October No Prize

Unlike the surprise we might expect from political mechanization, Michael Flaherty never seemed to have taken magic lessons. His last chance to pull a winning trick out is certainly this evening. Ta da?

On stage before your very eyes (assuming you are in Dot at the Kennedy library or watching NECN, WBUR or WGBH), the would-be and the wooden ply their trade from 7 p.m. in debate. Neither could earn a living teaching oration.

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The Would-Be and the Wooden

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Yet Mayor Tom Menino need only not fall up, down or off the stage. Councilor Flaherty figuratively must levitate and circle the hall.

He's had the spark of scandals this time. We don't seem to care much. What's a would-be to do?

Nothing so far indicates that the sincere and bright challenger has new or substantially improved tricks (a.k.a. reasons) to trip up Da Mare. His hopes instead seem to be that a horde of young voters will join the politically fatigued and the change-impatient on November 3rd.

After his last re-election and consistently since, I urged Menino to give it a rest. The city is not in such bad shape that residents want him to disappear. Yet, as the fallen and still standing challengers have clarified, four more years of stasis won't overcome the inertia that keeps Boston standing still. Menino, as the longest-serving mayor here should have graciously stepped aside, proclaiming, "Look at all we (I) have done is 16-plus years!"

Now, he surely will be more like the boxer or quarterback who stayed too long, leaving to harrumphs and even boos.

Excelsior	J'accuse!	I Know Better	Systemic
Tom Menino	Kevin McCrea	Michael Flaherty	Sam Yoon

In the name of Mike Curley, we know that we had real choices this time. We had a gadfly turned revolutionary in Kevin McCrea; he had your real change right there. We had the smart guy in Sam Yoon; he had the compelling path to the better, brighter Boston. We still have the little-bit-better mini-Menino in Flaherty; he offers enough but not too much change.

So far, we stay on our bar stools. The voting bloc seems to be the Inert for Tom.

As a relative political prostitute, I love the crisp debate and clarity it can bring. As Athenians all seem to pretend they are descended from and reveal Socrates and Aistotle, we here claim the likes of John Adams and William Lloyd Garrison. We say that we are or at least love the speechifiers, mind molders and soul stirrers.

In our defense:

• Flaherty has been neither orator nor magician
• Yoon was bright and often right, but demanded we pay close attention
• McCrea was often abrasive and could seem a bit out there

Come 7 this evening, I'll sit with clipboard and a Leatherlips IPA (thanks, Bryn). Truth be told, I find Menino charming and adequate. Yet, the political and dramatic versions of me want the magic tonight. I want Flaherty on and enough out of character, aggressive but relaxed. I want lightning. I want enough excitement to make us go to the polls wondering who'll be our next mayor.

Tuesday Update: Comment on the debate is here.

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Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Boston, Menino, Sam Yoon, McCrea, debate, mayor, Flaherty

Getting It On Downeast

Blessed be. In Maine, the locals and the real marriage supporters are roughing up the anti-gay/anti-same-sex marriage gang. A heartening Press-Herald article details the huge influx of funds to defeat the nasty effort to overturn SSM there.

The short of it is populist donations are overwhelming the NOM and other anti-LGBT lobby. The latest figures are $2.7 million for the good guys and $1.1 million for the anti-equality sorts.

By the bye, there are several weeks to go before the vote. It's not to late for us to double up our donations to the No on 1 team...or chip in if you haven't started. This is a worthy fight.

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Tags: massmarrier, same sex marriage, Maine, People' Veto, NOM, Equality Maine

Windy Obama and HRC Promises

Over at Left Ahead!, Ryan and I had a satisfying (almost) rant today. It will be more so if listeners act on our suggestions.

We are beyond tired of the bluster from President Obama and from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Campaigner Barack Obama promised to bring full marriage equality (although he wussed out on using marriage), promised to overturn the odious Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and promised to halt the military's don't-ask-don't-tell (DADT) sham/scam. The HRC appointed itself champion of LGBT causes.

Both have repeatedly failed, even the easy acts. For one example, Commander-in-Chief Obama could halt DADT immediately by ordering non-enforcement. Wait...wait...wait. No more waiting!

We urge visits, calls, emails and letter to the White House and to HRC. To the latter, no more money or volunteer time for a do-nothing fund-raising machine. Likewise, it's time for letters to the editor, op-ed columns, blog posts and more beyond telling Obama and the HRC to shut up with counseling patience. Do it or don't!

Click below for the podcast.

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Tags: massmarrier, Left Ahead!, HRC, Obama, podcast

Left Ahead! Doubles Up This Week

At Left Ahead!, we have two shows this week, on Tuesday and Thursday.

At our regular day and time, we discuss President Obama's promises to the LGBT communities. In light of his weekend speech to the Human Rights Campaign, how are his repeal DOMA and DADT promises playing? To keep our acronyms perking, we discuss HRC itself.

Catch that show live here at 2:30 Eastern on Tuesday, Oct. 13th, or check back at Left Ahead! afterward.

On Thursday, we run a special show talking with Boston City Council candidate Ayanna Pressley. In September's preliminary, she finished a strong fourth of 15 candidates. She needs to be in the top four of eight in the November final to take her first elected office. We have spoken with her competitor, Andrew Kenneally. She details why she deserves to be one of four.

Likewise, catch that show live here at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 15th, or check back at Left Ahead! afterward.

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Tags: massmarrier, Boston, Left Ahead!, Pressley, city council, Obama, podcast

Carrying a Small Stick in Gay Rights Battles

The bully pulpit to Barack Obama seems to be a very quiet and gentle place indeed. In his campaign and after his election, he has promised much to the LBGT community...virtually all pending, pending, pending.

In his address to the Human Rights Campaign last evening, he promised again, he received ovations again and Americans are waiting again. Judge for yourself in watching his 25-minute speech on MSNBC here. Try hitting:

• 5:27 — I"m here with a simple mesage. I'm here with you in that fight (for LGBT equality).
• 6:20 — Many of you don't believe progress has come fast enough.
• 8:28 — My commitment to you is unwavering even as we wrestle with these enormous problems (economy, war and more).
• 9:15 — A relationship between two men or two women are just as real and admirable as between a man and a woman.
• 13:25 — I will not waver in my commitment to ending discrimination in all its forms.
• 14:40 — We are moving ahead on don't-ask-don't-tell. We shouldn't be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve their country. We should be celebrating their willingness to show such courage and selflessness on behalf of their fellow citizens, especially when we're fighting two wars. We cannot afford to cut from our ranks people with the critical skills we need to fight, anymore than we can afford for our military's integrity to force those willing to do so into careers encumbered and compromised into having to live a lie. I'm working with the Pentagon, its leadership and the members of the House and Senate on ending this policy. Legislation has been introduced in the House to make this happen. I will end don't-ask-don't-tell. That's my commitment to you.

