2013 elections

The Globe reports Secretary of State William Galvin says East Boston and Revere residents will vote Nov. 5 on whether to approve a Suffolk Downs casino even if Suffolk Downs doesn't have a new manager for the facility in place by then.

On Friday, Suffolk Downs said it was booting Caesars because of concerns raised in a state report due out on Wednesday.

Over the weekend, Mayor Menino had said he would look at possible ways to postpone the vote if a new operator were not named by then; the ruling today by the state's highest elections official, however, makes that moot.

Sample East Boston ballot.

Yesterday, the Connolly campaign issued a statement about flyers and tweets that say mean things about their man, the sort of thing that has no place in a Boston campaign:

Representative Walsh said that he would run a positive race. He said that negative campaigning does not have a place in politics and yet the special interests funding his campaign are distributing negative flyers filled with personal attacks," said Connolly. "The voters of Boston deserve a race about our ideas and visions for the future. They do not want personal attacks and misrepresentations."

Among other things, the flyer, which was produced by Working America PAC, attacks Connolly’s personal upbringing and background. This follows shortly after another outside group, American Working Families, which has spent almost $675,000 on behalf of Walsh, was called out by The Boston Globe for sending negative tweets about Connolly.

Not long after, Walsh issued a statement:

I condemn these kinds of personal negative attacks. This mailer, and the attacks on my opponent's family, are out of bounds. John is my friend and there is no place in this campaign for personal attacks like this. To those responsible for this mailing and anyone thinking about doing anything like it, my message is clear: stop, don't do it, don't even think about it. The people of Boston deserve better. I have always run on my record and on the issues facing our families and that is what I will continue to do in this campaign.

John Connolly is proposing a Roxbury Entrepreneurship Center to help budding small businesses in the area get off the ground - through space for them to start up their businesses, a "Made in Boston" startup capital fund and counseling and meetings with existing entrepreneurs. He says he'd immediately start looking for transit-accessible space in the neighborhood for the center.

Connolly also held a private confab with gangbangers, well, private except for the Globe reporter.

Walsh cemented his lead among minority elected officials with endorsements today from state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, state reps Carlos Henriquez, Gloria Fox and Russell Holmes and City Councilor Tito Jackson. Newly elected state Rep. Dan Cullinane, who represents a district with a large minority population, also gave his nod to Walsh.

Past and present Southie elected officials also like Walsh, well, except for the state rep who got pissed Walsh wouldn't endorse him in his senate run against Dorcena Forry, that is.

A poll by the Environmental League of Massachusetts Action Fund found Connolly with just a 4-point lead over Walsh. The company that did the poll called 77,320 phone numbers; 626 people actually answered the questions.

BNN will hold mini-debates among at-large city-council candidates over the next couple of weeks, starting Monday with:
Steve Murpy and Jeffrey Ross, 8-8:25 p.m. and Ayanna Pressley and Jack Kelly, 8:30-8:55 p.m. On Oct. 28, the live schedule is Michael Flaherty and Annissa Essaibi George, 8:00 – 8:25 p.m. and Michelle Wu and Martin Keogh, 8:30-8:55 p.m.

Essaibi George is now driving a truck, but is still learning how to park it.

The Environmental League of Massachusetts Action Fund wants the two remaining candidates to pull a Walczak and do something to protect the city from rising seas.

Connolly yesterday called for a law-enforcement track at Madison Park High School that would include law-enforcement related classes and BPD internships - and the return of a post-high-school cadet program that was eliminated in 2010:

The law enforcement career pathway would be academically rigorous and also provide coursework in psychology, forensic science, law and ethics, government, and other subjects that are important to police officer success. Madison Park faculty members would work with retired Boston police officers to develop the curriculum.

Kitty O'Neil tallies up the endorsements by elected officials, including, of course, state Sen. Linda Dorcena Forrry, who endorsed Walsh yesterday:

As a friend, Marty has shown me that he understands the struggles that working families in Boston face on an everyday basis. As a neighbor, I've watched Marty step up to the plate each and every time our community calls. As a colleague, Marty has shown Beacon Hill that he is a leader by taking stands on issues that are not always popular but it's the right thing to do - like he did on marriage equality.

