually appear on the November general election ballot?
Just this week, Boston voters went to the polls to narrow the field of four mayoral candidates down to two. But after a disappointing performance in the preliminary election, Kraft said Thursday he would suspend his campaign and devote himself to the city in other ways, including by putting $3 million into addiction services and recovery efforts.
On Friday, Kraft formally removed himself from the ballot, city elections officials said, meaning his name will not appear alongside Mayor Michelle Wu’s in November.
Under state law, if a candidate withdraws from the general election ballot, it is possible to replace him with the next highest vote-getter. But that candidate must have received “a number of votes at least equal to the number of signatures required by law to place his name on the preliminary election ballot.”
The third-place finisher in Boston’s preliminary election, community activist Domingos DaRosa, does not appear to have cleared that bar.
He drew 2,409 votes on Tuesday, according to the city’s unofficial tally of results. The number of signatures required to get on the preliminary election ballot was 3,000.
DaRosa told the Globe he hopes to find a way to be placed on the ballot, and will pursue a recount in the preliminary race. He was headed to City Hall Friday afternoon to get the forms to begin gathering the necessary 50 signatures in each of the city’s 22 wards. City elections officials said they are in the process of certifying the election results.
“You’re going to have a general election with one candidate?” he said incredulously. “This is unprecedented.”
DaRosa said he has been at a disadvantage the whole race — excluded from some candidate forums and mentioned less frequently in media coverage because he had raised less money than his rivals and drawn less support in public polls.
“I’ve been marginalized this whole election,” he said.
To series a candidate with all those advantages drop out of the race was deeply frustrating, DaRosa said. Kraft poured $5.5 million of his own money into his campaign.
“I don’t have the money, I don’t have the staff, and you have all of it, and you decide to quit a day after the election?” DaRosa said. “How fair is that to the average Bostonian? We don’t have a million dollars to blow on nothing.”
Still, it’s unclear whether DaRosa has any recourse for making it onto the ballot.
City officials said Friday that “in the event a candidate withdraws their nomination, the November Municipal Election Ballot will be updated in accordance with state law G.L. c. 53, s. 13.”
Regardless of which names appear on the ballot, Wu is in an exceedingly strong position to win reelection this fall. She took a staggering 72 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s election, and won 264 of 275 city precincts. Kraft won just nine; DaRosa and the fourth candidate, Robert Cappucci, did not win any.
Emma Platoff can be reached at emma.platoff@globe.com. Follow her @emmaplatoff.
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