In the 15 years DADT has been in force, we have learned that the soldiers don't seem to care much about whether their buddies are gay or lesbians. Many of the older officers spew some cliché about undermining unit cohesiveness regardless. The President responsible for this sham, Bill Clinton, claimed to be gay supportive, yet foisted this compromise on the nation as well as the even worse Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

The latter is more intractable. It requires considerable legislative and administrative work to reverse. In contrast DADT would be ineffective immediately, if Obama had the will. The legislation to which he refers would simply overturn a policy as interpreted in a defense appropriations act. Meanwhile, an executive order from the President would stop enforcement and effectively kill DADT.

I rather doubt Obama is not aware he is commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. He can pull rank on DADT to get this in the works right now.

The Palm Center's plan to end DADT lays out the specifics of status and the way out. None of it is as difficult as Obama has made it. Instead, he is off dickering with generals. In military minds, he is showing weakness to subordinates, never wise.

Likewise on same-sex marriage, Obama is two-faced about that. He says firmly and repeatedly he's for equal treatment, yet he won't take that small step to supporting SSM. He will go as far as asking too nicely for the repeal of DOMA and for a domestic-partnership law at the national level. Those are well on the way to where someone who claims he supports full rights for gays should be headed. He needs more pushes to align rhetoric and reality.

Put me down on the not progressing fast enough side. He claims the bully pulpit, but he has to step up and speak up.

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Tags: massmarrier, Human Rights Campaign, Respect for Marriage, Obama, DOMA, same-sex marriage, DADT

Steele's Ignoble Bluster

Quads pounding and endorphins kicking in, I thought of GOP buffoon-in-chief (a.k.a. chairman of the Republican National Committee) Michael Steele as I cycled today. His less widely quoted comments on President Barack Obama's winning the Nobel Peace Prize deserve consideration.

They also deserve to be made into a big sampler and hung on the wall. Let us reflect on them as our President tries to undo many years of Republican and conservative Dem-led failures of diplomacy, economics and foreign policy.

Here and cross-posted at BMG, I was one of the many who foreshadowed Obama's view that now he has to make some serious progress in his peace efforts — a call to action for him, us and other nations, as he put it. Yet, I was very surprised later in the day to hear the ever derisive drama queen Steele go beyond claiming that the award was totally undeserved.

Using repetition as his rhetorical punchline, he asked iteratively whether receiving the award would help Obama — in passing health-care reform or getting more votes for this or that cause. With each question, he concluded, "I think not," with great enthusiasm and no small amount of projected schadenfreude. Like the worst of the right wing, he would have Obama and us as a nation fail, so long as the GOP benefited in the end.

Somewhere around mile 25 on my ride, I had worked through the stupidity and meanness of Steele. Those are, after all, his defining traits and by extension the badges his party wears now.

His rhetoric had clear implications...of failure. Steele would have it that the Nobel would not advance Obama's progressive promises or his efforts to undo the dreadful social, economic and military entanglements. But is that so and likely?

Under the archaic, aristocratic Senate rules, 60% of the body has to support any serious bill. Yet, Obama's progressive goals are for such rational and overdue changes that the Dems are only a few votes away on any given issue. What if a few events, including the awarding of the Peace Prize, sway a vote here and another there? What if Steele's cocksure rhetoric — I think not! — proves not so obvious?

What if Obama's too-slow, too-cautious, too-compromising aspirations for the nation and world come to fruition? What if the blue-dog Dems and even some Republicans are influenced by the needs of the world, nation and their constituents, coupled with the new choices the Administration offers, and catalyzed by even such small sparks as recognition of his drive toward peace in our time? What if the Peace Prize does in fact give just a little more leverage?

As Steele was making his bitter and nasty comments, the head of the prize committee had his own statement. At a news conference, Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said. "We hope this can contribute a little bit to enhance what he is trying to do."

That is certainly within the possible. We live in a fearful world, one tired of wars as well as financial trauma. I think I'll stick with the guy with the good goals and some plans to achieve them instead of the prophets of the impossible.

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Tags: massmarrier, Obama, Nobel, Peace Prize, Republicans, Steele

Capuano Mini-Chat

In a call-in blogger round table this evening, three of us got in a few questions for U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano. In the contest for the U.S. Senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy, he appears to be the one plain talker.

We're in the process of getting him on Left Ahead! for a full podcast. In preparation, tonight's quick session was a good introduction. I didn't feel I was had, lied to or worked. That's refreshing from a politician.

For this blog, there's a mixed message on the Defense of Marriage Act. Capuano has long been an advocate for gay rights, including same-sex marriage. He is one of a group in the House who re-introduces bills to overturn DOMA regularly.

This fits in the three things he says he will never compromise on — civil liberties, human rights, and war and peace.

Unfortunately, he wasn't hopeful short term on DOMA. "We just don't have the votes on the floor of the House...and maybe even in the Senate." He says he will keep trying.

He agreed with me that President Obama should follow through on his promise to use his bully pulpit for LGBT issues. "That may not change many minds, but more important, it's the right thing to do," he added, saying it would be a powerful message from the leader of the free world.

I look forward to a longer chat with him. He's very candid. While he's been a lawyer since 1977 and a politician (five-term Somerville mayor from 1990 and U.S. Rep. since 1998), he doesn't seem too slick to believe.

I believe him when he says everyone in the Senate race will have enough money to compete, but that he won't have the most. He seems positive that this special election with a Dec. 8th primary and Jan. 19th final will be decided on issues. He has a fully articulated set of those.

Our AG Martha Coakley jumped in weeks ahead of everyone else, and several rich guys have followed with Capuano. He figures he still has them all beat on issues and for the voters who would want to continue in Kennedy's progressive tradition.

As a teaser for a future podcast, I'll pass along what he sees as his strong points:

• He sees the move from House to Senate as lateral, with none of the other candidates with any related experience at all.
• From the beginning, he's been against the death penalty, the Iraq War and the PATRIOT Act, with votes and speeches.
• He has a long history of a progressive political philosophy in the mold of Kennedy.
• He has a track record in the House of the other, the parochial side of politics. "Bringing home the bacon, that is my forte," he said.

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Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Capuano, Senate, Kennedy

Premature Peace Prize

We should all be stunned to learn that the military and political leader mired in multiple wars and unsure how to act won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. In reality, reading the brief citation from the awarding committee shows President Barack Obama was the recipient for what he might do, maybe, perhaps...

