By Jim O'Sullivan

City Councillor Charles Yancey took 54 percent of the vote and chief rival Ego Ezedi garnered 44 percent in the District Four City Council preliminary election Tuesday, leaving both sides claiming victory and shaping the final six weeks of an acrimonious campaign that has insiders pointing fingers and outsiders choosing sides.

Boston's day at the polls also saw the field of candidates for the council's four at-large seats tighten into a five-way race, with incumbents Michael Flaherty and Stephen Murphy snatching the top two spots, challenger Patricia White placing third, incumbent Maura Hennigan taking fourth, and embattled incumbent Felix Arroyo seated fifth, a percentage point and a half behind Hennigan.

Trounced from the District Four race was Arthur L. Sutton, the community activist and newspaper publisher whose candidacy forced a primary election. Sutton took less than two percent of the vote.

According to unofficial results from City Hall, Yancey collected 1,901 votes, Ezedi 1,544, and Sutton 52. Yancey backers called the 10-point spread a sign that the 20-year councillor had beaten back the challenge posed by his younger opponent, whom they charged has benefited from meddling by outside forces like Mayor Thomas Menino and Flaherty, the Council president.

Ezedi supporters contended that the gap reflects a challenger who was unknown six months ago closing ground on a councillor they charge has grown inattentive and ineffective during his term. Ezedi pointed out that he had captured more votes than Yancey in Ward 15 (Ezedi: 68-64) and Ward 17 (Ezedi: 703-556), and topped the Hooper St. resident in his home precinct, Ward 17 Precinct 3.

But Yancey cruised in Ward 14, the largest ward in the district, capturing 906 votes to Ezedi's 497, with one of the 14 precincts unreported.

"It's no secret: hit 14 hard," Ezedi said when asked about his strategy for the campaign's final leg.

Ezedi proclaimed victory, and said Yancey's majority showing was a result of negative campaigning.

"Unfortunately, the lies about me being the white man's candidate resonated," Ezedi told the Reporter at his Blue Hill Ave. headquarters. "That's what happened. That's why they did it. That's why he pulled the race card."

But Yancey backers, gathered in his headquarters a few blocks south on Blue Hill Ave., charged that Ezedi's campaign had been the negative one, pointing to an incident the night before that reportedly left Yancey's 16-year-old daughter in tears. Monday's confrontation between Yancey supporters and Ezedi supporters at a standout on the corner of Morton St. and Blue Hill Ave. rubbed raw the emotions of both campaigns, with Yancey alleging that pro-Ezedi demonstrators had "threaten[ed] my daughter." Ezedi called the charge "foolishness."

Twin rhetorical themes emerged from both camps, each side leveling allegations of disrespect and misbehavior. The tenor of the campaign has changed in recent weeks, reflecting bad feelings evoked by the Yancey camp's trumpet call for community cohesion and the Ezedi campaign's insistence that District Four has been served poorly by Yancey.

"I don't think I can recall a primary or an election when I have been as emotional as I am today," state Senator Dianne Wilkerson told the crowd of Yancey supporters crowded into his Blue Hill Ave. headquarters. "My position was that this was a race about the independence and the autonomy of the community."

"Instead of being the object of decision-making, let's be the decision-makers," Yancey said. "This is where the future of Boston happens to be."

Wilkerson, a member at Mattapan's Morning Star Baptist Church where Ezedi is a minister and Yancey's sister is a deaconess, said Yancey had been "outgunned" by Ezedi's media exposure and fundraising, calling Ezedi's challenge "an enormous onslaught of pressure."

"You know what they say, though: Nothing worse than a failed assassination attempt, so we have got to make sure we slay this dragon," Wilkerson said.

"I think it's going to be a very intense, enormously intense, six weeks," Wilkerson told the Reporter.

"Yancey's down there celebrating, but we know he's shaking in his boots, because he knows we're coming after him," said Ezedi field director Howard Hughes. " If he has any political savvy whatsoever, he knows that he's vulnerable. If we keep going the way we're going, he'll be unemployed in January."

Darnell Williams, president of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, said he was disappointed by the turnout in District Four, saying low polling figures hamstrung the community's political clout.

"It's bigger than Charles Yancey," Williams said. "It's how the black community will be respected as far as elected officials taking them seriously."

In the at-large race, White's strong third-place showing made her a favorite to fare well in the November 4 final. Rounding out the top eight were Matt O'Malley, Althea Garrison, and Roy Owens, respectively, all of whom received under 6.5 percent of the vote, less than half of Arroyo's showing.

Arroyo has joined forces with Yancey and District Seven Councillor Chuck Turner, who is running unopposed, to form a coalition of the Council's progressive councillors. The three share campaign staff and resources.Turner said at a community meeting earlier this month that voters should "bullet" Arroyo, meaning they should forsake their remaining three votes for at-large councillor, even though Hennigan has sided with the progressives. Turner reasoned that Hennigan was assured of re-election, while Arroyo was "targeted" for defeat by both challengers and incumbents.

Tuesday night, Turner said he still felt Hennigan was a good bet for reelection, and did not rescind the request.

"Obviously in an election race, you use each stage to determine that's appropriate at the next stage," Turner told the Reporter. "It's really a question of looking at the numbers."

"Felix is the target" of the White and O'Malley camps, Turner said. "It's clear. Nobody would deny that."

In West Roxbury's and Jamaica Plain's District Six, the only other district contested in the preliminary, John Tobin slammed Francesca Fordiani and Wayne Sallale. Tobin, piling up 78 percent of the vote, will meet Fordiani in the November final.

Elections officials reported a trouble-free citywide introduction of new voting technology, although one ballot cast in Ward 16 reportedly short-circuited the machine due to moisture and caused a delay in scanning. Optical scanners replaced the lever machines into which Boston voters had stepped since the 1940s.

Poll workers across District Four reported few problems with voters encountering the new paper ballots. Tested in a special election last year in Allston-Brighton to replaced the late Councillor Brian Honan, the new ballots were mandated by the 2001 Help America Vote Act, a federal bill that outlawed lever machines.