You probably [Definitely. –Ed.] don’t know it, but the at-large City Council race is the second most important race among this fall’s city elections. While the mayor’s race is busy determining which of 12 politicians will get to run the City of Boston,
the at-large race will decide which four people will get to spend the next two years grandstanding against the mayor’s office for political gain.
The at-large office holders are de facto leaders on the council. They do not have to worry about small-time district level work and can champion any cause regardless of how crazy it sounds. If you ever hear about a city councilor railing against the dangers of cage fighting, urban chicken coops, or extra-terrestrial child abductors, there’s a good chance it is coming from an at-large councilor.
Also consider the fact that the entire makeup of the council is poised for change.
Mission Hill, Fenway, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Hyde Park, and Roslindale are definitely getting a new city councilor, and there is always a possibility that Mattapan will finally grow tired of Charles Yancey and decide to penalize him for also running for mayor by supporting one of his opponents. Unless incumbent Bill Linehan actually learns to give a shit to the part of his district that is not pre-occupied with hating homosexuals and fearing minorities, South Boston, Chinatown, and part of the South End may also have a new district councilor.
In any case, there’s going to be a whole new city council this year filled with newcomers trying to feel their way, party hacks having to find someone new to suck up to post-Menino, and shrewd careerists looking to elevate their stature in city government. Within that chaos, at-large councilors will have the best shot of increasing their political power.
The entire city is their constituency so they can cherry-pick their events and issues.
Current at-large councilor John Connolly used his position to claim every school-related matter that came before the council over the last few years as he built up his resume for his mayoral bid.
The position is also often a launching pad for higher office.
There is a very good chance that whoever finishes in the top four in November will include the next mayor’s first electoral challenge in 2017.
After his first win in 1993, Mayor Thomas Menino faced challengers in three of his reelection bids, all of which came from at-large City Councilors. To be fair, each of those finalist challengers, Peggy Davis-Mullen, Maura Hennigan, and Michael Flaherty, suffered embarrassing defeats, but back then, during the height of Menino’s power, being half-assed cannon fodder for a mayoral political machine is pretty much as close as one could get to having any semblance of power.
This year, only two incumbents are running for reelection, Ayanna Pressley and Stephen Murphy.
This leaves the door open for two newcomers among 17 challengers.
Pressley finished in first place in 2011.
She is popular among progressive voters in the city,
and most mayoral candidates would gladly help her get reelected
in exchange for her support,
which gives her a good shot at a repeat performance.
Murphy is the council president,
but it is his last year and
the fact that he barely placed fourth in 2011
may indicate that
the veteran politician is in
the twilight of his public career.
Flaherty has returned to the scene.
He is hoping that back-to-back electoral failures
have not ended his career.
More accurately, he’s hoping that the field fractures
the voting base enough for him
to slip back into office.
New contender Michele Wu probably has a better chance than Murphy or Flaherty to get onto the council.
The young South Ender has been irritatingly popular
with most of the city’s democratic ward committees, and her
early entrance into the race back in December gave her an edge on fundraising.
It helps that she built her Democratic street cred working for Elizabeth Warren.
Ramon Soto is also getting some positive attention
after having served Deval Patrick,
Elizabeth Warren, and Barack Obama
as a campaign operative in New England.
As a side note, I always find it a little unsettling when a candidate’s best credential is having worked for another person’s campaign. It is kind of like of saying, “Hire me, because I have experience interviewing for jobs.”
Jeff Ross, Jack Kelly, Annissa George, and Martin Keogh are all wild cards. Barring some hilariously awful scandal involving crystal meth and a stolen infant, jumping ahead of any of the top tier candidates will be a long-shot, but they are establishing solid enough voter bases that they have a good shot of playing spoiler to one of the more-prominent contenders.
Considering that two of the shoe-ins, Flaherty and Murphy, are looking weak after 2011, it may not be much of a stretch for a spoiler to make it into the top four.