Voters boot Lara, Arroyo
![King, Weber, Pepen and Ruiz](https://www.universalhub.com/files/styles/main_image/public/images/2023/56winners.jpg?itok=preBaqMT)
King vs. Weber, Pepen vs. Ruiz.
Voters in District 6 (Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, Mission Hill) today solidly rejected one-term incumbent and crash-plagued incumbent Kendra Lara, while voters in neighboring District 5 (Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale) gave the boot to ethics-plagued incumbent Ricardo Arroyo.
In District 6, newcomer Ben Weber cruised to victory over fellow Jamaica Plain resident Lara. Weber will face off in November against William King of West Roxbury.
In District 5, former Wu City Hall aide Enrique Pepen will compete against former BPD officer Jose Ruiz in November.
Lara and Arroyo shared similar progressive records but also, over the past year, scandals that were too much for voters to ignore: In Lara's case, crashing into a house on Centre Street while driving without a license, even if she was doing 27 instead of more than 50.
Arroyo faced two issues: His $3,000 $3,000 ethics fine for representings his brother in a lawsuit against the city after becoming a councilor and the way now disgraced US Attorney Rachael Rolllins tried to help him in his unsuccessful race for DA by using her office to try to kneecap winner Kevin Hayden.
In District 3 (Dorchester), John FitzGerald is leading the rest of the field to replace outgoing incumbent Frank Baker by a large margin. Unofficial city numbers look like he will make the final with Joel Richards.
In District 7 (Roxbury), incumbent Tania Fernandes Anderson won one of the two slots in the November final. If current numbers hold, she'll face off against perpetual candidate Althea Garrison. Perpetual homophobic and Islamophobic loser Roy Owens kept up his record of losing. Also finishing far, far from the top, well behind even Owens: Anti-vaxxer Padma Scott.
Other districts did not have preliminaries today because they did not have more than two candidates. Also not having a preliminary today: The three incumbents and five challengers seeking at-large council seats.
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Comments
Good. Lara should be spending
Good. Lara should be spending a few months in prison.
Prison time is not warranted in this case
But losing your job sure is.
This is true.
But it should be.
Our culture has given a pass to reckless and dangerous drivers for decades. There’s a saying, if you want to get away with murder, do it from behind the wheel.
Maybe, maybe not
But at the very least, she should lose the license she was trying so hard not to have.
Motor Vehicle Laws are the New Jim Crow
You should watch her interview on the local NBC affiliate. She came close to out and out saying that.
My honest take- people don't serve time for driving without a license in an unregistered car and without insurance. They also don't go for reckless driving, so long as it's their first offense and no one was injured. Of course, most people plea out and don't try to push for a trial, so who knows. Maybe she will be able to study the Methodone Mile- from a window at South Bay.
Also, most people don't drive
Also, most people don't drive into a house.
What do you mean "no one was injured"?
Lara's son was injured - he wasn't properly restrained and needed stitches! And let's not forget the major property damage she caused - it's only through luck that no one was standing where she hit the house.
This was not a minor fender bender. Even if she'd had a license and the car had been registered, it would still be considered a major accident. Save your pity for the poor homeowner who has had to deal with the aftermath.
I feel for the homeowner
Who wasn’t injured. A house isn’t a living being. I would say I have a lot more compassion for the homeowner than Lara has.
The son did need medical attention and is now okay.
The reality is that if she was licensed and the car was in order, this was a ticket, insurance surcharge crash. If everyone who sped did jail time, we’d need a lot more jails. Some say America incarcerates too much. Glad you and Kinopio are around to remind me of the mindset behind that.
“If everyone who sped did
“If everyone who sped did jail time, we’d need a lot more jails.”
If everyone who sped did jail time, we’d have a lot less speeders”
What makes you think
What makes you think Massholes will slow down even a smidge, just because of a little jail time? I bet "blue line" bumper stickers would get a lot more popular though.
And another one
Remind me again how that whole “war on drugs” thing is going. And they don’t even jail for simple possession, which is the equivalent of speeding.
Only if you’re taking actual speed.
Addiction takes many forms and has many different affects.
Are you saying motor addiction is a thing?
You seem to be confused on that.
Jail
In the Commonwealth you don't even get charged with a crime when you carry illegal loaded guns with illegal extended magazines to the TSA screening checkpoint, even though there are mandatory minimum sentences in law for that very thing.
I think she is in the clear with the courts. And once she files bankruptcy she won't have to pay the homeowner for the damage. That's how she will "take responsibility."
Sounds about ….
…. right.