This whole mess reminds me of discussions with Roman Catholic chums about sin. To some, timing is all. Under dogmas allowing forgiveness by a cleric, dying under official absolution is all you need. In contrast, most Protestants are supposed to truck their bad deeds and thoughts with them, while they use this guilt and admission to be better people.

It's likely that most of the world measures the aggregate of how we behave, instead of a single act or certainly our potential for good. Think the Book of Daniel, Chapter 5. The rake King Belshazzar got the handwriting on the wall — mene mene tekel upharsin, you have been weighed and found wanting. Game over.

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Nobel Pollyanna

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This year's selection committee figures our President is good for his bluster. The citation doesn't have big accomplishments, rather a change of emphasis, including:

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.

So, he's rewarded for planning a meal and setting the table. There needs to be more.

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Not the Worst

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This prize has had many obviously deserving winners and a few dubious ones. The worst was unquestionably Henry Kissinger, Ph.D., diplomat, politician and war criminal. After his complicity in the deaths of millions in Vietnam and in the year of the travesty of the coup in Chile with the murder of President Salvador Allende, he got the medal, the money and the praise in 1973.

His version came from selective vision, as did Yasser Arafat's in 1994. They were involved in a truce or conflict resolution. While not as thoroughly cleansing as a priest's absolution, this was enough for the committee to push aside the heavy counterweights of behavior and intent.

To me, folksinger Tom Paxton has a broader, clear view of Kissinger, as he sang:

But the white bones of Allende and the scattered bones of Chile
Are the scream that breaks the silence of the thousands blown away.
Oh, the white bones of Allende and the scattered bones of Chile
Are not silent, they are screaming; they're your Peace Prize, Doctor K.

In contrast, President Obama does not have hands bloodied in evil deeds and willful destruction of lives and nations. Yet, he has much, very much to accomplish before he becomes a peace monger.

What we should hope and demand from him is that he live up to the award's claims that he has the potential to bring peace.

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Tags: massmarrier, Obama, Nobel, Peace Prize

Banner Sees Floon Foundering

In a nice piece of work by Yawu Miller, the Bay State Banner weighs the joint, kind of, candidacy of Councilors Michael Faherty and Sam Yoon in efforts to defeat Mayor Tom Menino next month. It's another case of mene mene tekel upharsin, as you surely are wont to chant. The article weighs them and finds them wanting.

The short of it is that while the closest Menino comes to being of color is his ruddiness, Latino and African-American like him (to the tune of 65% of the vote). Flaherty took some unpopular stances with those constituents, such as wanting to end school busing until he recently changed his mind. However, the advantage goes to the Da Mare for simpler reasons.

Many voters of color see him as having been there for them, literally as well as figuratively. As the article cites sometimes Menino critic Councilor Chuck Turner:

According to City Councilor Chuck Turner, Menino has earned black support by maintaining a strong presence in the community.

“I just saw him this morning at a groundbreaking in Dudley Square,” Turner noted. “He spends a lot of time in the district. I think the Menino administration has made as great, if not greater, investment in the Greater Roxbury area than any previous administration.”

Obviously Flaherty and Yoon can't overtake years of presence in the next month. Individually, they have strong support in Flaherty's Southie and similar areas, as well as among progressives who like Yoon. In the final weeks before Nov. 3rd, we'll have to see if they can or even try to make major advances in Menino's base.

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Tags: massmarrier, Boston, Flaherty, mayor, Yoon, Bay State Banner, Menino

Skipping Through Scandals

Finding flawed candidates is too damned easy this election cycle from Boston City Council to Mayor to the U.S. Senate. Choosing the contender with the heaviest baggage is tough, but they share a characteristic. They seem to have gotten away with whatever it was.

"Scandals? We don't have no scandals. We don't need no stinkin' scandals," as an updated bandito might say.

In what might be ruinous in more moralistic times and places, consider the likes of:

• The Mayor's top aide deleting thousands of emails, including those likely relating to subjects of federal corruption cases.
• A mayoral candidate with a long history as Council president in foiling public access to public meetings and records.
• A Senate candidate who refused to prosecute or even investigate corruption.
• A Councilor running for re-election under federal corruption indictment.

None of these and numerous other examples in and beyond Boston has queered any candidacy. In those few references, Mayor Tom Menino calls honest mistake, Councilor Michael Flaherty claims he learned the law and his lesson, AG Martha Coakley simply assures us she did her full job, and Councilor Chuck Turner says his 53% of votes in the multi-candidate primary is a mandate showing people know his innocence.

You might suppose that such cases would be the end of the reach for public office...not here, not now.

It's true enough that Bostonians have always enjoyed the entertainment value of our rascals. Think 1904, when we re-elected James Michael Curley as an alderman when he was serving a prison term for fraud. That appears not to be the exception, rather setting the tone. While our mayors and legislators look ethical enough in contrast to some in Illinois or Louisiana, many are not examplars of, say, the Boy Scout oath and law.

This all drives to rhetorical questions. For example, do voters care and should they care that elected officials favor expediency over duty?

My bet is that if you ask an individual voter, you'd get a resounding claim of morality and concern. Then asking about a specific candidate, you'd hear equivocation and excuses.

It has become increasingly plain that a little guilt is like a little gilt — just decoration.

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Tags: massmarrier, Boston, Massachusetts, scandal, election

Flaherty Stays Pale in Debate

What's 50% of ho-hum? Half of the two scheduled debates in Boston's mayoral final contest happened last evening. So?

My short take is that challenger Michael Flaherty was good, which is not good enough. My call after their joint announcement was that Flaherty/Yoon have shown their weapons against Menino, but they'll need more and better to topple him.

You can't pretend you just missed the face-off (debate-like object). WCVB will have the whole show, minus the breaks, from here.

Joining me in the blowhard world are:

• Dave Bernstein at Talking Politics, with a mini-review saying Menino "came out fine."
• The news piece at the Herald tried to claim a minor scuffle over promising Yoon a cabinet-level position "raises debate's temperature." (What, 1 degree or 2?)
• In the same tab, Peter Gelznis was more accurate saying both guys avoided real answers throughout.
• The news piece in the Globe reads that it was a draw.
• Its editorial commentary was that Flaherty came off looking mayoral (which may be swell if he wants to play one on TV after losing Nov. 3rd, I'd add).

The harsh reality of that show was that there were no new weapons or tactics. Making it worse for Flaherty was that when the bad cop, the one strident person at the table, reporter Janet Wu, pressed him for definitive answers, he sidled off the nave into an aisle to escape.

