Griggs Road Candidates Victorious in Precinct 10 TMM Election

Submitted by Jon Garfunkel on May 5, 2004

Griggs Road residents Christopher Koch and Michael Traister rolled to victory, knocking out an incumbent in yesterday's competitive election for the Town Meeting Members of Precinct 10 in Brookline. With 16 precincts of around 1,000 voters, the winning candidates usually pull in about a hundred votes. Yesterday about 180 voters showed up at the firehouse to vote. Here's the unofficial totals (incumbents*):

Michael Traister	87
Dorothy Bloom*	83
William J. Coughlin*	83
Christopher Koch	61
Dorothy Grandfield*	51

The winning strategy? Koch dropped off a flyer at my apartment on Sunday ("a big district to cover!" he told me over the phone on Monday). Traister stood outside the firehouse at the allowable distance handing out campaign flyers ("We're the candidates under 100", Traister told me, in reference to the elderly tendency of Brookline politicians). Both assured me that they would advocate for an even more bike-friendly town. Though they are now just two among 240 Town Meeting Members.

Across Washington Square in the 11th, my friend Geoff Cohen hung on to his seat, but Joseph Ditkoff, couldn't summon enough write-in votes. Here's some pictures of the victory moments in the tenth:

Koch (with daughter) and Traister