When we have needed a reliable partner, my colleagues and I have turned to Marty Walsh because he gets it. When confronted with an important issue, Marty doesn't just talk about it; he rolls up his sleeves and works until there's a solution. Whether it's a big ticket issue like education reform or something out of the public eye like making sure a landlord turns on a senior citizen's heat, Marty Walsh gets it. And he will deliver for every corner of this City as Mayor of Boston.

The South End News endorses Connolly:

John Connolly's driving political passion is to expand access to education. Marty Walsh's driving political passion is to protect workers' rights.

Marty Walsh has spent a decade fighting for a law that would strip city councils of their right to reject lopsided arbitration awards.When you fight for a living wage for janitors, as City Councilor Felix Arroyo has successfully done, that is progressive. Fighting to expand the power of municipal unions representing teachers, police, and firefighters is not progressive. In fact, it is regressive.

Suffolk Downs COO Chip Tuttle estimated tonight his company has spent about $1 million trying to convince East Boston residents to vote in favor of a casino at his racetrack. Organizers of No Eastie Casino in turns told members of the Jeffries Point Neighborhood Association they have spent less than $30,000 on their campaign against the proposal.

In contrast to a pro-casino rally in Revere a few nights earlier, no noses were broken at the association forum. The moderator of the event started out by laying down ground rules for civility; anybody being uncivil would be shown the door. To drive the point home, five uniformed police officers also kept watch over the generally mild-mannered crowd.

There was only one real outburst, when one man accused an anti-casino organizer of being "a traitor" because, he said, she handed over voter rolls to an official from the Salvadoran consulate. She said she had done no such thing.

Tuttle promoted the proposed $1-billon casino as a boon to the neighborhood and the city: 4,000 jobs, lots of green space, traffic improvements and even more money for gambling addiction, which he said would not increase with a casino because addicts in Massachusetts already have plenty of avenues for feeding their addiction.

And the casino will be the greenest ever, with the largest collection of solar panels on the East Coast and a system for turning all waste food into energy. Also, the horses will continue to race. And East Boston would get $20 million out of the $32 million to $52 million the project would pay Boston each year. Compare that, he said, to the $2.4 million the Red Sox pay each year in property taxes, he said.

He warned that if the casino doesn't go through, the track could close and the site could see a far more intensive mixed-use development project than a resort casino with two hotels.

One of the opponents, Matt Cameron, dropped a copy of the 200-page agreement between Suffolk Downs and the city on the ground, where it fell with a loud thud. Residents, he said, were almost entirely left out of the negotiations between the racetrack and the city and East Boston voters will be asked on Nov. 5 to approve something for which planning and criminal background checks aren't even finished, he said, adding that one of the investors in the project is Vornado, the company responsible for "the smoking hole" where Filene's used to be downtown.

Cameron, Curtis, Myers of No Eastie Casino.

Another No Eastie Casino organizer, Jessica Curtis, said the agreement talks a lot about "best efforts," which means there are no guarantees the city or East Boston will see all the revenue and jobs they've been promised. She said any increases in local jobs from the casino will be offset by job losses at neighborhood small businesses; traffic improvements offset by increased asthma from the exhausts of all those added cars. She added that all the decisions on how to spend East Boston's money will be made by people "on the other side of the harbor" and asked why East Boston residents should put themselves in a position to be dominated by Massport on one side and the casino on the other.

Group Co-Chair Celeste Ribeiro Myers said the money promised East Boston amounts to $400 a year per resident. She asked if that would be worth it to somebody who loses a job due to competition from the casino - or who has a child hit by a car driven by a drunk coming out of it.

So Charlotte Golar Richie apparently spent some anguished hours trying to decide whom to endorse for mayor. The Herald reports:

She promised the crowd Walsh would appoint a woman police superintendent and that his City Hall cabinet will reflect “50 percent people of color and women.”

The Globe didn't go quite that far, saying only that

Walsh had committed to installing a cabinet that is at least 50 percent people of color, and ensuring that minorities and women are among the top ranks of the Boston Police Department.

Walsh and former opponents cross a street.

Scott Brown poses with a sumo wrestler in Tokyo.