A biggy there was the firefighters' union. He had a chance to show some guts and draw a clear distinction between Da Mare. Menino has been unable to get this recalcitrant group of blackmailers to agree to drug tests without at least a 20% raise. Wu demanded strongly that Flaherty commit to cutting the deal without giving up more than the 14% Menino has been offering.

Instead, as he did throughout the hour, he said he'd negotiate the best deal possible for the citizens of Boston. That's right, boys and girls, trust the man whom that union has endorsed and featured on its website. Rather than come off as Rambo or the like, he implied that he could out arbitrate Menino. No pledges, no points.

Alas, I am the voyeur. I want the vicarious excitement that our dailies pretend we already have. Where's the cavalry to the rescue? Where are the new, more powerful arguments? Where are the compelling reasons to pick Flaherty with or without Yoon?

I say the challenger(s) have two weeks to breakthrough.

Saturday Pointer: Nice piece of work — Chris Lovett runs a 14-minute interview with Flaherty and Yoon. The former makes is face-to-face points better and adds program details on what Menino can do for jobs and specifically what the pair would do with the development process. He remains spongy about whipping the fire union into rationality.

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Tags: massmarrier, Boston, Flaherty, mayor, Yoon, deputy mayor, debate, Menino

Dishonorable Graves on the Plaza

Who was missing when Boston City Councilors Michael Flaherty and Sam Yoon announced their joint campaign to open the trap door on November 3rd under Mayor Tom Menino? (beat...beat...beat) Why all the other councilors, natch.

It's not like pols who criticize Da Mare disappear or even have their families shunned. Yet, folk downtown do seem wary of endorsing any opponents. Even the higher profile, attention-seeking sorts like the Johns Tobin and Connolly were not in the scrum surrounding the candidates.

I did see a council contender though, the affable Doug Bennett. The scooter campaigner was right there with the media and machers. He'd greet all comers or those who might have thought they'd pass by with, "Will you vote for me on November 3rd?," and hand out his LITE, vague campaign tract. I don't see any path on it to his four simple goals (clean streets, lower crime, lower property taxes, and better paying jobs). Yet he's the Opie Taylor here, with the wide eyes and wider grin. He's hard to dislike.

The total absence of fellow councilors at the announcement seems obvious in this highly political place and time. Likewise, they have not and will not endorse the Flaherty/Yoon ticket-like object. They are just not looking for trouble, or some would whisper, retribution.

No doubt the renegades would have a better shot in the general if some of their buddies would pipe up and join in. No one here but us mice, as they used to say in the cartoons.

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Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus; and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.

—Cassius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2.

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Tags: massmarrier, Boston, Flaherty, mayor,Yoon, deputy mayor, campaign, Menino

Sudden Prom Date

Sudden prom date Sam Yoon wore the Flaherty Yoon '09 Courage to Change button at yesterday's announcement of a joint campaign to elect Michael Flaherty mayor of Boston. He seemed a true believer too, feeling his buddy in the City Council might win, that then Yoon would become a top advisor called and paid as deputy mayor, and that the pair could co-exist while making the big things happen and disagreeing on some substance.

Probably everyone other than Mayor Tom Menino and his strongest supporters welcome this catalyst into the political soup. Until two days ago, the heat was off, the aroma gone and (complete the metaphors yourself).

Menino is still the alpha dog here, with the accumulated funds, humming hive of worker bees, and voters who either really, really like him or hesitate to change...same effect.

Yet, bless his election-seasoned heart, Menino stopped his campaign's whining about unfair and illegal gimmick allegations. Instead, as the Herald quotes him, "“It’s two against one now...First of all, there’s only going to be two names on the ballot, Mayor Menino and Councilor Flaherty. You still need 50 percent of the vote to win." Likewise, the Globe picked up similar gems, such as Da Mare saying the combo was just "an advertising campaign and asking, "What do you mean ticket?"

It's true enough that voters will smear an oval for Michael Flaherty if so inclined and will find Sam Yoon only in their active imaginations. So, is that enough?

One thing is plain with only five weeks to go. Pundits and barstool experts should stop with the 46% to 51% chat, referring to Flaherty/Yoon and Menino's shares of the preliminary vote. More than twice the voters will surely turn out on November 3rd, including pol-specific loyalists, change-starved neighborhood chauvinists, befuddled always-voters, and the curious. Neither side should take their figures from 9/22 to bed at night.

At yesterday afternoon's blather fest on Left Ahead!, Ryan and I worked over the announcement and some of its implications. We agreed that the new combo is still on track to place behind Da Mare's win, but that it's now a new and very short race. They could nose him out.

Ryan also figures that this won't be won on the airwaves, discounting Menino's biggest weapon of cash for media.

To the point that it's two to one, both sides concur and have stated as much as well. Menino has already squeezed every adult hand in Boston it seems. Flaherty and Yoon have been catching up, but aren't there. They promised yesterday to go everywhere, down to every church basement for example. They'll have to to activate the the inert voters and divert enough others to win.

To be frank, none of the three is a heart-stopping orator. Short of this new combo campaign, they have already displayed and rattled their weapons. Any voter paying attention knows what stuff they have. The only thing new is the joint effort.

Menino is generally smart and particularly politically savvy. He knows enough to publicly express contempt of the quasi-ticket he faces. He also is surely revising his own talking points to undercut this very real threat.

Linky: Chris Lovett has a super piece on prospects at Civic Boston.

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Tags: massmarrier, Boston, Flaherty, mayor,Yoon, deputy mayor, campaign, Menino

From Dirge to Jig in Boston

I promise to lay off the obvious puns, like Yoon-ify, following the announcement that Michael Flaherty and Sam Yoon will campaign together as a quasi-official team against incumbent Mayor Tom Menino. Floon is a tempting team name though.

At the official announcement (on an extreme corner of the City Hall Plaza) this morning, preliminary winner of the right to run in the Nov. 3rd general Flaherty and a loser of the same Yoon were jolly. I've seen and spent time with each and found a marked improvement. Flaherty showed great confidence and Yoon has not been as relaxed since the challenge began in the spring.

Looking like so many supersized ice-cream trucks in a row, the white boxy truckss of all major area broadcast media showed for the announcement. They were a shot-put throw away from the spot where in November City Councilor Chuck Turner angrily declared innocence what he said was a conspiracy to frame him for corruption. That's of note only because the crowds at each event were similar sizes, maybe 150.

This time though the minions were hopeful and happy.

The formal announcement is available numerous places, like here (Boston Channel, 12 minutes) It pretty much stuck to the script on Flaherty's campaign site.

