Dorchester voters trickled to the polls in meager numbers in Tuesday’s primary, by and large selecting candidates who ultimately found success statewide. Locally, incumbent state Rep. Dan Cullinane scored a impressive win in a four-way race for the 12th Suffolk district, while Rep. Evandro Carvalho beat back a challenge from Althea Garrison in the 5th Suffolk and Sheriff Steve Tompkins defeated two challengers in decisive fashion

Turnout in the city of Boston barely breached 17 percent, with 63,386 votes cast of 380,202 total registered voters, according to the elections department’s unofficial returns. Locally, turnout fluctuated with bellwether polls in Neponset, Savin Hill, Lower Mills and Mattapan surpassing citywide participation.

In the governor’s race, Dorchester Democrats largely rallied around their former neighbor, Attorney General Martha Coakley, who topped the ticket in all but a handful of precincts on her way to the nomination. Coakley won all five wards in the neighborhood and showed particular strength in communities of color. She showed some weakness in the Neponset precincts of Ward 16, a neighborhood targeted by Republicans as a November prize. Treasurer Steve Grossman, who finished a distant second to Coakley across the state, was the choice in both precincts of Florian Hall, albeit by a one-vote margin in Ward 16, precinct 11 (16-11). Grossman also notched 200 votes and topped the ballot in Savin Hill’s 13-10, home to Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, who stayed neutral in the governor’s race. Democrats Steve Kerrigan and Deborah Goldberg, each nominated for lieutenant governor and treasurer respectively, saw their statewide success mirrored at the Dorchester and Mattapan polls.

Florian Hall proved magnetic for the candidates on Tuesday. In the span of the 6 p.m. hour, the Hallet Street bellwether saw the likes of Democratic treasurer candidate Deb Goldberg, Steve Grossman, Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker, and Democratic Suffolk County Sheriff candidate Doug Bennett.Gubernatorial candidates Steve Grossman, a Democrat, and Charlie Baker, Republican, crossed paths outside Florian Hall just after 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Lauren Dezenski photo

Walsh and his ground troops were deployed in force for Warren Tolman, the former state senator who hoped to be the state’s next Attorney General. The day, however, belonged to Maura Healey, who surged to a decisive victory in Boston and across the Commonwealth. Tolman won the majority of local precincts, but Healy’s statewide surge showed unexpected vitality in Dorchester too. Tolman won Ward 16 and Walsh’s immediate backyard in Ward 13, but Healy was competitive everywhere and beat Tolman outright in Ward 17, which includes Lower Mills, Codman Square and parts of Ashmont.

“We’re sad to see Tolman not do so well. We pushed as hard as we could,” said Brendan Joyce, campaign manager for Rep. Dan Cullinane. The Cullinane campaign frequently canvassed on behalf of Tolman as well as the 12th Suffolk candidate, along with Sheriff Steve Tompkins and State Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry.

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Though their contenders predicted upsets, the Dorchester delegation in the House emerged unscathed. Rep. Dan Cullinane nabbed a commanding win 66 percent of the vote–an impressive feat given his four-way primary fight for the 12th Suffolk seat. Corey J. Allen claimed 20 percent of the vote, Carlotta Williams with 7.5 percent, and Ruthella Logan-Cruz with 6 percent, according to the city of Boston’s unofficial election returns. Cullinane notched lopsided vote tallies in his home base around Cedar Grove, but was strong across the district, including in predominantly African-American precincts in Mattapan, where he consistently won over 50 percent of the total vote. Cullinane also won both precincts in the town of Milton and could claim a decisive 62 percent victory. Allen won his home precinct in Mattapan at the Chittick School with 151 votes to Cullinane’s 138 and was competitive in the second Chittick precinct.

It was clear from early returns Cullinane handily retained his seat representing Dorchester, Mattapan, and parts of Milton and Hyde Park, but his election party was held up by nearly an hour because of a recount launched at a precinct in Milton because of a faulty voting machine. But by 9 p.m., the back room in Lower Mills’ Ester was packed, with supporters spilling onto the patio.

“As fun as tonight is, I just really want to say that I’m excited to get back to work,” Cullinane told the crowd.

That work, Cullinane told the Reporter, included an 11 a.m. meeting with the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation at the State House on Wednesday about legislation to combat prescription drug use and implementing tamper-resistant medicine bottles.

Cullinane also pledged to support Tuesday night’s winning Democratic candidates on the ticket: Gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley, lieutenant governor candidate Steve Kerrigan, attorney general candidate Maura Healey, and treasurer candidate Deb Goldberg.

In the 5th Suffolk race, Althea Garrison received 858 votes, or 35 percent of the vote–not enough to unseat Rep. Evandro Carvalho, who won 65 percent in the district representing parts of Dorchester and Roxbury.

Carvalho praised the work of his volunteers to help get out the vote. He said he and his volunteers helped drive people to the polls on Tuesday.

While on his way to the Democrats Unity Breakfast on Wednesday morning at the Omni Parker House, Carvalho said he looks forward to canvassing for the other Democrats on the ballot in November, including himself.

“I’ve got a general election too,” Caralho said, who won the seat in the April 1 special election. He now faces Republican Claudette Joseph. “It [the campaign] never stops. I’m trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel and it’s looking good.”

State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz swatted down a challenge from another perennial opponent, Roy Owens, by a margin of 80-20. Democratic incumbents Sen. Forry, Rep. Nick Collins, Rep. Russell Holmes, and Rep. Dan Hunt, were all unchallenged. Forry, wife of Reporter publisher and editor Bill Forry, faces independent candidate Robert E. Powers, Jr. in November.

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Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins’ first electoral outing was a unmitigated success. Tompkins, who was appointed to the position to replace Andrea Cabral in 2012, easily defeated Dorchester resident Doug Bennett and Jeremiah Goodwin, Sr. for the Democratic nomination. Tompkins won Dorchester decisively, although Bennett won five precincts in ward 16, including Florian Hall. Tompkins won 63 percent of the citywide vote and also won the city of Chelsea.

At his election night party at Phillips Old Colony House, the sheriff said he was relieved to claim a victory in his first-ever election.

“I didn’t think that either one of those guys was going to beat me, but you never know,” Tompkins said. “I’ve never been here before, I’m a first-time candidate and so being a first-time candidate you want to look at every little thing that you can do and I always felt that we didn’t do enough.”

Before the polls closed, Bennett posted outside of Florian Hall, shaking voters’ hands as they walked inside. Florian was good to Bennett: he won over 50 percent of the vote at both precincts and had a strong showing with a handful of wins in South Boston precincts as well.

He told the Reporter his hand-painted “Sheriff Bennett (Democrat)” signs, with many posted outside of polling places on Tuesday, harkened to the “old school tactics” .

“All these candidates are paying $80, like that one over there, the Grossman sign,” Bennett said, gesturing to a four foot-by-eight foot sign propped up by three Grossman supporters. “My 4 by 8s that I’m recycling, after you paint them, they only cost us a buck. So the way I look at it, one man’s trash is one man’s treasure.”

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Another familiar name won the six-person Register of Probate contest. Felix D. Arroyo, former at-large councilman and father of the 2013 mayoral candidate, seized 53 percent of the city vote. Marty Keogh, the second-place finisher with 18 percent, took several precincts in Neponset.

When asked if name recognition helped notch a win, the elder Arroyo was honest.

“How could it not be?” Arroyo told the Reporter alongside his son at Tompkins’ victory party on Tuesday night. “If people know somebody and they feel that person has done something good in the past, they’ll vote for them. I appreciate it.”