Evercandidate Roy Owens accuses District 7 incumbent Tito Jackson of forcing good Christians to pay for "abortion and other satanic rituals" (the copy of his flier provided by Jamarhl Crawford, who is running a sticker campaign against both of them).

The Globe reports several black ministers endorsed John Connolly yesterday and notes how dramatic that was given that some of them were comparing him to, gasp, Louise Day Hicks just last year, after he publicly called for School Superintendent Carol Johnson to quit. The Globe says Connolly stopped saying that after meeting with one of the ministers and agreeing to try to work things out with Johnson.

The Walsh campaign, meanwhile, touted its endorsement by Arline Isaacson, co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus:

The LGBT community could not ask for a better friend or ally. Had Marty simply voted for marriage equality, the LGBT community would have been deeply grateful and applauded his actions. But Marty went far beyond a simple vote. When you are in a war for something as important as your very right to marry, you want to have in the trenches with you someone you can trust, someone who understands how important the fight is and someone who is committed to do everything he can to help you. That was the role Marty Walsh played.

CommonWealth argues Future Bostony young'uns are not going to swing this election - they may not even vote much, leaving the electoral decision up to the traditionally vote-heavy older folks in places like West Roxbury and South Boston:

As with recent municipal elections, the southern part of the city showed higher levels of turnout than the rest of the Boston. In fact, out of the 50 precincts with the highest turnout, only four were outside of Boston's southern precincts. ... Furthermore, not a single precinct from the northern part of Boston had a turnout rate higher than 50 percent, while just over 20 precincts from the southern part of the city did. The 30 precincts with the lowest turnout were all from northern parts of the city.

Current Mayor Tom Menino's chief speechwriter gives some tips on writing a good mayoral speech.

East Boston residents who haven't decided how to vote in the Suffolk Downs casino referendum should attend the Jeffries Point Neighborhood Association meeting on Tuesday - they'll have folks from Suffolk Downs and No Eastie Casino to give their sides. Starts at 7 p.m. at the Jeffries Point Yacht Club, 565 Sumner St.

Arroyo and Barros are on board:

"Throughout my life I have advocated and worked for an inclusive city," said Barros. "We need a Mayor who will not only work to improve our education system, but one that will work to ensure every child has a quality educational seat, one that will work to ensure every resident and neighborhood has opportunity for affordable housing, one that will work to ensure every neighborhood is benefiting from economic development, and ensure that every resident lives in a safe neighborhood. Marty is the candidate that can do that. I am proud to stand next to Marty Walsh and endorse him for Mayor of Boston."

The Herald wonders who gets Charlotte Golar Richie's endorsement. The Ward 4 (South End) Democratic Committee, which backed Golar Richie last time, backs Connolly this time.

Connolly is promising a very special endorsement of his own, 1:30 p.m. in Charlestown. Garrett Quinn reports it's City Councilor Sal LaMattina.

Connolly testified at the State House yesterday for a bill raising the graduation age to 18; he co-sponsored a similar City Council measure in 2011.

James Aloisi writes the Seaport is turning into an undistinguished collection of boring buildings that could be Anywhereville, USA and says the next mayor should do something with the BRA to keep that from continuing.

Wicked Local Roslindale talks to Tim McCarthy and Jean-Claude Sanon, who want to replace Rob Consalvo as District 5 city councilor.

The Globe gets drenched covering the two mayoral candidates in yesterday's Roslindale parade; doesn't note that both were preceded by Rob Consalvo, staying dry in a trolley bus.

The Herald reports both Walsh and Connolly are running by running away from City Hall and that both camps are concerned voters might get distracted by a Red Sox World Series run.

The Globe takes a look at that arbitration bill Walsh has been pushing for years; not everybody's in favor.

District 5 city-council hopeful Tim McCarthy flings a mean Frisbee.

David Ertischek, who long covered West Roxbury and Roslindale for the Transcript and Patch, is now working on Matt O'Malley's re-election campaign in District 6.

Francisco White, who didn't make the final 8 in the at-large council race, is calling for a confab of minority residents to figure out how to break "wealth-serving policy and decades of sustained, quiet racist-classist ideology at City Hall."