Nine candidates are elected to the Boston City Council.

They are James Michael Connolly, Lawrence DiCara, Ray Flynn, Christopher Iannella, Frederick Langone, Patrick McDonough, Albert O’Neil, Rosemarie Sansone, Joseph Tierney. Connolly is the top vote getter with 37,479. Turnout is 87,289 or 34.9%. Two of the strongest busing opponents in the city, Louise Day Hicks, with 30,058 votes, and John Kerrigan, with 20,045, are defeated in their bids for reelection. When Connolly resigns, Hicks, who finished 10th in the election, replaces him on January 10, 1979.