Weasels will be weasels.
from Twitter
https://x.com/jessamynejones/status/1701721314048745929?s=20
Yeah
While I don't think she should go to jail, driving 50+ in a 25mph zone is reckless. It's not Jim Crow, it's physics.
I thought it was determined by the car's
black box that she was actually going 27 mph, not the 50mph reported by the BPD. If credible, that changes the calculus a bit for me.
Read the thread yesterday
There's a fair amount of technical background explaining how the black box recorded the speed of 27mph when she hit the fence, not when she swerved. The black box data confirms the police analysis of her going twice the speed limit initially.
Technical details aside, it doesn't make logical sense why wouldn't she just slam on the brakes and stop safely or have a minor fender bender if she was actually going 27.
The black box recorded a max
The black box recorded a max speed of 27mph and a speed of 10mph when she hit the fence. I hope it's nice living in your fantasy world.
Do you have the black box data?
Neither do I. We just have to hope the company which Lara hired isn't withholding data which might contradict the wishes of their client. (And have they publicly said anything? We just have Lara's word on that too.)
But anyway, I am happy. A corrupt politician lost an election. Even if the crash was 100% unavoidable, there's no question she willfully drove without a license for a decade.
i’m sorry
i just cannot conjure up this level of vitriol about driving without a license. it feels extremely arbitrary.
Her situation is hardly …
… that of an undocumented person.
It’s more about reckless driving and crashes, if you read the posts.
It'll be fun
When the data is made fully public, one of you will be looking bad and the other will be looking grand.
I won't putting money on you being wrong. Of course, I'm not putting money on the data going public. Lara is getting "promoted" to private citizen come January.
You sound very confident
Citation please.
I was driving down a road at
I was driving down a road at night and I was doing 55 in a 45 zone and people were passing me on a one lane road.
Short answer
We don't know.
Long answer:
Lara has a report from an accident reconstruction firm that received the black box from her vehicle and it recorded 27 mph at some point (Lara claims it was when she reacted to the other car). We don't have that report and its context in any form other than the comments from Lara at her press conference.
The police published a report ( https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23872771/20230712162313066-1.pdf ) from the officer doing accident reconstruction at the scene with info from the witness(es) and with measurements of distance and assumed reaction times (very generous ones) to determine with 2 different methods that clearing the involved distances required her to be doing at least 53 mph on the road at the beginning of her reaction. Additionally, he states if she had been doing the speed limit then she would have covered over 5x the distance necessary to stop before hitting the house (which also matches really well with the useful estimate of 2x the speed needs 4x the stopping distance because kinetic energy equals one-half of mass times velocity squared).
AND, in that report, the officer was also able to estimate the speeds at the changes in driving surfaces (the first collision which was the fence went from sidewalk to yard). And he calculated that to be around 20-30 mph...which conveniently matches her report.
AND, we know that vehicle black boxes only save a bit of data leading up to collisions and a bit afterwards based on things like sudden deceleration and/or airbag deployment triggering the save events. This means that it likely would NOT have a record of her driving down the road (when the officer calculates her doing 53 mph at the beginning of her reaction) and would only have information when it thought an incident had occurred...like striking the fence/sidewalk, at which point her claim of 27 mph matches the calculated 20-30 mph range, which people are inferring comes from why her statements actually agree with the police report in that regard even if she's attempting to infer the 27 mph was how fast she was going on the street itself as well.
she claimed the son was belted in the rear but not in a booster
then how did he bash his face and need stitches?
That's the problem
He was seat-belted but not boosted. That means the adult seat belt did not properly restrain him because he was too small for it to work properly. Thus he likely dislodged above the belt enough to hit the seat in front of him and cut his face above his eye. If he'd been in a booster seat, the belt would have kept him and the seat in place properly to avoid striking anything.
BTW, in the report I linked elsewhere in the comments, the officer investigating checked the seatbelts. Lara wasn't belted in properly at all (likely wasn't wearing her seat belt) because if the airbags deploy, then seatbelts that are in use will freeze in position intentionally and won't unfreeze afterwards. You have to replace the seatbelt completely. He tested this in her wrecked car and the driver's seatbelt moved freely indicating it wasn't in use when the airbags went off.
Aside from being absolutely stupid (and lucky that the airbag saved her by itself), this is actually ONE OF THE FUCKING REASONS HER LICENSE WAS SUSPENDED BEFORE. She hasn't learned from her past mistakes at all.
Her social media posts were very telling
Her whole schtick was.. all bad things in her life was because of racism, but when she succeeds it's also because of her race. A true grifter.
comments like this
are why it’s hard for me to believe that any of this reaction is truly related to driving without a license or insurance.
Read the post.
