E-Mail This Article to a Friend AT-LARGE RACE Michael Flaherty and Patricia White BY ADAM REILLY

It seemed odd. Patricia White was still working the polls, bustling up to the late arrivals at Holy Name Parish Center in West Roxbury and asking for one of their four at-large votes in Tuesday’s Boston City Council election. But as White reflected on her candidacy, she sounded a lot like someone rehearsing a concession speech. "I do feel that we’ve run an excellent campaign," White said. "I always want to be in a position — whether I’m working for a candidate, whether I’m helping a friend, whether I’m running myself — I always want to be in a position where I feel like no stone was left unturned." She then proceeded to itemize her campaign’s accomplishments: collecting 5000 signatures to get on the ballot, second only to the number collected by council president and at-large incumbent Michael Flaherty; raising $200,000 in campaign funds; working the media effectively; generating excitement in an off-year election. "Putting all that together, in some ways, that’s a victory before the polls even open," she said. "And then, after that — obviously you hope to win. But you know you’ve done everything you can do."

Turns out White had the right idea. By the time the votes were tallied, White, who finished in fifth place with 29,649 votes, had failed in her bid to unseat one of the council’s four at-large incumbents. It was quite a change from the preliminary election, when White — who, as daughter of former four-term Boston mayor Kevin White, enjoyed widespread name recognition and an enviable fundraising network — finished a strong third, besting incumbents Maura Hennigan and Felix Arroyo and prompting speculation that she might use a council seat as a springboard to follow in her father’s footsteps.

So what happened? In retrospect, it’s hard not to wonder if Flaherty’s surprise endorsement of Arroyo kept White from winning. When Flaherty voiced his support for Arroyo last month, many observers thought the move left at-large incumbent Maura Hennigan, who finished fourth in the preliminary, as the most vulnerable of the field’s front-runners. And, given Flaherty’s willingness to assist White on the campaign trail, it also seemed that the council president was implicitly proposing a White-for-Hennigan swap. But reports of Hennigan’s impending demise were premature. In fact, Flaherty’s endorsement seems to have been an unexpected blessing for Hennigan, pissing off her supporters and bringing them to the polls in large numbers. With Arroyo and Hennigan receiving their unanticipated last-minute boosts — and Stephen Murphy managing, barely, to hold on to his seat — the White victory many took for granted didn’t materialize.

Might Flaherty have foreseen this result? It’s interesting to note that his endorsement of Arroyo came days after a Boston Herald article suggested that Flaherty’s oft-discussed mayoral ambitions could be jeopardized by Patricia White’s nascent political juggernaut. It’s possible Flaherty considered two possible consequences of his Arroyo endorsement — a council without Hennigan, and a council without White — and decided that neither option sounded too bad.

If so, we’ll probably never know. At 10 p.m. Tuesday, Flaherty, who topped the at-large ticket with 36,387 votes, made his victory speech to a tightly packed crowd in South Boston’s Cornerstone Pub, thanking backers from the unions and Boston’s Asian-American community (among others) for their support. Afterward, as the DJ offered up his selection of upbeat party favorites ("R-O-C-K in the USA," "Brick House," "Sweet Caroline") and assorted Flaherty supporters milled around tables covered with Bud Light bottles and half-eaten chicken wings, the man of the hour offered some thoughts on the night’s results. On his victory: "People want guns, drugs, and gangs off the street. They want community health centers fully funded. They want our children’s education improved by fixing the school-assignment plan. That was our message, and it clearly resonated across the city." On Arroyo’s remarkable second-place finish: "I’m happy to help, but clearly this is Felix’s win. He worked hard and demonstrated good citywide strength." On Patricia White’s reversal of fortune: "She clearly has the Boston City Council in her genes, and she also ran a good race.... It’s just a matter of time before she’s on the council."

Across town at the West Roxbury Pub, site of White’s election-night gathering, the mood was more somber. But White herself seemed to be taking defeat fairly well. "I don’t think this is the end of my political career," White said as she sipped a beer, adding, "I don’t know what my next move will be — working for a community-development corporation certainly interests me; working on some of the issues that I talked about [in the campaign], perhaps going back to some of the work that I’ve done on child-care and elder-care services.... Whatever I do next will be very similar to what I was looking to do on the Boston City Council."

And, White noted, she has other plans as well.

"I plan to get married in the next year, and I want to start a family," she said. "I have lots of goals."