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The rise of women of color in Boston politics
By adamg on Wed, 09/27/2017 - 8:54am
David Bernstein writes that the interesting news in last night's results were not in the race for mayor - which surprised no one - but in the council races, which could mean two black women joining the council in January - possibly alongside incumbent minority councilors Ayanna Pressley and Michelle Wu (at large) and Andrea Campbell (Dorchester).
It wasn't all that long ago that the council had just a single woman member - Maureen Feeney of Dorchester.
Lydia Edwards (shown right) came in a close second in the District 1 race to replace Sal LaMattina, but beat Stephen Passacantilli in East Boston and Charlestown, the two largest neighborhoods in the district - and with the endorsement of state Sen. Joseph Boncore, who had beaten her for that seat last year. And in District 7, Kim Janey got way more votes than challenger Rufus Faulk in the race for Tito Jackson's current seat.
Bernstein notes the role minority women played in other races - such as Suzanne Lee's efforts to get Mike Kelley of the South End on the November ballot in District 2 against Ed Flynn of South Boston. And let's not forget state Senators Linda Dorcena Forry and Sonia Chang-Diaz.
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Comments
My only beef
My only beef with Bernstein's article is the headline. These trends are all reasons to NOT forget the mayor's race.
But Tito has 0.0% chance of winning?
Barring something personally damaging to Walsh, like a legal issue or some kind of spectacular personal disaster calling his fitness to lead into question, he's wining in a walk. If Jackson was a better candidate, he'd have better numbers. Media coverage can help or hurt sure but it's not the difference in this election.
Tito has to flip
Tito has to flip 14% of primary Walsh voters.
Primary media coverage
Kudos to Bernstein for covering this as neither of the two dailies or the NPR stations had much of anything beyond a restating of the numbers. The reality is that while Tito's message and issues have legs, the candidate himself doesn't. Widening wealth gap, rising rents, homelessness, rampant development for the benefit of a quick buck (mostly for someone not from Boston), worsening traffic, the increasing generic mallification of Boston and loss of anything resembling character and ultimately a city hall that functions as it always has for the past decades with the only difference being some p.r. sorts of window-dressing programs (BRA --> BPDA...whew, say you wanna revolution!).
It appears that no one trusts Tito to change this situation (I don't honestly know if he could or couldn't) but the Mayor's candidate in District 1 with the backing of a sizable old boy machine lost to a candidate that while not exactly "against" the Mayor (she works for him after all) is definitely swimming against the traditional political currents. And she took Charlestown. A black woman won Charlestown. Picturing saying that sentence in, say, 1983.
rampant development for the
rampant development for the benefit of a quick buck (mostly for someone not from Boston)
What's the word for xenophobic on the city level? Damn furriners!
"Parochial"
"Provincial"
"Insular"
"Narcissistic"
Why doesn't the large
Why doesn't the large Vietnamese community in Boston have any representation on the council?
There needs to be a strong candidate
Lowell had a similar complaint recently. Run a strong candidate from any ethnic group and they'll win.
Because it's not that large
A district city councilor represents about 11% of the city. There are not that many Vietnamese people in Boston, and they are a bit less concentrated than you think.
There is also no Hispanic representation on the Council right now, and that's a much bigger community.
In fact
Outside of NYC, Boston has one of the largest Puerto Rican communities. Just over 5% of the city's residents are Puerto Rican.
You wouldn't know it based on the lack of any sort of charity drive to support the community's families back in Puerto Rico right now. I mean the city only had a fucking week of Harvey charity drive along with televised pleas for supplies and a big show of all the semis they sent off to Houston along with websites for publicity and the mayor stuffing boxes in front of City Hall.
But Puerto Rico and Maria...fucking crickets. The media won't hold the mayor or the city council's feet to the fire on this. It's like that 5% of the city doesn't even fucking exist.
Critical Mass of Citizens?
Happens in a lot of recent migrant communities - lots of people, but it takes a while to get a critical mass of people with citizenship who are permitted to vote.
It's not just eligible voters
It's more that the roots and connections and funds to be elected take a long time to gestate. Lot's of potential people, but nobody has really pieced them together yet.
just goes to show 300k in campaign funds doesn't always work
Just goes to show 300k in campaign funds doesn't always show it in the polls, though by the finals he will probably have 600k. I just hope people more people realize you can't buy an election.
Who has $300k?
Tito has raised a total of $200k in '17 (vs. $60k in '16) and he's already spent $207k this year. Of that $200k he's spent, over $100k of that has gone into the pockets of "consultants". Total scam.
Passcantilli received* 300k
Passcantilli received* 300k all from reality investors, for city counselor no less. This an absurd amount of money for district 1. The Sad part is he only won by less than 100 votes. He is trying to buy the election.
Passcantilli has 300k in
Passcantilli has 300k in campaign funds all from realtors. He has a sign every street corner and he still almost lost.
Well, not with money you can't
The soft pseudo-corruption of patronage, city contracts, etc...now those you can buy an election with.
Walsh is a creature of that side of the city government and that's why he'll be very, very hard to beat.
"Women of color"
What color is Michelle Wu?
Typically people of Asian
Typically people of Asian/Pacific Island decent are not considered "white" in this country because they have faced and continue to face tremendous discrimination and bigotry in many parts of our society. I could go on and on trying to explain this to you, but my guess is that you don't really care or that you can't be convinced otherwise.
Small potatoes
Telling us how the second most powerful politician in the city of Boston is oppressed is low hanging fruit. I was much more impressed when Former President Obama, then the most powerful person on the planet, told us all with a straight face how he was a victim.
If you want to top that, you've got to work harder. Here's a few suggestions to mull over your coffee break:
1. Chimneysweeps and buggy-whip makers. Dying trades being displaced by evil capitalist globalization, after all. The ad copy just writes itself.
2. Insects and earthworms. PETA beat you to the punch with the higher mammals, but fear not! There's plenty of grievance-mongering to be done lower down on the evolutionary ladder.
3. Redheads. Better yet, not even natural gingers but people who dye their hair.
4. Inanimate objects. There's all sorts of oppression of screwdrivers and socket wrenches going on. There's gotta be away of making a buck off of that.
Edit: I can't believe I missed this one, it was staring me straight in the face:
5. Potatoes and all the other root vegetables. They're being oppressed every time you bite into a French fry or a garden salad, after all!
Oh look, a Redditor
Let me guess, we've also had a two term black president so racism doesn't exist?
How was Charlottesville anyways?
what's wrong with using Reddit?
I'm here but I'm also there; the sites serve different purposes.
Oh look!
Someone has perfected his copy and paste skills!
What other "wit" from Reader's Digest or that fwd fwd fwd fwd email from Uncle Knuckledragger would you like to share?
Nonsense,
And, in fact, go to an Asian country, and you'll find very real, even shocking, discrimination, bigotry, and a level of sexism that would a Marxist 'Progressive' social justice warrior a brain aneurysm.
Every legitimate world survey on racism, descrimination, bigotry always have western countries like the U.S., Canada, western Europe, UK being the most tolerant, and non-western societies being far more racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.
again, bernstein is wrong..
again, bernstein is wrong...who said suzanne lee is with kelley??? i'm pretty sure she's with the other candidate