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Election roundup: Poll shows Wyatt still has time to make a move

The Globe reports that with a little more than a week to go, nearly a third of voters still haven't settled on a mayoral candidate to fill in an oval for. Among candidates who actually say things at forums, John Connolly has a tiny lead.

Marty Walsh and Rob Consalvo think parts of Boston need more parking spaces - at odds with the current BRA policy of reducing the number of spaces needed for new developments.

Consalvo issued a statement this morning that the eight shootings so far this weekend are alarming and show why we need to put at least 200 more cops on the beat and expand the ShotSpotter system.

Connolly isn't giving the Apple Store metaphor a rest.

The Herald has Bill Walczak betting on anti-casino types putting him into the final.

Walsh has his first TV ad out (no, those other ads weren't by his campaign):

Gus Newport, the mayor of Berkeley, CA campaigned with John Barros yesterday. Newport was once executive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative - the same post Barros held until he announced his run for mayor:

John is a proven leader, who understands all sides of an issue and works to resolve them. This approach has allowed him to improve his community by working to improve his neighborhood through the increase of affordable housing, increasing educational opportunity, and decreasing violent hot spots. The leadership that I have seen him demonstrate is exactly what the entire City of Boston needs.

Former ambassador to Tanzania Charles Stith, now director of Boston University's African Presidential Center, endorsed Charlotte Golar Richie yesterday.

Proving he really is running for mayor, Mike Ross plans several early morning actual runs in which people who can keep up with him can ask questions. The first is Wednesday at the Back on My Feet Boston and Hope House Run, 5:30 a.m., starting at 8 Farnham St., Roxbury.

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Comments

I have been impressed with Brother Charles with his unlicensed radio station and his appeal to voters by opening up the fare gates at Forest Hills and encouraging voters to not pay their fares. I was more impressed with his story in the globe where he talks about loosing his eye at age three and his career as a corrections officer and police officer. I suppose it was to much for an investigative reporter to ask Brother Charles how he passed the physical for the Boston Police when he only had one eye. Hopefully he got a disability pension even though he lost the eye as a toddler.

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Bad blood brewing in Ctown between Walsh and Connolly camps. Signs being cut out of frames a torn down. Somebody gonna get hurt if they get caught...

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Check out the photos of Connolly's sign

https://twitter.com/CtownWorkingMan

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Dan Conely & Michelle Wu drop literature on every vehicle in Charlestown. Never mind the mess on my street this morning, but both pieces were in Chinese 中式英语风靡全球.
Perhaps this drop was meant for Chinatown, instead of Charlestown...oh well, my neigbhood watch is pissed about the clean-up too.

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I'm not a fan of John Connolly. Every time I dig into one of the marketing claims he makes on TV and in the numerous glossy campaign mailers (8 so far), the facts I uncover reveal his claims to be misleading.

He's slick, and I've learned not to take him at his word.

Connolly self-identifies as the 'education mayor'. Well, he's not the mayor, he's a city councilor who worked as a lawyer for 6 years and before that, taught in Boston at Renaissance Charter for 1 year, 1 year! and in NYC for 2 right out of college. If anything, he's the lawyer mayor more than he's the education mayor.

There are two education-related stories about Connolly as a councilor; the bad freezer food story, and his extreme displeasure with the teachers' contract negotiated by the mayor and approved by everyone on city council except Connolly. Neither of these stories are about an educational policy accomplishment that demonstrates a proven vision for the future of Boston Public Schools.

Connolly says he went into education because "not every Bostonian could get a quality education..." but he didn't go into education in Boston, he went into education in New York City. This is a good example of how the facts put a lie to his rhetoric. His interest in teaching, while short lived, is admirable but he certainly didn't go into teaching to improve the quality of Boston Public Schools.

Connolly taught in a small catholic school in SOHO on Houston near Katz's Deli for 2 years, and one year at Boston Renaissance charter before going into into law. If you can call 3 years a career (I don't,) then teaching was John's first.

Connolly claims he taught kids from every Boston neighborhood. If you didn't know he spent just one year teaching in Boston, you might think he taught in schools all over Boston for 10 years, not 1. That's my point. His arguments about the experience and expertise that informs his insights into education policy are exaggerated, and Boston deserves better.

More importantly, why isn't Connolly applying for the BPS superintendent position if education is his raison d'etre. I think the truth is that Connolly sees education as his path to Boston Mayor victory, and it's not his passion or he'd be moving in a different direction. All told, the "eduction mayor" claim is premised in thin gruel at many levels.

Then there's this small moment in the campaign: Connolly's campaign lit misspelled education--they forgot the "a". If he's elected, we all better hope he's better at running city gov't than running a campaign.

John Connolly's campaign is financed by DFERmass. They spent $80,000 in July and August trying to get him elected. These are Wall St and hedge fund folks. (If you liked what Wall St did to the US economy, you'll love what they do to schools systems.) Apparently, there's a lot of money to be made operating charters. After the $80,000 they wanted to spend another $420,000 on John Connolly (and their school privatization agenda) but people were so outraged by big money buying the election, Connolly held a press conference and asked them not to. That said, they can and will do what they want.

While charters are taxpayer funded, the school board and mayor have no control over them whatsoever. And every charter that opens will eventually cause the closure of a neighborhood public school, which John Connolly also claims to support.

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Connolly first got into office with a sleazy anonymous postcard campaign attacking Steve Murphy, then thought the most vulnerable councillor. Then they both won. I'm still waiting for Connolly to apologize for his cowardly campaign.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/11/...

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Be pretty funny when him and is dad are running the 5th floor.

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Connolly's anonymous mailers are passive aggressive. He makes accusations and implications but he won't take responsibility for making them. A good politician will stand by his accusations and implications and be able to argue for them and explain them. You'd think after practicing law for so many years Connolly could so that. Instead, he pulled the cheap, unethical back stab. This personality trait, he's two-faced, is the the one that could lead to disastrous results for Boston.

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Mothers Association vs Townies.

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"Brother Charles" lost my vote when he referred to the Suffolk Univ student during the debate as MOLLY, which wasn't her name-- but the subject of her question about drugs. Attention to detail is important, especially when there are 12 people running.

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When Clemons' main accomplishment is an illegal enterprise, how can we have confidence that he will respect the law in running the city?

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$17,000 is the amount that Clemons reportedly owes the FCC for some violation related to his illegal radio station.

$17 is the amount that Wyatt (that's David James Wyatt on the ballot) reportedly has in what the Globe actually called his "campaign war chest."

Maybe Wyatt could do us all a favor by getting out of the race and donating 1% of the fine to Clemons. I think it would be the most significant move of his inglorious campaign.

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The joy of anonymous comments. What a pleasure it will be to spend the next two weeks reading garbage about this and that candidate with absolutely no one having to take responsibility for their remarks.

And, those points of view are often legit - but lose all validity b/c they are assumed to be unworthy of reading.

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What kind of person judges ideas and arguments based more on who said them than what they said? That's a serious question.

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That is a very wise comment.

Ironically, I seem to remember reading the same thing from someone famous ... who gave their name.

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