By Ryan Sandrew, News Correspondent

Mayor Thomas M. Menino won the preliminary mayoral election Tuesday, with City Councilor-at-Large Michael F. Flaherty Jr. in second place. The two will run against each other in the general election Nov. 3.
With all precincts reporting, Menino received 50.5 percent of the vote and Flaherty had garnered 24 percent, according to unofficial results released by the City of Boston Election Department. City Councilor Sam Yoon came in third with 21 percent and South End developer Kevin McCrea took fourth with 4 percent of the vote.
81,641 people voted, representing 23 percent of registered voters in the city.
Claude James, a senior African American studies major, said he voted for Sam Yoon but wasn’t surprised by the election results. He said in the general election he will probably vote for Menino.
‘His record speaks for itself,’ James said. ‘He’s had a lot of great accomplishments as mayor. You don’t want to dismiss the good that’s going on in this city.’
At his election night party at the headquarters of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 103 in Dorchester Tuesday night, Menino congratulated Flaherty and told supporters he wanted to engage in a positive campaign focused on the city’s future.
‘[Election] night was a very positive showing of support for the mayor,’ Nick Martin, communications director for the Menino campaign, told The News. ‘He was humbled and honored to receive that kind of support. With 51 percent [sic] of the vote, our focus doesn’t shift tremendously. This race has always been about the people of Boston and what’s best for the people.’
Menino’s victory comes in spite of recent media reports about his staff deleting e-mails, which violates public records law. The law states that municipal employees must save electronic correspondence for at least two years.
‘The story that came out in the [Boston] Globe was not the first time we have learned about that [the deleted e-mails],’ Martin said. ‘So for that story to come out a week before the election … there definitely seemed to be political motivation. The city last Friday had a meeting with the secretary of state’s [William F. Galvin’s] office and the secretary was satisfied from what I understand with how we are going about fixing the e-mail situation.’
Martin said Menino will focus on getting his message out to those who didn’t vote in the preliminary election and those who voted for other candidates during the next six weeks.
Flaherty told supporters he plans to lead a more aggressive campaign against Menino, who has been the mayor for 16 years and is running for an unprecedented fifth term.
‘If everyone stands with me and rolls up your sleeves we will change Boston,’ he said to the crowd at Venezia Restaurant in Dorchester.
Yoon told supporters he had no regrets about the election and he was satisfied he was able to help bring certain issues to the forefront.
‘We put a focus on the way that power can be abused,’ Yoon said in his concession speech. ‘The way that the people’s trust can be abused.’
‘ Jay Altschuler, a middler political science major who works for the Menino campaign, was at the incumbent’s party.
‘ ‘It was intense before we got the numbers we were all kind of quiet and waiting,’ he said. ‘We finally got word that he had gotten 52 percent [sic] and then everyone became outstandingly relieved that the day was over and that we could all relax and have a good time.
Natasha Perez, spokesperson for the Flaherty campaign, said she was happy with the results of the preliminary election.
‘We had a goal in this campaign to get through the preliminary, and it’s a new campaign starting today,’ she said. ‘We learned that 50 percent of the city wants change.’