Mayor Michelle Wu met the press on City Hall Plaza on Wed., Sept. 10, the day after her big electoral victory in the preliminary election. Chris Lovett photo

Total numbers from Boston’s Sept. 9 preliminary election reaffirm the time-tested advantage for an incumbent mayor, but a closer look at vote counts and a campaign funding gives rise to a less familiar story: How officially non-partisan local politics can be reconfigured by the force field of a national partisan divide—even to the extent of contributing to a decision by a co-finalist to stop campaigning.

Following the pattern of her incumbent predecessors since 1979, as well as polling figures, Mayor Michelle Wu received 71.85 of the vote over runner-up Josh Kraft, who announced his decision to abandon his campaign two days after em

See Full Page