The gist is that:

• Flaherty and Yoon's staffs talked the two days after the September 22nd preliminary.
• Both sides like the idea of a combined drive to unseat Menino.
• The two former rivals spent time over the weekend (hence why I didn't see Flaherty on Columbus Ave.).
• Yoon will campaign with Flaherty.
• The clear understanding is that if Flaherty wins, Yoon becomes a cabinet-level official with the retrograde title deputy mayor.

This should thoroughly energize the whole election and not just the Flaherty/Yoon side. All of us were ready to bury Flaherty, ceding the election to Menino's popularity, political organization, and hoggy bank of funds. Now, he'll have to hustle to keep his job and while Flaherty is the underdog, he might be able to pull it off.

For Menino's sake, I hope that his staff drops any GOP-style whining about the utter unfairness of the union for the campaign. Any talk of the deputy-mayor thing being "illegal" is sissy and won't stand.

In that vein, it was amusing at today's announcement to hear Flaherty recall when Mayor Kevin White had deputy and vice mayors a couple of decades ago, something no other mayor has used since. Immediately following that comparison, Flaherty said the voters wanted something new. Huh?

By the bye, a big unknown is whether the combo campaign can use Yoon's political checkbook for this last five weeks. TBD.

Regardless, I did hang around long enough to eavesdrop on both Flaherty and Yoon chatting up the press. I ended up asking Yoon something I didn't hear anyone else hit him with. In my own wee interview-ette, he said that being an unelected staff person, hired help as it were, would not be an issue. Not only was he confident that he and Flaherty could work together with their differences, but that the title announced up front implies what his role would be. They would have a joint campaign and if they win, he'd be his real deputy. Yoon said that their joint goals far outweigh any differences and "we'll reflect that after the election."

Earlier he did joke during the press announcement that sure, they'd go on debates together and he'd whisper answers in Flaherty's ear. Much laughter ensued.

Talking Version: Ryan and I kicked this can up and down at Left Ahead! today.

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Tags: massmarrier, Boston, Flaherty, mayor,Yoon, deputy mayor, campaign, Menino

Double Lightning Bolt in Boston

Since pre-dawn email from the Flaherty and Yoon folk, I've mused over this morning's pending announcement of their instant co-campaign. Over Scottish oats and banana, I saw the similar treat from the bland there.

I don't have to reprint mayoral run-off contender Michael Flaherty's announcement, which is here. Plus, Adam at UH ran the letter we all got here. First takes are numerous places, including the Globe, the Herald, and the Phoenix. As of 10:45 a.m., outside a certain city hall, the game is afoot.

The basic idea is that the pair of erstwhile rivals will run an artificial ticket (no legal status or ballot listing for that), with Sam Yoon as deputy mayor. The reality is that nearly half the voters smudged the ovals for candidates other than incumbent Mayor Tom Menino. The yoked team would hope to grab them all and not let disillusioned Yoon or Kevin McCrea voters sit out the election. (You want change; we got your change right here.)

If deputy mayor does not find a place in your brain pan, you may not have been alive or here for Mayor Kevin White's time (four terms, 1968-84). He had such deputy mayors Edward T. Sullivan and Robert Kiley and made up a vice mayor spot, which following Mayor Ray Flynn promptly spiked.

This time around, the first reaction from Menino's camp was very poor. From the Globe article:

Nick Martin, a spokesman for the Menino campaign, blasted the nascent ticket as an illegal gimmick. He said the position of deputy mayor does not exist in the city charter, so Yoon’s name could not appear on the ballot in the final election Nov. 3.

“This is a blatant attempt to confuse the voters of Boston, because implying that he’s going to run for deputy mayor is something that exists outside of the bounds of the law,’’ Martin said yesterday. “These are desperate tactics by a desperate individual. This seems to be both councilors saying if they can’t win their way, they’ll try to reinvent the rules.’’

What, you may well ask, did they expect from the challengers who have said from the beginning that they wanted to shake up City Hall? Menino should have been gracious and chisel chinned instead. "Put up your dukes. I'll flatten you!" would have been a far better response.

The facts include:

• The team is still a long shot for the office, with Menino's popularity and cash.
• The team has a much better chance than Flaherty did solo, nevertheless.
• Flaherty seemed to many a mini-Menino, so this gives the change mongers and buyers a home.
• The race is suddenly exciting again. Tom must have thought he'd coast downhill through November 3rd and suddenly will have to pedal.

This second race should both clarify the issues and give Menino the pressure to bring out his best arguments — and he has a ton of them. For us politics addicts, this is great stuff. It may be rough on Da Mare, but I love it.

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Tags: massmarrier, Boston, Flaherty, mayor,Yoon, deputy mayor, campaign, Menino

Beantown's Favorite Fruit

Our indefatigable, ubiquitous mayor was...of course...at the Beantown Jazz Festival on Columbus Avenue today. Mayoral challenger for Nov. 3rd, Councilor Michael Flaherty was not. In fact, his next scheduled event is for Oct. 1st in Charlestown — the campaign kick-off.

I was there for the music and did expect candidates for council or mayor. Wandering the length of the festival several times, I didn't see any of the former in four hours and only one for mayor. There were thousands of jolly locals, almost certainly saturated with registered voters.

Regardless, I finished a great show by Joe Louis Walker, the only blues on the sked. I rolled over to catch the first couple of numbers of Jane Bunnett (flute and soprano sax) with Elio Villafranca on piano; she was sort of wispy and comparatively LITE Latin jazz.

I just had to catch Berklee's P0Funk Ensemble, whom Prof. Lenny Stallworth funnels into reprising Parliament Funkadelic's strong music and weird 70s drag. I may post at Harrumph! on this because my high school (Plainfield, NJ) classmates were the original Parliaments. That was George Clinton's first band, who dropped the s at the end and then added Fundadelic as he invented funk music.

To my surprise, before the heavily made-up young honkies playing music originated by black guys in conks and fros started, a clump of big shots took the mic. Beantown Jazz Festival founder Darryl Settles was joined by the likes of Berklee President Roger Brown, who in turn introduced Da Mare.

Brown was none too subtle. In an apparent ad lib performance, he recounted years of solid support for the festival by Menino. He also stirred the crowd by introducing him as the next mayor. The huge audience in front of the stage was largely middle aged white folk, probably from the South End and probably Menino voters. They acted like he was the reason they had come and cheered mightily.

For his part, the mayor was as comfortable and casual as ever. He charmed with his folksiness as usual and bragged on the city and not himself — citing the simultaneous JP open studios and the international cycling races at City Hall. Where else, he asked rhetorically. Of course, it might be a lot of medium to large cities, but today it was Beantown.

Tom though was the fashion victim today, more than the youth from P-Funk. They dressed up for attention on purpose.

