The Dorchester Reporter's latest overview of the Boston city council race provides context to an election that features strong personalities and unlikely allegiances.

"...Flaherty’s entrance radically re-jiggered a municipal election since in many parts of the city the seven-person at-large field will be the only item on the ballot. Dorchester, with an open district seat for the first time in nearly two decades, is one of the exceptions. Voters will get to pick a district councillor and fill in four slots for City Council At-Large.

Most political observers are predicting a citywide voter turnout of 12 percent – barely one in 10 voters – and an election similar to 2007. That was the year City Councillor At-Large Felix D. Arroyo was knocked off the council by West Roxbury’s John Connolly.

But it’s unclear who will be clearing out their desks come January, if Flaherty manages to get back on the council."

Read more at the Dorchester Reporter.