First.
i mean
you know i’m on here all the time, right? i’m not the most active commenter but i read pretty much every post and comment therein.
to say that Lara’s unlicensed driving isn’t at the forefront of the vitriol towards her is just… i don’t know how else to say it, but that’s just not true.
since the incident i’ve participated in several conversations on this website that point to driving without a license – “FOR NEARLY TEN YEARS!!!” – as a measure of the Councilor’s character.
the legal process is playing out in the way it should, seemingly free of impropriety. she was free to run for her seat again; the people spoke and she was unseated. yet there are still calls for her head.
further, there seems to be a very strong undertone of sticking it to the progressive woman, especially considering how vocal she is about her experience.
i am not her constituent, and i am not writing this in defense of her. again, comments like the one above just give me a bit of pause.
It's a pretty obvious change in standards
I've seen a lot of discussions about unsafe driving on this site, and this is the first instance where all the people who are normally on here posting about "well this could happen to anyone" or "let's wait until all the facts are in" or "probably the pedestrian/cyclist/etc did something to deserve it" are suddenly and overwhelmingly convinced that in this one case, the driver is guilty and should have the book thrown at her...
I’m getting yours and berk alums point now.
I am so used to purposefully not noticing those useless hypocrites that I needed a reminder to take a second look.
Which I did.
I don’t think my reasons for outrage at her behavior are at all the same as theirs. It doesn’t change my opinion. But yes, you two are right to point out the ulterior motives of some of these commenters. And the remarkable number of them.
Twits are entitled their noise making. And they deserve calling out. Thanks.
There are two different levels here
And two different standards.
From a legal perspective, she is well within her rights to mount a defense against the charges with a hope that she will be exonerated. Hence, there is a review that says she was merely going 2 miles above the speed limit, the note that the registration of the vehicle had expired right before the accident (a tough claim) and that the vehicle was insured at the time, along with the claim that she was in the process of getting her driving privileges restored.
That said, as an elected official, there is a different standard at play. How contrite has she really been? Is she owning up to her mistakes? John Costello made an attempt to ask how much are people up in arms because of her place on the political spectrum, or in other words, are you attacking or supporting her based on her politics in relation to your own. From a political level, she should have pled out, admitted her mistake, and asked for forgiveness. She didn't really do that.
I've been tough on her about this, but at the same time, I will repeat that if this was Kendra Hicks, the woman who lost to Mary Tamer in 2021, no one other than the "lock 'em up" types (Lee and Kinopio) would be expecting her to serve a day in jail. Her actions deserve justice, but justice isn't served with her incarcerated.
But it keeps them off the road.
Safety first.
Not a single group of people
My reaction to her getting voted out is valid because I expect our elected officials to be ethical and abide by the laws. She clearly has no problem shirking driving laws and her response to having gotten caught at doing so isn't contrite or apologetic...it's defensive and cagey. She's attempted to minimize the situation for purely political purposes making an even worse impression on me than the start of it all.
There are definitely others who have agreed with this same end for different means. Those people are repugnant. I don't like that we're in alignment on this. They might be racist, or might be conserva-toons, or both...or some other equally awful person...but that doesn't mean that they're not wrong with the *end* they've chosen even if they've justified it by completely wrong means. But it's not fair to claim that because they like this outcome that anyone liking this outcome is equally repugnant.
i’m not questioning anyone’s character
i’m questioning the means, as you say. i’m questioning the certainty with which people are defaming her character, as though it is self-evident that she is corrupt.
honestly, i agree with the outcome. the people spoke and she lost her seat. i am also befuddled that people are calling for jail time, etc.
My take
Willfully ignoring serious laws is the mark of corruption in a lawmaker. If you don't think you should follow laws, don't be in the position of making them. There's a person running for president who also thinks they should be free to pick and choose which laws to follow.
Reckless driving isn't a victimless crime. Almost universally, people who have lost their license are a risk to others when behind the wheel. Lara proves that point.
I don't think she should go to jail, just that she shouldn't be in office. Beyond that, it's a matter for the courts.
i’m sorry
i just cannot get behind this take. it flattens all context to the point of meaninglessness.
My reply was to the Jim Crow comment
Reading her social media posts(before she locked them) proves that statement is not hard to believe, she is constantly blaming0 race for everything.
Jail won't repair the property damage to the house
which, other than injury to Lara's son, is the most important thing she needs to deal with.
GoFundMe
Is anyone aware of a go fund me for the homeowner?
Seriously?
I'm happy she's ousted, but calling for a GoFundme for the homeowner is performative concern-trolling.
Is that not called "homeowner
Is that not called "homeowner's insurance"?
