“We won Charlestown,” Galluccio told his anxious supporters at 10 p.m., two hours after polls closed.

But as a bagpiper and drummer from Charlestown came into the ballroom playing celebratory music, Galluccio broke the bad news to his supporters.

In his speech, Galluccio—a councillor who has won city council races by wide margins—tried to write off his low numbers in the precincts closest to his house.

“Votes will never detain me. This is my city and I love it,” Galluccio told a stunned, silent crowd. “I’m not through with you.”

Demakis Defeats Decker

Across town, Paul C. Demakis ’75, the incumbent state representative from Boston’s Back Bay, resoundingly held off a challenge from upstart candidate and Cambridge City Councillor Marjorie C. Decker in that district’s Democratic primary.

With 9 of 14 precincts reporting as of press time, Demakis held 84 percent of the vote, while Decker had 16.

—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.