Brighton realtor Jerry McDermott did on Tuesday what he could not do in 1995: win Allston-Brighton’s seat to the Boston City Council after winning the preliminary election. Seven years ago, McDermott lost to a young assistant district attorney, Brian Honan. This time, McDermott defeated Mark Ciommo, the director of the Veronica B. Smith Senior Center. His unofficial margin of victory was 424 votes. The special election was held to replace Honan, who died in July following cancer surgery.

" I’m elated. I’m happy, " McDermott told the Phoenix as he was rushing out to meet with City Council president Michael Flaherty. " I’m trying to find out how soon will a swearing-in ceremony take place. "

McDermott comes out of socially conservative Ward 22, a neighborhood of families and homeowners in a district filled with students and transients. He is a cousin of Secretary of State William Galvin, who represented the area in the House for nearly two decades before moving on to higher office. In the closing days of the campaign, Ciommo made an issue of the housing crisis, coming out in favor of Mayor Tom Menino’s plan for a modified return to rent control. McDermott opposes Menino’s plan but supports the more modest Community Preservation Act, a proposal that links the building of new housing to the preservation of open space. An attempt to enact the Community Preservation Act in Boston, however, failed at the polls in 2001. McDermott narrowly lost Ward 21 — which has more students, more Russians, and more Jews than the rest of the district — but the voters of Ward 22 came out in large enough numbers to put him over the top.

The election of a new city councilor without any assistance from the mayor’s organization represents a degree of political uncertainty for Menino. Before Honan died, he had become a reliable ally for the mayor. Menino reciprocated. He was a regular, for instance, at the annual Ward 21 picnic that Honan helped to host.

" Although I wasn’t [Menino’s] chosen candidate, it doesn’t mean I can’t work with him, " McDermott says. " I’m going to try to reach out to the mayor. " McDermott cited the expansion of Harvard into Allston, housing in general, and increasing the police presence in the district as areas in which the two might be able to work together. " I don’t think the way to help the people of Allston-Brighton is to come in kicking the mayor in the shins. "