That won't get touched
Her driving insurance will pay that, and they won't be happy with it. She'll have higher premiums going forward (assuming she registers her car, pays insurance, etc).
Curious about that
Most auto insurance policies won't cover claims if the vehicle was driven by someone who couldn't legally operate it.
What driving insurance?
Lara can't have driving insurance when she wasn't a licensed driver. The car owner's insurance likely won't pay for the same reason.
The homeowner is going to have to, at the very least, pay a deductible plus go through all the hassles of dealing with her homeowner's insurance. Not to mention the trauma of no longer feeling safe in her house - that must have been damn scary.
Ah, yes
Insurance companies love to pay out money without any repercussions.
This poor woman had her house run into and will have to pay her personal policy deductible (5-10k?) then have her premiums go up all because Lara couldn’t own anything aside from excuses.
Best place for her.
If she had shot a gun at the house, had no license to own or use a gun, and claimed her bullet was traveling at a safe speed, I wonder what her sentence would be.
Great news
Great news. Weber and Pepen will both win in November and bring some respectability back to the council.
Surprised
Very surprised to see they both did not make it to the general. Maybe there is some hope left in this city after all. Holding people and especially those chosen to represent others accountable for their actions is a wonderful thing to witness. Kudos D5 and D6 voters.
This should help to destroy
This should help to destroy any legitimacy that the JP Progressives ever had.
After a tremendous winning
After a tremendous winning streak the furthest left has now had a string of losses after Mayor Wu's victory. Arroyo twice, Lara and Rollins all out. Toss Chang-Diaz into that group. And Mejia is lucky Flaherty bowed out or she'd be at risk.
Did you happen to notice who Wu endorsed in D5?
Hint: He'll be on ballot in November.
Peppen is also too the left
Peppen is also too the left so the left did not lose both.
Letting Arroyo Off Easy
I don't think it's fair to Arroyo to attribute his loss entirely to Rollins -- it's worth remembering his conflict of interest violations or multiple sexual harassment allegations (which, to be fair again, he has never been charged over). He was pretty involved in his failure, too!
Biggest failure
was his (and Mejia's) insufferable stumping for Janey. He actually argued before the Council that holding an interim mayoral election would "disenfranchise" voters.
Yeah, it’s not fair or
Yeah, it’s not fair or entirely accurate. Even way before his troubles, there were grumbles in his district that he had a habit of not showing up to meetings, wasn’t great about returning calls, etc. for a district councilor, those things are the majority of the job. I’m sure the press didn’t help, but voters that like your work are very forgiving if you do your job.
this result
This result shows that people are paying attention and that those that voted actually recognized that they had agency here. That alone is worth celebrating in this terribly cynical age. On to November
5 Surprised Me
Then again, when I voted at my 2 precinct location, Ruiz and Pepin were the only candidates with supporters asking for support. Arroyo kind of stopped caring at one point.
Weber coming in first in 6 also was interesting. November could be interesting, but it would be tough to bet on King.
As someone that has talked to
As someone that has talked to (and been watching) Ben Weber, he is a huge flip flopper. That does not bode well for him. Mr. Weber also seems to be more concerned that the Mission Hill School was shut down than he is about the sex crimes against children that occurred there.
This surprised me...
Certain candidates seemingly carpet bombed the neighborhood, my mailbox, and my doorstep, with fliers.
While others seemingly made no effort.
My gut considered both of these red flags. But who knows.
What is the right amount of lit?
Just curious: what is the Bluenu Approved acceptable range of mailers?
solidly
??? What was the turnout?
Well
If you are able to vote and don't show up, you're saying "whatever you guys decide is fine with me", so really we're only able to count the numbers based on who gives a shit
Here
Click on the candidates in the link below (Weber, Pepen, etc.) to see the prelim results and counts. Solidly:
Pepen 40
Ruiz 31
Arroyo 19
Weber 42
King 37
Lara 20
Fitzgerald 43
Richards 19
Walsh 18
Patton 9
https://ballotpedia.org/City_elections_in_Boston,_Massachusetts_(2023)
Good riddance, I suppose
Let's hope the replacements don't screw up. :-)
ranked choice voting
Can we all agree how silly it is that Massachusetts still doesn't do ranked choice voting? If it did, then there wouldn't be any need to be a time+money wasting preliminary election yesterday. All candidates get listed on the ballot in the general election, and the consensus candidate wins.
Hell, with ranked choice voting the Mayor today probably would not be Wu, but Andrea Campbell.
Lest we forget
The Ranked Choice Voting 2020 Committee spent $10M so they could lose by 9% to the No Ranked Choice Voting Committee 2020, who spent $8,475.74.