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Election roundup: Being a progressive in Boston can be tough, JP Progressives conclude
By adamg on Thu, 08/12/2021 - 12:06pm
They tried and they tried and they tried, but in the end, JP Progressives couldn't settle on anybody to officially support for mayor in September.
Based on our voting results, JP Progressives will not be formally endorsing in the mayoral race. We all know this is a tight race and our members were split - primarily and narrowly between Michelle Wu and Kim Janey, with a small but significant number supporting Andrea Campbell. Even using ranked choice voting, neither of our leading candidates garnered enough votes to pass the 60% threshold for endorsement mandated in our bylaws.
It was a draining process, the group continues:
We just want to take a deep breath and recognize that this has been a difficult and sometimes emotional process — members of the steering committee did not always agree with one another, and we had many concerns going into the process. Would coming down on the side of one candidate or another in our recommendation upset part of our valued community? Not to mention candidates we had worked hard to elect in many previous elections, and whom we deeply respect? We also considered dual endorsement, which seemed like the path of least resistance.
The Dorchester Reporter and NBC Boston will host a televised debate among the mayoral candidates on Sept. 8.
Speaking of JP, Kendra Hicks reports an angst-free endorsement by JP Progressives in her race in District 6 (JP, West Roxbury and Mission Hill), as well as endorsements by Tito Jackson and Charlotte Golar-Richie, JP restaurant owner David Doyle, philanthropist and women's activist Barbara Lee, Planned Parenthood's Advocacy Fund and three elected officials from outside Boston city limits.
Besides Hicks, Planned Parenthood's Advocacy Fund has endorsed eight other candidates for City Council seats: Julia Mejia, David Halbert and Ruthzee Louijeune for at-large seats, Lydia Edwards in District 1 (East Boston, Charlestown, North End), Stephen McBride in District 3 (where he is running against incumbent Frank Baker), Ricardo Arroyo in District 5 (Roslindale, Hyde Park, Mattapan), Kenzie Bok in District 8 (Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway, Mission Hill, Bay Village) and Liz Breadon in District 9 (Allston/Brighton).
The Scope interviews three more Council candidate: Sara Iwany, running in District 9 (Allston/Brighton) against incumbent Liz Breadon, Angelina Camacho in District 7 (Roxbury), the seat Kim Janey is giving up, and Bridget Nee-Walsh, running for one of the four at-large seats.
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Comments
Does the endorsement come with any weight?
I don't think endorsements are worth a damn unless accompanied by significant cash or organizational, boots on the ground stuff like door-knocking and GOTV efforts. Any idea if JP Progs would have done any of that? If not, it's just self-important hot air.
Sure it does
Candidate X can say that they have the support of politician Y or the Z organization. For those 17 running for the at large seats, that could be the difference.
I would imagine that if Barros or Essabi-George make it to the final the JP Progressives will have a quick meeting and settle on Wu, Janey, or Campbell.
Sure but...
There are so many entities that make endorsements. Take JP Progressives themselves - the Wu, Janey and Campbell supporters are surely going to vote for their respective candidates which kind of shows that the endorsement isn't of much value without real world, tactical value.
For all the Wilkerson of it, the Wakanda project is going to have serious network effects that I doubt JP Progressive have unless retweeting platitudes has more value than I think it does.
Kind of answering your own question here...
Different endorsements have different weight by the nature of what the organization is and who their audiences are, but not everyone in the audience might be decided or planning on voting for the same candidates. The endorsements serve a nod to solidarity of preferred candidate. Can't argue with your point about significant other action including donations, GOTV, etc. Efficacy of the endorsement alone is highly contextual.
That's a big delineating
That's a big delineating factor in the types of endorsements. An endorsement with nothing behind it might result in a few more votes, but nothing substantial. Whereas, an endorsement from an organization like DSA would mean devoting organizational resources to things like canvassing and phone banking, which has a much bigger impact.
I'm not really familiar with JP Progressives, but this tweet leads me to believe that they're canvassing for their endorsed candidates:
Kendra Hicks is the one candidate endorsed by both JP Progressives and Boston DSA btw.
Either will do, as they have
Either will do, as they have identical programs.
Not equivalent
I honestly think Janey lacks experience. Wu has been plugging away on the Council for a long time. She knows how the sausage is made. She knows that it is the business hub of the city that creates all the money and jobs that fund all the neighborhood issues. I just don't think Janey has enough connections and insight to manage the whole city.
knows that it is the business
Do you have a reference for this? Like a campaign webpage or an interview. Anything.
Also the time on the City Council is more of a liability. The really good people spend one term or less before moving onto jobs where they actually accomplish something.
Do you have a reference for this?
