WINNER

WHO: Mayor Joe Petty

WHY: Petty exceeded all expectations and easily took the top spot in Tuesday's preliminary. 

Even with a low voter turnout, Petty was able to take over 1,000 more votes than mayoral challenger Michael Gaffney and nearly 1,000 over the second top vote-getter Kate Toomey.

LOSER

WHO: Phil Palmieri

WHY: After 14 years as District 2 City Councilor, Palmieri gambled and went for an At-Large bid. 

Palmieri made it November's Municipal election by the skin of his teeth.

Palmieri finished 11th in total voting - four ahead of the 12th place vote-getter William Coleman and over 300 votes behind 10th place Tina Zlody.

WINNER

WHO: Michael Gaffney

WHY: Voters may look at Gaffney's fourth place finish as a failure. However, he's the only other candidate running for Mayor against Joe Petty. 

A fourth place finish behind Konnie Lukes and Kate Toomey had to be expected and Gaffney should ride this into November's election with confidence.

LOSER

WHO: Morris Bergman

WHY: In 2013, Bergman finished third in the Municipal election. On Tuesday, he finished in fifth - behind Petty, Lukes, Toomey and Gaffney.

This had to be somewhat unexpected for Bergman's supporters who seemed to be rolling into Tuesday's election.

Fifth place will be more than enough to get him an At-Large seat again in the Municipal election, but two months still remain and anything can happen.

WINNER

WHO: Candy-Mero Carlson

WHY: The top vote-getter in the District 2 City Council seat won by nearly 400 votes.

She still has to square off against a tough competitor in Jennithan Cortes this November, but Tuesday's results have to have Mero-Carlson's supporters feeling good about her chances.

LOSER

WHO: William Coleman

WHY: Coleman has been running for years and this looked like the year that he could've finished in the mix of the preliminary election.

A 12th place finish (four votes out of 11th) will not help his cause going forward.

However, he did finish well ahead of Linda Parham and Carmen Carmona - two women that were expected to make it to the November election.

In 2013, he finished eighth in the municipal election.

WINNER

WHO: Kate Toomey

WHY: Toomey clearly has quite the following in Worcester. She finished in third place by roughly 900 votes, but she proved that she's not going anywhere following the November election.

Like the 2013 municipal election, Toomey finished behind Petty. Expect the same results in November.

LOSER

WHO: Juan Gomez

WHY: Gomez was the seventh top vote-getter, but in the early reports of precincts, he looked like he would finish top five easy.

Even though he's moving on, Gomez will need to step it up in order to surpass Matt Wally - backed by Petty - in the November election.

WINNER

WHO: Matt Wally

WHY: Wally snuck in with the sixth most votes in the preliminary.

Although he finished more than 1,500 votes behind Petty, to break into the top six in his first run at an At-Large seat speaks volumes of Petty's influence in the city and Wally will be a candidate to watch in November.

LOSER

WHO: Jennithan Cortes

WHY: Although he's moving on the Municipal election in November, Cortes can't be happy with the number of votes he recieved on Tuesday. 

He finished with less than half the number of votes Candy Mero-Carlson did.

However, his supporters can point to the record low number of voters and can now take the next two months to figure out how to match Mero-Carlson in votes.