With the resignation of Kevin Broderick and the ascension of John Leahy as his replacement, I started thinking of other instances when sitting councilors left before the end of a two-year term. Both my memory and my records on the Elections section of this site are a bit sketchy, so I’m hoping readers will help fill in some of the blanks. While I was at it, I looked at the total number of votes received by the final person to make it onto the council each year, usually the ninth place finisher, but sometimes someone who finished lower but joined in midterm to fill a vacancy. Here’s what I’ve come up with for the past quarter century:

2011 – Kevin Broderick resigns effective August 29, 2012. Tenth place finisher Armand Mercier passed away on January 13, 2012, so eleventh place finisher John Leahy, who received 3383 votes in the election, joined the council to replace Broderick.

2009 – No changes during the term. Rodney Elliott finished ninth with 4805 votes.

2007 – (need confirmation/clarification here). Alan Kazanjian failed to win reelection in the 2009 election and resigned from the council a short time before this term ended. Mehmed Ali had finished tenth but he was deployed to Iraq with the State Department and so could not ascend to the council Eleventh place finisher Joe Mendonca who had received 4392 votes filled the remainder of Kazanjian’s term.

2005 – (need clarification here). George Ramirez finished ninth with 5148 votes. My memory is that he resigned before the end of the term. Joe Mendonca finished tenth with 4133 votes, so he would have replaced Ramirez (but again, I’m not sure of this).

2003 – Rithy Uong resigned from the council midterm and tenth place finisher (5055 votes) Kevin Broderick replaced him midterm.

2001 – Dan Tenczar finished ninth with 6067 votes.

1999 – Rodney Elliott finished ninth with 6031 votes.

1997 – Dan Leahy (John’s father) resigned from the council to become an assistant clerk at the Chelsea District Court. Tenth place finisher Larry Martin (5259 votes) replaced him.

1995 – Peter Richard was ninth with 6148 votes

1993 – Larry Martin was ninth with 6292 votes

1991 – Curtis LeMay was ninth with 5811 votes

1989 – Gerry Durkin was ninth with 8163 votes

1987 – Brendan Fleming was ninth with 7226 votes

1985 – Ray Rourke resigned midterm and tenth place finisher (5241 votes) Ed Kennedy (the current city councilor) replaced him.