The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller's, not those of WBZ-TV, CBS News or Paramount, a Skydance Corporation

There were no surprises in Boston's preliminary election for mayor. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu will face challenger Josh Kraft in November.

In theory, Kraft, the son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, began his challenge to Wu with several potential advantages.

With an exemplary record of philanthropy and community activism with the Urban League and the Boys & Girls Club of Boston, plus no political track record to attack, he seemed well-positioned to appeal to voters cynical about the establishment.

With plenty of personal funds to invest and access to wealthy donors, he could conceivably spend his way to name recognition and message awareness competitive with that of the incumbent.

And there was every reason to believe that he could count on a base from which to reach for 50-percent-plus-one come November: homeowners in neighborhoods impacted by City Hall's failure to fix the catastrophe at Mass and Cass, small businesses damaged by Wu's wholesale seizure of parking spaces to make way for little-used bike lanes, and especially beleaguered members of the Black community, who had soured on the mayor over school issues and the White Stadium soccer deal.

All united in frustration over an unfortunate Wu administration trait summarized in its own April mea culpa about the bike-lane imbroglio: "...communications and community engagement were inadequate, that decisions seemed predetermined, and that processes too often did not achieve consensus, contributing to a loss of community trust."

But then, the actual campaign began, and the dominoes fell quickly: a Wu offensive linking Kraft to Donald Trump, guilt by association but one Kraft moved too slowly and tepidly to debunk, given Trump's status as less popular in Boston than A-Rod; the March Wu-fest in Washington featuring her stirring denunciation of her Trumper antagonists over immigration policy, all while sporting an Ash Wednesday cross on her forehead; and the mid-summer Suffolk University-Boston Globe poll showing her popularity soaring and Kraft stuck deep in the slurry.

Boston mayoral preliminary election results

It turns out running for office isn't as easy as it may look from the outside, especially against an experienced, popular incumbent who doesn't mind a good street fight. And as the results came in Tuesday night, it was clear Kraft faces a monumental challenge.

When the mayor beats you 132-33 in the area around Mattapan's Morningstar Baptist Church, it's a signal your Black community support needs work. (Things were even worse at the Higginson/Lewis School in Roxbury, 149-32 Wu.)

When one of the last remaining pockets of "old Boston" voters in South Dorchester, Ward 16 Precinct 2, goes for Wu 84-37, it's a warning sign that moderate-to-conservative voters are by no means reflexively anti-Wu. Kraft can score like he did in one of the two precincts voting at the Adams Street Library (251-132), but he can't afford to lose the other one 248-185.

And perhaps the unkindest cut of all - Ward 12 Precinct 4, the Roxbury Boys & Girls Club on Warren Street, Wu 110, Kraft 20. 

Yikes.

Kraft has the money to pounce should Wu stumble in a debate or be photographed wearing a New York Yankees hat and a Jets t-shirt. To his credit, he vowed Tuesday night to fight on, correctly noting that the Wu record is hardly blemish-free.

Why not? It's never over until it's over.

In theory.