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Surprised?
The truth is the race was over almost two weeks ago after Flanagan was able to wrap up much of the last big voting block which had eluded his strategy - the Portuguese community.
Now don't get me wrong, it is not like the Portuguese vote is in unison for one candidate. They don't. But they will vote in unison against a candidate if they feel the candidate is bad for the community or has something against the Portuguese. And that is where Flanagan was when he was forced to explain his name change from Sylvia to Flanagan.
Why was this an issue? Well, partly due to a strategy employed by low-level supporters of Cathy Ann Viveiros.
About a month ago, at a party at the TA Restaurant in her honor, one of her supporters went around with a Diman High School yearbook showing a young Will Sylvia.
This supporter, as several sources confirm, went around showing the book to anyone who would listen, saying "see he changed his name because he was embarrassed of being Portuguese."
For several weeks, the name change story sulked through the political alleys, with people shaking their heads in disbelief.
It was unfair, of course, and low ball politics, which one can not blame Cathy Ann Viveiros for. This was dirty politics in the trenches.
So, on Portuguese radio during a debate co-sponsored by this newspaper, Will was asked about the name change, and he had to explain how he was born out of wedlock and that the name he was given - Sylvia - was not his mother's maiden name nor his real father's name, but rather the name of his mother's first husband, whom he had no connection to.
So, he changed his name to Flanagan when he was 18, reflecting his true father's name.
He also stated emphatically that he is Portuguese-American, his wife is an immigrant from Portugal and he is proud of his heritage.
It was a turning point.
Not exactly for his pledging of allegiance to the Portuguese culture, but rather for what had been said about him by the low level whisperers and the lack of class shown by making something beyond a candidate's control so awfully spun.
There has also been some consternation about how each candidate answered the question of who is your favorite president.
Will answered the popular JFK. Cathy Ann, the union busting Ronald Reagan. Will then campaigned as the only Democrat in the race.
Once, he had the Portuguese concerns alleviated, it became clear that the remaining impact of the political chapters of Fall River would assume their customary position.
Cathy Ann had little chance. She outdebated Will on numerous occasions. She had a more conservative approach to the fiscal nightmare, while Will stuck to his repeal the rain fee mantra and his "There is hope message."
One could argue that Cathy Ann was being more realistic and was presenting people with a starker reality than he was. But that also did not matter. People did not want a tough love candidate, they wanted someone who would make them feel better, that was new, someone whose political grass was greener.
Cathy Ann is the present under the tree that people already knew what was inside and Will was the mysterious box, wrapped in really pretty paper, which tempted the viewer to discard the box with contents known, for a chance to unwrap the pretty paper and hope that what would be revealed was just as pretty.
Of course, what is inside was not clear, but as far as the Portuguese community was concerned, knowing the insides were not anti-Portuguese was enough. And from the elderly to the blue collar vote to the immigrant vote, everyone chose the chance at the unknown over the known.
And there may not have been anything Cathy could have done differently to change that.
