2007 Worcester, Massachusetts mayoral election

In order to be elected mayor in Worcester, a person must place first in the mayor's race and also finish among the top six in the at-large city council election, being also elected a councilor at large. An individual cannot be elected mayor without additionally winning an at-large city council seat.[3][4]

In addition, the candidate elected to the office of councilor at large who receives the second-highest number of votes for the office of mayor will become vice-chair of the Worcester City Council.[4]

• William Coleman, III,[5] community activist[6] candidate for mayor in 1993, 2001, 2003, and 2005[7][8][9][10]
• Konstantina Lukes,[5] incumbent mayor, Worcester City Council at-large member since 1990, mayoral candidate in 1999 and 2005[11][9]
• Gary Rosen, Worcester City Council at-large member since 2006 and 1996–97, former five-term Worcester School Committee member[12]
• Frederick C. Rushton, Worcester City Council member[13] and attorney

Lukes saw two strong challengers, Rushton and Rosen.[14]

Rather than issues, the election largely focused on the personality and the leadership style of Lukes.[14]

Lukes and Rushton were the best-funded candidates.[16] Lukes managed to raise $31,381 for her campaign.[14] Rushton managed to raise $80,000 for his campaign.[14]

Despite the fact that Lukes identified as a Democrat, the city's Democratic Party leaders sought to unseat her.[14] They hoped to coalesce opposition to Lukes behind a single candidate, and ultimately Rushton became their candidate.[14] Rushton would ultimately receive most of the endorsements from major Democratic politicians in the region.[14] Rushton's brother-in-law, Worcester County's new District Attorney Joseph D. Early, appeared at campaign events for him, marking the first time in decades that a District Attorney had involved himself in a political campaign.[17]

There was an unusually large field of candidates running to be at-large city councilors in 2007.[14] This field large large enough that a primary was mandated for the at-large city council election, which was held in mid-September.[14][15] Due to the laws requiring that a mayor also be elected an at-large city councilor, anyone who wanted to compete in the mayoral race (whether they had announced yet or not) would need to be on the ballot in the at-large City Council primary and advance to the at-large City Council general election if they hoped to be elected mayor.[14] While it was not at all required that mayoral candidates declare their candidacies before the at-large City Council primary, four candidates already had declared their candidates.[14][15] After the at-large City Council primary, in which Lukes placed second among all candidates, and Rushton placed third, two of the candidates, dropped-out of the mayoral race.[14][15] These were Dennis L. Irish and Mike C. Perotto, who had respectively placed fifth and eighth out of all candidates in the at-large City Council primary.[15] This bolstered the Democratic Party's hopes of coalescing opposition to Lukes around a single candidate, which had emerged to be Rushton.[14]

Rosen declared his candidacy after the at-large City Council primary,[14] in which he had placed first.[15] Rosen's entrance into the race posed an obstacle to the Democratic Party leadership's hopes of coalescing opposition to Lukes behind a single candidate.[14]

As of early October, Lukes and Rushton were the only two candidates with campaign websites.[16]

The result was narrow enough that a hand-recount was conducted.[5] In the end, only 116 votes separated Lukes and Rushton.[3][5] As of 2019, this was the narrowest margin of victory in a Worcester mayoral election since the city started popularly electing its mayors in 1987.[3]

Lukes finished second in the at-large city council election.[5] Rosen finished first, Rushton finished fourth, and Coleman finished twelfth.[5] Rushton, by the rules of the city charter, became the vice-chair of the Worcester City Council.