New England Ethnic Newz interviews the former Boston City Councilor on Boston politics, ethnic politics, his past and future and the last election - which he says he lost in part because of immigrant haters, not because he was in love and disorganized and ran the world's lowest-key campaign in an election that the local dailies pretty much completely ignored:
The fact that you were not re-elected, could that be part of an overall anti-immigrant sentiment?
Adam Reilly analyzes the near-complete lack of city-council coverage in the local bigfoot dailies (and on WBUR) and gets some fun quotes from Globe local editor Brian McGrory about how bored he is with Boston politics. Reilly allows how McGrory might have a point about lackluster city councilors, but follows that up with a list of stories the media could have covered, but didn't.
Did John Connolly's not-so-anonymous mailings violate federal postal regulations? Connolly only admits to sending out some of the anti-Murphy mailings, although the Herald reports the others had the same postal permit number as used by the Connolly campaign for other mailings.
Michael Pahre gets to the heart of the matter: City Editor Brian McGrory finds the City Council boring. He makes the case by digging up McGrory's old columns on Boston politics, one of which, in 2003, summed up what we can expect from a McGrory-led city desk:
Matt O'Malley, who knows something about citywide elections (having run for at-large city councilor twice and having managed Suffolk Sheriff Andrea Cabral's election bid), analyzes how each of Boston's wards voted in Tuesday's at-large council election.
Gosh, the Globe has an entire two whole stories today on this week's Boston City Council election, or roughly the same number of stories as it ran in the weeks before the election (good work, McGrory). In any case, one of the stories looks at Felix Arroyo's defeat, and includes this:
Arroyo said yesterday that he had fewer campaign workers, less money, and was much less organized than in previous campaigns. He also admits he has been a little distracted.
"I'm in love," he said. "Love distracts you."
Arroyo's fiancee, Selene Acosta, a gregarious woman from Venezuela, volunteered during his 2003 campaign and accompanied him on many campaign appearances this year.
Love will keep them together - especially now that he won't be distracted by city business:
Mike Ball analyzes Tuesday's vote:
... We have two newbies who may or may not make a difference. Connolly has solid ideas for funding, Council power, education and more. The new guy in Allston-Brighton, Mark Ciommo, has his own very specific to-do lists.
This certainly was no revolution. The old guard is still in those big old chairs.
Murphy does little and is not likely to start now. Flaherty is the carrion bird waiting, just waiting for his chance to become mayor. ...
But seem unable to look in the mirror.
The Outraged Liberal, meanwhile, compares democracy in Boston, where nobody votes and we have a Mayor for Life, and Pakistan, where lawyers are getting beaten by police and getting thrown in cells for daring to want the right to vote:
... Joni Mitchell said "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." The lawyers of Pakistan know. Do we?
Steve Murphy proved tonight he's the Model T of elected officials: He can get elected to anything as long as it's an at-large seat on the Boston city council. He came in second tonight, giving him one of the four at-large seats on the city council.
Felix Arroyo, meanwhile, proved that, on a rainy day, when not even 14% of registered voters show up, organization DOES matter, as in: If you don't have much of one, you're going to wonder what the hell happened.
And what the hell happened tonight was that John Connolly, who had an incredibly organized get-out-the-vote effort, especially in his home base of Roslindale and West Roxbury, simply got more votes than Arroyo (who came in second two years ago, which led to a brief Arroyo-for-mayor boomlet). If the flap over Connolly's anonymous anti-Murphy mailings had an impact, in the end, it didn't matter (except to possibly give Steve Murphy some sympathy votes).
Of course, above everybody else sits, again, Michael Flaherty. Not really a surprise there, and you know he already has people thinking what colors to use on the "Flaherty for Mayor" signs. The only question is whether he dares to take on Tom Menino in two years or waits until 2013 - when, who knows, maybe he'll be facing Sam Yoon, who also got re-elected tonight.
Of course, the big question is what this all means for actual policy making in Boston. Granted, we have a "weak" city council, which makes it hard for them to actually get anything done, but they do have the power to hold hearings and get to vote on the mayor's budget, so it'll be interesting to read in the GateHouse and college papers what happens (since we obviously can forget about the Globe and Herald writing much of anything about the council).
