By William R. Cope III and Jim O'Sullivan

Michael Flaherty took first, as everyone expected he would. Felix Arroyo and Maura Hennigan ran close to each other, as everyone expected they would. But Steve Murphy's drop to fourth and Patricia White's failure to place in the money left prognosticators shrugging at an at-large race that most had felt was too close to call anyway.

Tuesday night's Boston City Council election sent all four incumbents back to their seats, but with a twist, as Arroyo bounded to second place and Hennigan ran a strong third, as the city's progressives thumped to the polls in droves on a raw day that left the scion of one potent political legacy squeezed out of what many thought was an assured victory, particularly after White's solid third-place finish in the preliminary. Citywide turnout jumped from 13.59 percent in the Sept. 23 preliminary to 24.60 percent on Tuesday, the same day that Democratic presidential hopefuls descended on Faneuil Hall to vie for a bigger prize.

Arroyo, who became the city's first Latino city councillor to win an election, after inheriting the seat from Francis "Mickey" Roache last year, grabbed more than 17 percent of the vote. Benefiting from liberals casting "bullet" votes (a single vote rather than the allotted four) and a last-minute endorsement from Flaherty, Arroyo surged to within 2,702 votes of the council president.

"Felix ran an honest campaign from the jump and he presented his vision to this city and the city was willing to listen to it, and it was common ground," said his son, Felix Jr., at the victory celebration at Estelle's at Mirage in the South End, long after Arroyo Sr. had gone home. The younger Arroyo, who works in Roxbury City Councillor Chuck Turner's office, said Arroyo's knack for forging strong personal relationships with other councillors helped him run well in different wards.

Hennigan, who many figured would be the loser in the endgame maneuverings of the campaign's final weeks, collected nearly 17 percent of the vote, slotting herself within 1,100 votes of Arroyo, against whom she was expected to struggle for liberal voters. Hennigan's camp suggested her reelection was a rebuke to Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Flaherty, both of whom she routinely opposes on key matters like the budget and the council's controversial Rule 19, a parliamentary procedure by which the president can gavel dead any discussion he deems is not germane to city business. Hennigan's key issue, the city's pothole problem, earned her valuable exposure during the race.

"The voters spoke tonight and sent a wonderful message to City Hall - that City Hall does not speak for the people," Hennigan said via cell phone after her celebration at St. James's Gate in Jamaica Plain.

Flaherty's 18-plus percent ticket-topping showed broad citywide support, but the mayoral aspirant suffered proxy losses when White and District Four challenger Ego Ezedi - both of whom he had backed over his incumbent council colleagues Hennigan, Murphy, and, in District Four, Charles Yancey - fell short. Still, Flaherty's endorsement, particularly in heavy-voting South Boston, helped vault Arroyo, a frequent foe of Flaherty's on policy debates, to the number-two spot.

"I was happy to help, but clearly it's Felix's win," Flaherty said at his Cornerstone Pub party on West Broadway, where a large board depicted results from all 22 wards, his citywide organization helping the 34-year-old South Boston native improve slightly over his vote percentage in the preliminary.

Of the challengers he backed whose efforts failed, Flaherty said, "I just think there were some folks that were going to bring something to the Council," adding that he was eager to turn to policy work and constituent services, with the election behind him.

Murphy's slide from a second-place showing in the preliminary to fourth in the final left the Dorchester native and Hyde Park resident sweating out the results at his campaign party at Doyle's Café in Jamaica Plain. Murphy said his candidacy suffered from the headline-grabbing antics elsewhere on the council, the kind of publicity that even his prodigious fundraising couldn't buy this year. Murphy said his budget-rescuing measures, like helping secure $64 million from the Legislature in his role as chair of the government affairs committee, should have carried greater water with voters.

"But, you don't read about that stuff," Murphy said. "During this election I was an island, and the people who voted for me were the ones who saw through everything else and voted for the one who delivers."

White, who many thought was all but a lock for one of the four seats, landed in fifth place with just under 15 percent of the vote. At the West Roxbury Pub, shell-shocked supporters of the 33-year-old daughter of former Mayor Kevin White attributed her shortfall to a high turnout of progressive voters who didn't identify with White's message.

"I am extremely proud of how I ran my campaign, unfortunately it was not as successful as I would have liked it to be," White said. With her father, now 73 and suffering from early Alzheimer's, and mother at her side, the state Democratic party's former political director vowed not to turn her back on the family business. Hefty fundraising and the involvement of her father's old political allies, including a supportive Congressman Barney Frank, garnered White heavy media attention in the run-up, but couldn't elevate her to a council seat.

"I have been around politics my whole life and have tasted victory and defeat. I have no regrets about how I did anything," said White, who lost a 1998 race for Governor's Council.

"I don't know what I will do next, but I do know that whatever I do, I will be involved with politics in Boston," she said.

Another newcomer with a disappointing finish was 24-year-old Matt O'Malley of Roslindale. An energetic campaigner who drew fire for his ethnicity-based campaigning in certain neighborhoods, O'Malley pulled down a distant sixth-place finish, his 6.49 percent of the vote clustering him in the lower tier with Althea Garrison and Roy Owens.

At the Corrib Pub in West Roxbury Tuesday night, O'Malley called his effort, which garnered praise from insiders for its vigor, "a great opportunity."

Dorchester's Garrison snagged seventh place with 5.28 percent of the vote, and Roxbury's Owens wrapped up the eight spot with 5.12 percent.

Sean Daughtry, a founder of the Boston Urban Progressives, said he was surprised by Arroyo's showing, and called the results a liberal victory.

"I believe that the voters in Boston yesterday, by casting their ballots, wanted to see a certain balance in Boston politics and not give the establishment and the mayor a clean slate to do what he wants," Daughtry said Wednesday.

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