Our longest-serving mayor wore an apricot-colored pullover. The effect was somewhere between someone with a failed paint-on tan and a Shmoo®. (Click thumbnail for a larger view.)

There's no way a man of his age and somatotype should dress like a piece of fruit. Yet, it was only amusing and not terrible on him. His relentless sincerity and avuncular patter made apricot OK today.

For the others, who knows? Flaherty may well be in a bunker strategizing. Ayanna Pressley needs to sew up the fourth council spot but her sites don't indicate any action today. Andrew Kenneally wants that seat too and was with Da Mare before the jazz festival in an Uphams Corner ribbon cutting, but not tagging along to Columbus Avenue.

Tom Menino doesn't seem to have to campaign to be campaigning.

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Tags: massmarrier, Boston, City Council, Beantown Jazz Festival, mayor, Menino, Flaherty, Kenneally, Pressley

GOP Fussbudgets Blow It Again

Let us sing a song, a silly song, to the Massachusetts Republican Party. Like a small animal caught by a larger one, it has figuratively rolled on its back in a defensive posture, ready to scratch and hoping to inflict a little discouraging damage.

The current expression of impotence and triviality has been fighting the interim appointment of a U.S. Senator to cast any necessary ballots between now and when a special election replaces Ted Kennedy on January 19th. While clothed in defending the commonwealth constitution, the effort really is another because-we-can one. In fact, it clearly in an admission that we are so weak, this is the only thing we can do, and so we shall.

This week has seen:

• Slowing passage of a new version of the appointment law to permit the governor to name an interim, using a single-state-senator can stop debate for one day procedure.
• Delayed debate a second day before backing off to prevent Senate President Therese Murray from forcing a public airing (again by rules).
• Appealed by letter to our secretary of state to call the interim appointment unconstitutional on the moot point of whether this fits in the governor's power to claim a legislative emergency.
• Requested an injunction hearing today at 8:00 a.m. today to spin its tiny little web and just maybe halt the appointment.

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Friday p.m. update: Suffolk Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly ruled as BMG's David supposed Gov. Patrick was within his powers to appoint the interim U.S. Senator after the legislature altered the law to allow it. He dismissed the GOP niggle.

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Lawyerly David at Blue Mass Group lays out the nits and grits of the fragility of the GOP argument. Moreover, at Red Mass Group, Peter Porcupine splashes some reality in the comments. She and I generally disagree, but she's spot on here, recognizing both that this is a loser by the GOP and how utterly silly it makes the party officials look.

In reality. the local elephants have queered democracy several ways. Most obviously, the maneuvers in the senate delayed debate, which is what the process is really about.

Meanwhile, Gov. Deval Patrick appointed Paul Kirk to fill the interim spot. The latter hopped in and fired up his little ship of state to conduct business. Our local GOP is calling down the track for the train to come back. His official swearing in is on tap for 3:30 this afternoon, assuming the injunction try misses.

The Dems surely are guilty of expedience and corner cutting. They have been doing the situation-ethics thing and justifying the end of having full representation in the U.S. Senate by the means of re-changing this law to suit themselves.

Unfortunately for the local Republicans, the high dudgeon they think they are showing is low-brow and will surely not play well, even in the conservative hustings. They are happy to think they can screw the Dems and seem to forget the whole commonwealth and all its voters are actually the victims if we are underrepresented for four crucial months of key votes.

Playing the constitution card again and again and again will never turn it into a trump card.

For the many of us who would like a more robust two-party or multi-party system here, this speaks to the poverty of intellect and judgment as well as power in the GOP here. It seems most of their ilk are disguised as DINOs and are not likely to reveal themselves as crypo-Republicans and lose their General Court seats.

The state GOP is decidedly in a fix. Pulling tricks and picking nits though is certainly not the way to more members or influence. Alas, the current parliamentary maneuvering and injunction ploy end up in Emerson's classification of foolish consistency. Like a Randist who halts a public debate to niggle what he shouts is a false premise that ruins the whole argument, the local elephants here are missing the abstracts and reality in the name of precision. Put another way, they just end up looking stupid.

The proper course of action or discourse is not as clear as the failed tack they have sailed. Leading this party or even being an active member must be tough.

We should hope that as they heal from this latest battle that they examine the ideas and drop the niggling. There will be other chances to gain political advantage and there must be effective ways to benefit.

As it is, yes, the Dems can be made to wear the hypocrite hat. They changed the interim rule a few years ago to keep a Republican governor from having a chance to replace a U.S. Senator and now they re-changed it to let a Dem counterpart do it. Yet, that's not a huge boon and it's not shocking to voters that a majority party would seek political advantage by altering the rules or procedures.

Surely the Republicans can do better. Coming off as the nit pickers, they end up looking like gleaners trying to make a meal out of the field leavings. Can't they grow their own crops and convince people their meal would be better?

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Tags: massmarrier, Republicans, Senate, appointment, Kirk, Massachusetts

Voter Triggers

If not stunning, a few anomalies in Tuesday's returns in Boston seem odd, amusing or both. One theme did resonate though — I know him.

Consider:

• Doug Bennett. The scooter guy surprised many, certainly me, by making the preliminary cut from 15 to 8 city council candidates. He's a crypto Republican, maybe born in Boston but really from Cape Cod, who has well-duh issues (clean streets, low crime, low property taxes, better jobs) with no plan to achieve anything. There's no way for him to get 5% of the vote, 10, 519, to come in seventh. But wait, there was a way and it was his unique way. He putted around street by street, greeting, knocking, ringing, chatting and putting in face and handshake time for months. That's retail campaigning at its most basic, the Fuller Brush/Avon retrograde method. It worked for him.
• Chuck Turner. The often paranoid, grammatically challenged Harvard grad is nothing if not theatrical and hyperbolic. Everything's a plot, including his federal corruption indictment, and if it's a plot against him, it's also against all American-American Bostonians and all voters in his district. He proclaimed that his over 50% preliminary results are a mandate (his word). He campaigns that he is bald, bold and bright. The bread in that sandwich are doubtful claims, but the bold is very accurate. He somehow has managed to translate his extreme left rhetoric and weird allegations into one-of-us for the voters. The much more stable and really bright Tony Henriquez is likely to be overwhelmed by voters who inexplicably stick with Chuck.
• Tom Menino. As odd as it seems to type it, Da Mare shares a benefit with Bennett. People know him. They know his face and hand and voice and works. He's huge on constituent services and bigger still on presence. Previous Mayor Ray Flynn chased cop cars and fire trucks. Menino seems ubiquitous in chasing each of us. Seemingly to our voters having touched the hem of his garments is more powerful than any campaign promise or platform plank. He loves direct interaction with voters.