In other races:
Mark Ciommo beat Gregory Glennon to win the Allston/Brighton district council race by a roughly 60/40 margin (props to Michael Pahre for calling that margin). He takes over for Jerry McDermott, who moved out of town.
In Dorchester, Maureen Feeney easily maintained her position as the only woman on the council, swamping Michael Cote.
Charles Yancey did even better against J.R. Rucker in his Dorchester/Mattapan district.
It was Chuck Turner over Carlos Henriquez in Roxbury in another trouncing.
All other district races were uncontested.
"...no other poster, card, handbill, placard, picture or circular intended to influence the action of the voter shall be posted, exhibited, circulated or distributed in the polling place, in the building where the polling place is located, on the walls thereof, on the premises on which the building stands, or within one hundred and fifty feet of the building entrance door to such polling place."
Adrian Walker has the gall today to complain that the city-council election this year is the quietest ever:
While it is tempting to blame the low-key council for at least part of the public's apparent apathy, that wouldn't be entirely fair.
Let me rewrite that sentence for you, Adrian:
While it is tempting to blame the almost non-existent coverage of the council election by the Globe and Herald for at least part of the public's apparent apathy, that wouldn't be entirely fair.
Yep, it's time to do your civic duty in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Quincy, Newton, etc.
For Boston residents, city-council links if you haven't decided whom to vote for in the at-large and Allston/Brighton races. The whole Connolly/Murphy mailing thing.
If you did vote today, what was it like?
Look what we got in the mail today:
Of course, as I've blathered, if Connolly loses because of this, it'll be because he attacked Murphy anonymously, not because what he said about Murphy was in any way untrue.
Election's tomorrow, natch.
Michael Pahre explains why he thinks John Connolly is really your basic old-line Irish-American pol, not a harbinger of some new politics in Boston - and not just because of all his political relatives from back in the day:
Connolly's campaign is admitting sending out an anonymous mailing attacking incumbent city councilor Stephen Murphy.
UPDATE: Connolly just lost my vote. His campaign admits sending out the Murphy piece.
Over the past two days, we've gotten a pair of mailings related to Tuesday's city council elections. One is from John Connolly and basically explains how wonderful he is and why he should be an at-large city councilor. The other is an anonymous mailing telling us how awful incumbent at-large councilor Stephen Murphy is.
What's interesting is the physical similarities between the two mailings. Both are the same size and use the same cardstock. Both make extensive use of dropshadow. The computer-generated mailing "labels" are identical (and in our case, both addressed to "The Gaffin Household"). And then there's the thing I find most interesting: That the cut-outs used to attribute something to the Boston Globe have the same exact scissor-like borders:
The Globe "cut-out" from the John Connolly mailing:
The Globe "cut-out" from the anti-Murphy mailing:
Now, this doesn't prove that the Connolly campaign had anything to do with the anti-Murphy mailing. There probably aren't a ton of union print shops (both mailings have the same union bug) that do political printing and it could be a case of two separate groups using the same shop by coincidence. And the Herald cut-outs on each flier have different borders. It sure would be interesting to find out who at 31 Milk St. (the address listed on the Murphy thing) published it.
And for me, ironically, the anti-Murphy mailing does spell out why I wasn't planning to vote for him: He seems terminally bored as a city councilor and keeps trying (and failing) to get other jobs. But if we do find out that another candidate is behind this gutless (because it's anonymous) mailing, he'll lose my vote as well.
Here are some links to help you get up to speed on Tuesday's Boston city-council elections. There are nine people running for four at-large, citywide council seats. And there are contested races for councilors in Allston/Brighton, Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan. Complete list of candidates. Please add links to relevant info in a comment!
Note for Hyde Park voters: There are a number of polling-place changes for you this year. Details.
UPDATE: Blame John Connolly.
Adam Rosi-Kessel reports getting several mailings attacking city-council candidates that don't say who put them out:
Remember when the local daily papers actually covered local elections? In any case, Michael Pahre posts the results of issues questionnaires he submitted to the nine at-large city-council candidates this year (eight actually responded) - from neighborhood schools to the way the city handles constituent services.
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