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NARRAGANSETT — As the dust settled yesterday, the winners in Tuesday’s Town Council primary seemed to have two general reactions.

Those who finished near the top were ecstatic. And those who finished lower but still in the running were determined to make up ground before election day.

In all, 10 candidates from a field of 15 survived the primary and are in the running for five seats on the council. The field includes six challengers and four incumbents, three women and seven men. Among the top five, the field includes all three women and four of the six challengers.

So what do the results mean?

Most of the winning candidates agreed yesterday that the town’s voters are looking for change, even if they didn’t always agree on what sort of change.

For some, such as top vote getter David J. Crook Sr., who has listed his top issues as adopting a homestead tax exemption, controlling development and controlling spending, the results suggest people want the town to be more cautious about spending taxpayers’ money.

Crook also talked about the need for the council members to get along, even if they don’t always agree — an attribute also mentioned by second-place finisher Christopher Wilkens, the lone incumbent to finish among the top five.

“I work with everyone,” said Wilkens, who is seeking his second term. “I don’t get involved with the politics. I do what I can for the town. That’s why I ran.”

Third-place finisher Susan Cicilline-Buonanno and 10th-place finisher Michael L. Lapisky said voters want open, honest government that they can trust. And they might also be looking for more women on the council, Cicilline-Buonanno said. The other women in the top five were Glenna M. Hagopian, who finished fourth, and Alisa Trainor Fleet, who finished fifth.

“I had people who said to me they voted for all the women,” Cicilline-Buonanno said.

The idea that voters want change seemed to be backed by some of the numbers. Krista J. Garrett, the top vote getter in the 2006 council race, finished 14th out of 15. Three other incumbents, James P. Durkin, George F. Lenihan Jr. and T. Brian Handrigan, finished 7th, 8th and 9th respectively — in the running but not as strong as some of the challengers.

The candidates had different views on how those results bode for the general election.

Handrigan, the council president, said primary election results in Narragansett tend to be good indicators of general election results. He added that Narragansett’s results seem to mirror what is happening nationally.

“You listen to Mr. Obama say change, you listen to Mr. McCain say change, and Narragansett is saying change also,” he said.

But Durkin and sixth-place finisher Douglas E. McLaughlin said the general election is different from a primary because it draws more voters.

“Now the masses come out,” McLaughlin said. “You don’t know how it’s going to turn when everybody comes out.”

Regardless of where they finished, the candidates who are moving on to the general election said they will be working hard to win votes.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing all the people,” said Fleet, the fifth-place finisher. “I’m really looking forward to the next step.”

Most people agreed the biggest surprise was Garrett’s 14th-place finish. Garrett, an independent Republican, attributed her finish to attacks by people such as Lenihan and Durkin, two endorsed Democrats.

Lenihan in particular has been questioning Garrett’s involvement in a decision by Town Manager Jeffry Ceasrine not to fill the tax collector’s position with a town employee who had been told she was getting the job. Garrett acknowledged last week that she had forwarded her daughter’s resumé to Ceasrine when the position was open but says she did not interfere with his decision.

“What’s difficult for me is that there are people who are going to believe the stories that they told and made up,” Garrett said. “But I’m going to persevere. I will get through this.”

Lenihan could not be reached yesterday, but Durkin said Garrett “took herself out.”

“There’s a lot of voters out there,” he said. “They’re not all Democrats.”

The questions about the tax collector’s position drew statewide interest after last week’s council meeting, when Lenihan and Durkin discovered that someone had spray-painted graffiti on their cars. The police have not identified a suspect.

The police also got involved on Tuesday, when Garrett reported that her pickup truck, parked at the Pier Middle School with political signs in the rear bed, had somehow moved from the place where it was parked to a spot that left it partly on the school lawn. She also noticed that the signs were lying in the bed of the truck.

Garrett told the police that the last two people she had seen in the area were Lenihan and one other local resident. Deputy Police Chief Dean Hoxsie said officers spoke with Lenihan and investigated at the scene and found no indication of damage or forced entry or foul play. According to a police report on the incident, Lenihan suggested that the signs were knocked down by the wind.

Hoxsie was not sure if the truck might have been out of gear, allowing it to roll.

redgar@projo.com