Writing of the mayoral contest, voters have one more chance for change. They fairly rejected it in a reverse spectrum on Tuesday, but Michael Flaherty has his final sprint to the November 3rd general. He carries the tremendous weight of Meninos affable popularity, despite a seeming majority of voters vaguely to solidly unhappy with commonweal of the city.

That spectrum ran from Kevin McCrea to Sam Yoon to Flaherty to Menino, from revolution to extreme system evolution to tweaking to stasis. The intellectually intriguing and wonderfully wonky Yoon came close to the final (21% of the vote to Flaherty's 24%), but voters went down the spectrum, avoiding the change they claim to desire.

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Tags: massmarrier, Boston, Flaherty, Turner,City Council, preliminary, mayor, Menino, Flaherty, Yoon, Bennett

Viper of Augusta Slithers

Apparently rolling the rock over the hole in the ground, the head of the Christian Civic League is gone. Mike I'm-not-a-minister-but-play-one-on-the-Internet Heath resigned as executive director of the, if you pardon, re-Christened now Family Policy Council of Maine.

After a month short of 20 years vilifying homosexuals and predicting widespread horrors following any gay rights, civil unions or same-sex marriages, Heath did the classic unemployed trick. His business cards now read CONSULTANT.

The Bangor Daily News reports that he'll peddle solar cookers in Africa.

From here, I find it safe to say he presided over the decline and collapse of the anti-gay forces in Maine. Under his steeled and incredibly dishonest command, the former CCL built its fund-raising machine on keeping gays down. They caused the repeal the lightest and most humane and most benign gay-rights wording added to housing laws a couple of times.

I guess that's something of note, like being the kid who kicked the most kittens.

Recently, the dwindling party seemed to give up, becoming a shriveled arm of the national Family Policy Council. It's an umbrella organization with barely enough cover to keep a single fashion model dry. It was not about to throw big bucks into overturning Maine's SSM law. The desperate National Organization for Marriage has been doing that from the mid-Atlantic instead. They are the present incarnation of a group that earns its cash from churning up homophobia and other hates and fears.

No-longer-CCL's statement on Heath's vaporization does not include comments from him and his last online column was nearly two weeks ago. His resignation came on Tuesday at a board meeting.

I'm betting the remaining crew has been really bummed that their revenues have plunged, likely along with membership. They have also been a non-factor in trying to prevent or repeal the SSM law. Heath likely too has gotten no response when he hollered, "Follow me!"

Looking over his outrageous, deceitful columns and articles on the used-to-be-CCL site, I can't say I'm sorry to see him go. It's good though that he held on long enough, well past his freshness date, to thoroughly cripple his former group with his irrationality, dishonest and negativity.

The state is not without individual fundy ministers who openly slander LGBT Mainers, particularly same-sex couples. What's lacking is a focal point for the hate. It seems our northern neighbors have advanced beyond the need for one.

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Tags: massmarrier, same sex marriage, Maine, People' Veto, CCL, Focus on the Family, Heath

Poll Position in a Folding Chair

Yesterday in Boston's municipal preliminary, I was clerk at a polling location in Hyde Park. All but one of us (four inspectors, an interpreter and the warden included) had worked the past gubernatorial and presidential elections. We were disappointed.

The local rags and other media buy the line that because the 23% of registered voters appearing exceeded the city's predictions, turnout was great (see the Herald's piece for one example). We in the folding chairs kept asking where the voters were.

We had a few flurries between 8 and 9 a.m. and 5:30 and 6 p.m. Only once in the 13 open hours did we have all eight of our ballot stations in two stands occupied at one time. Lackaday.

Perhaps odder to this politically minded sort, a startling number of voters commented that they knew nothing of the 15 city-council candidates. Roughly one fifth of our voters left that part of the ballot blank, voting only for mayor.

How in James Michael Curley's name can you have avoided:

• Learning about the council candidates, where were ubiquitous and cacophonous?
• Seeing and hearing the mayoral candidates debating, advertising and being covered by all media?
• Getting excited about the sweeping changes mayoral challengers demanded?
• Having a once-in-a-decade chance to elect multiple new councilors?

Voters managed.

Poll workers aren't supposed to talk politics at all during the election days. That was tough. Several candidates, including Steve Murphy and Tomas Gonzalez were out front for hours. Steve said his 80-ish parents were working the polls at the precinct up the hill. Plus some of the campaign workers (including a candidate's wife) were trash talking various contenders. It was real tempting to join in. Yet, I had my tacky marker-written ID badge with stars and stripes. I was an identifiable official with a modulated mouth.

I was a bit disappointed that Council John Connolly didn't show, but sent a surrogate. I was not aware that his wife apparently intentionally coordinated her latest birth with an election. John and I spent 90 minutes or so talking education a week and change ago and are planning to do a podcast on it. He mentioned that she was eight and one-half months pregnant and how much he was looking forward to the new one. Conga-rats to John and Meg for Edward Ronan.

An oddment yesterday was over a dozen spoiled ballots. Those tend to be rare from my previous experience. It was young, middle-aged and elderly, men and women, and even the afternoon cop on duty at the check-out table was goofed up the ballots. A few were in attentive, like using an X instead of filling in the oval as shows repeatedly on the ballot and posted instructions. Most though were in council races, typically overvoting beyond the four maximum.

The huge list of 15 candidates seemed a bit much for many voters. Quite a few asked for clarification on how and how many to vote for or complained that it was hard to find their candidates in the pile.

In the end, we had 428 ballots in our precinct — okay, but not great.

We had none of those pesky provisional ballots that require a call to elections for a database check, filling in multiple forms, and sending off your vote with the hope that downtown will clear you and count your choices. Yet, we had a lot of people who had not returned the annual city voter census form, requiring ID checks and maybe a phone call, plus a single form.

In the many dead moments, we got to socialize among the crew. For me, an extra benefit was culinary conversation with the afternoon cop. This part of Hyde Park is rife with resident police, including both guys yesterday. The afternoon one had already tried most of the local restaurants, including the several new ones. He gave good tips and mini-reviews. Plus, he spends most of most days in a patrol car, so he thinks fat control that tilts his comments toward adult concerns.

Unfortunately, I worked one precinct away from my voting location up the hill. They needed a clerk down the hill. So, I didn't get to meet any close neighbors. In my previous work in a JP location, I knew and chatted with a lot of folk on my block and nearby. Likewise, the cop on duty worked the whole day, lived on my street and generally could check out the voters on the way to the machine by sight. It was a jolly room.

We're likely to have the same crew come November 3rd. We can build on some of our personal tale. Then again, we may be too busy. We're hoping for twice, but not three times, the number of voters for the general. There's a pride of participation on our side of the check-in table too.

