Mayor Mike McGinn, who has, with an obsessive focus: spoken out against the tunnel for his entire year-and-a-half in office; maneuvered politically to stigmatize council members for supporting it;  donated a couple of his staffers to get Ref. 1 on the ballot; and done fundraising calls for the anti-tunnel measure (Ref. 1), issued a statement tonight two hours after the devastating numbers on Ref. 1—60-40 for the tunnel—were announced.

McGinn said:

"I worked to give the public a direct vote on the tunnel. The public said move ahead with the tunnel, and that's what we're going to do."