Specifically for Wu? No. It's my opinion based on seeing the kind of detailed answers she gives (in person and in writing) about her proposals. Nothing seems to be "from the hip"; she has carefully considered her stance on the issues.
With regard to how long someone is on the council: There are definitely people who camp out there too long and are not mayor material. I think of Wu as having "put in her time" and now she's ready. (All the candidates are lucky that Marty moved on....like most incumbents, he could have run and won until he dropped dead.)
The only relevant thing I
The only relevant thing I found on Wu's website is
And while it sounds nice, I am skeptical that this is actually true. You are saying that Wu knows that it is
because every reasonable person does. And I don't disagree with you, but since we are discussing an election, what matters is not just what the candidate privately believes or knows, but what they are ready to say publicly.
This is why I'm not a politician
I trust that she knows where the money comes from. For any candidate to say, "Downtown is where all the money is" would make them look like they are in the pocket of big business and probably don't care about new playgrounds for neighborhood parks.
And I trust she knows that
And I trust she knows that rent control exacerbates housing shortages, among other unspeakable things.
My original point was that Wu and Janey offer the same thing, irrespective of what they privately believe.
Sure
If you don't consider the ways they are different or what they have said, they are exactly the same. /S
Ok, give me one example of
Ok, give me one example of substantial policy disagreement.
Easy
Janey rips off any good Wu idea after two weeks max. So with Wu, we'd get the good ideas immediately.
If it's so easy, give me one
If it's so easy, give me one example.
I didn't want to interject but
The most obvious one to me is the free bus fare pilot. This isn't that hard.
Splitters
https://youtu.be/WboggjN_G-4?t=25
funny headline
As usual
Who is supporting Janey?
She’s totally unqualified and has been an absolute train wreck in the position. This boggles the mind.
We are in the first five or
We are in the first five or so cities with a vaccine mandate. Doesn't look like a train wreck at all.
Who is supporting Janey?
Almost 22% of eligible voters polled.
You should broaden your circle of friends. Get some other viewpoints.
Neighborhood sausage making?
Proof that real democracy is messy. Put a set of well educated, confident folks together and the result? Enough to try a person's patience.
After living in JP for a decade I now understand the criticism that progressives can sometimes be as ornery, stubborn and self-important as regressives. JP has a fun set of progressive stinkers who think they know best and the rest of us should kow tow to their superiority.
Nothing wrong with a non-endorsement
They're genuinely split, so they are better off not endorsing.
sorry for the duplicate response
my browser didn’t load this comment till after i posted mine.
?
i would think that days of debate and voting which yielded no endorsement suggests that they actually don’t think they know better than anyone?
Huh?
No, it just means that the progressives don't agree. Shocking, I know.
When I was young and idealistic, my girlfriend and I joined an organization that wanted to start a feminist newspaper. The thing wasn't getting off the ground, though, because although they all pretty much agreed on the form of feminism, there was scope drift and different factions wanted to also throw in slavery reparations, animal voting rights, banning corn syrup, and so on.
They gave me the boot because of my external genitalia, so I was denied the thrills of watching it implode further, but about a year later the first, and only, issue came out.
I am progressive and vote in every election, but I'd rather do the backstroke in a septic tank than spend unpaid time being a member of a progressive political group.
You need one boss, not a committee
In the case of the feminist newspaper it would only work with a single, strong voice at the top who says, "This is how it's going to be". They would have to be forceful enough and have the financial means to keep everyone on the same page. Look how well uHub runs!
Yup
The leftist circular-firing-squad is a well-known thing, and it's what keeps us from making any progress.
This is not a 2017 when there
This is not a 2017 when there was a clear progressive choice.
Who was the progressive choice in 2017?
(Not living in Boston, I don't know the answer to this)
Tito Jackson
Needless to say, he didn't do that well.
Walsh, just as in 2013. I
Walsh, just as in 2013. I used Google.
Vote Quimby!
Vote Quimby!
newsflash
progressives are generally people who prefer awareness and who don't want to stay in the Fast Times at Ridgemont High mentally their whole lives like the gen X'ers who are kinda Boomer 'lite"
They will only grow in number and in power. You can only beat progressives by burning the entire planet to a crisp, and yes, you are ahead and doing a very good job at burning Earth to a crisp
The hot air you're talking about isn't what you think
Putney Swope
was elected this way.
Putney Swope
Was a pretty successful CEO, as I recall
Annissa will win
because her base voter can make a decision and stick with it. They typically don't have pearls to clutch in deciding the best choice from a virtue-signaling perspective.
Reminder
If she makes it into the final, it'll be a two-person race and even with Campbell going all in on attacking Janey, that won't be a race where progressives will flail and lose their heads.