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Tags: massmarrier, Boston, elections, polls, preliminary, voting, Hyde Park, John Connolly

Beantown a Mean Town for Some

Boston looks to tweak, not replace...no surprise here. In yesterday's preliminary municipal election, virtually all of us can claim prescience. Most figured it would be incumbent Mayor Tom Menino against City Councilor Michael Flaherty in the mayoral final. Likewise, we had a pretty good set of guesses for the final eight of the 15 running for the four council seats.

Yawn.

Then again, not yawn. The final six weeks to the November 3rd general starts from a new gate. Befuddled and overwhelmed voters get less information overload and will largely go to the polls with a sense of the final candidates.

Left Ahead! plug: Catch us at our streaming site here at 2:30 Eastern on Thursday for commentary on Boston and the few other elections around. If you can listen live and want to call in with local news or opinions, use (718) 664-6966. Push 1 on your phone keypad to let us know you want to talk. We'll try to get to you quickly.

I grieved in advance over mayoral candidate City Councilor Sam Yoon's third place finish.

The Globe ran figures online and in print. The online when I saw it a few minutes ago kept the inexplicable error on Tito Jackson's returns (listing 45,880 instead of his 12, 520) that would have had him topping the ticket insted of coming in sixth. Perhaps that was because they endorsed him; seriously, some fat fingers blew that.

Writing of, the council endorsements are the proverbial reminder of how poorly our biggest daily directs voters. The Globe had the first four easy ones, incumbents John Connolly and Steve Murphy with Felix Arroyo and Ayanna Pressley. Three of their picks fell far sort — Ego Ezedi, Hiep Nguyen and Robert Fortes. They called for Tito Jackson, who'll need some serious oomph to climb to the final four. On raw endorsement to vote results, that's 62.5%, fine for baseball, but not punditry. The season's too short, with only two games.

Over at Civic Boston, Chris Lovett loves the absolute numbers. He breaks down the differences among various prelims here.

I had a few thoughts and feelings Monday and hold to them. For one, Flaherty is going to have to start giving voters compelling reasons to leave the comfort zone of Menino's avuncular hug. Despite a generation span, he's too much like him.

Likewise, over at Talking Politics, David Bernstein, ran his quick hits on the vote. I particularly liked and second his judgment that Yoon flew high in coming from relative obscurity to a solid third. Also, Bernstein's view that "He is now unshackled from the city council, and can spend the next few years doing something of actual use to the city. Then, if Menino calls it quits after winning one more term, Yoon is in perfect position to lead the scrum to succeed him."

Of moment in the council race is the likely flying elbows for the fourth seat. Felix Arroyo probably has three in the bag. There's a vague possibility that Tito Jackson or Tomas Gonzalez can come on strong, but I doubt it.

I also figure that it's between Pressley and Kenneally. She did better in the preliminary, but not knock-out better (9% to 7% of the vote). That was with her many endorsements that seemed to ride on her plank-like-pitches — I'm a woman and a woman of color; the council needs some of me, and I'm chummy at the Congressional level with former bosses Rep. Joe Kennedy and Sen. John Kerry.

We-like-Ayanna time is over. As with Flaherty, she'll have to get out of her own comfort zone and put up positions and details that she'll have to debate and defend. She's both bright and sweet and that will be tough for her.

Having interviewed both, I do prefer Kenneally. Now that everyone has gotten over that he had a benign brain tumor cut out, he needs to focus us on justifying yet another Irish-American councilor. He has lots of reasons, vast experience in and out of our city council, and very specific plans and policies. He needs to make a big deal out of the distinctions.

I'm going to enjoy both of these races.

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Tags: massmarrier, Boston, Kenneally, Pressley,City Council, preliminary, mayor, Menino, Flaherty, Yoon

Boston Political Reaper Tomorrow

Not endorsing and not predicting the Boston preliminary races has been really tough. I've had my choices for quite a bit, but this odd off-the-neck and over-the-ears trimming for the Nov. 3rd general does not lend itself to picks.

You can see how badly the Boston Globe blew it with its at-large council endorsements. In particular, they bypassed Andrew Kenneally. I spoke with him in June and went through his material and listened to his stumps as well. The Globe's board went with the two incumbent Irish-American councilors, but picked several several unproven candidates with far less expertise and experience than Kenneally. Numerous cynical observers have commented to me that it's obvious we could use some more racial, gender and cultural diversity on the Council, so the Globe was afraid to pick three white guys. Maybe it is that simple.

I hope he makes the eight candidates for November. For both the mayor and council spots, that six weeks to the general means a whole new campaign and the chance to distinguish platform and personality. It's exhausting to consider even as a spectator.

The mayoral race is odder still, with four major candidates. Perhaps the oddest aspect of all is how the three challengers have appeared so many times in the past two weeks together to accuse Mayor Menino of this or that. I am positive that will make it harder for voters to differentiate one from another when the three are in the get-Tom gang. That is likely to be an advantage for the presumptive leader of trio, who is of course, Irish-American Michael Flaherty.

In many ways, he is more like Menino than Sam Yoon or Kevin McCrea is. If it's Mike and Tom in the last month and a half, it's going to be real hard for Flaherty to provide compelling reasons to dump the devil we know. While he does have different and better ways to do somethings, he'll have a short time to present a preponderance of these to win.

If it were to be Yoon, he'd have a clearer path, but one just as tough. He has steadily pitched systematic change, and in great detail. He's damned smart but he has pulled out a real big pill for voters to swallow. Yoon makes a lot of sense, but are there enough voters who are serious about taking a chance on new ways of governing?

The winnowing tomorrow will set the tone for Boston for years to come. Coupled with the finals in November, this is one of those political cliché moments. We are headed for the government we deserve.

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Tags: massmarrier, Boston, Kenneally, City Council, preliminary, mayor, Menino, Flaherty, Yoon

Prelim Podcast to Thursday

Lynne, Ryan and I (a.k.a. Left Ahead) have bumped our podcast this week two days to Thursday, for this week only. The live stream is at the same time though, 2:30 p.m. Eastern.

Later, you can catch it at the same URL or at Left Ahead in a post or archives.

We figured we'd let the vote counts settle. We'll be ready Thursday to talk results. Several cities and towns, such as Worcester and Lowell, dropped their preliminaries to save money or for want of competition. That puts even more attention on Boston's mayoral and council races.

If you can listen live and want to call in with local news or opinions, use (718) 664-6966. Push 1 on your phone keypad to let us know you want to talk. We'll try to get to you quickly.

Note: The call-in is a New York number and not the nearby 781 area code.