Frank BakerFrank Baker, the 43-year-old former city employee from Savin Hill, triumphed on Tuesday night, winning a closely fought slugfest for Dorchester’s open City Council seat.

Baker won the match up with 5,262 votes to John O’Toole’s 4,120 votes, or 56 percent to 44 percent, according to unofficial results from the city elections department. Baker won 20 of 27 precincts and three of the district's four wards. In ward 16, which O'Toole won by just a total of 130 votes, Baker won six of the 12 precincts, including two crucial Neponset polling stations.

With no mayoral race on the ballot, voter turnout was light throughout the day, as political observers predicted. But the race, a result of City Councillor Maureen Feeney deciding to forgo another term, captured the intense attention of City Hall and Beacon Hill: Mayor Thomas Menino and Feeney backed O’Toole, a realtor and former plumber, while state Rep. Marty Walsh and several of his State House colleagues pressed the case for Baker.

Baker and O’Toole emerged from a seven-person preliminary in September and spent the next six weeks fundraising, racking up endorsements and dumping mailers on neighbors’ porches.