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Yoon makes it a three-man race for mayor
By adamg on Sun, 02/08/2009 - 6:43pm
The Globe breaks the news that Sam Yoon is running for mayor this year, although a formal announcement won't come for awhile. Yoon is in his second two-year term on the council.
He joins fellow at-large Councilor Michael Flaherty and Kevin McCrea. Tom Menino has yet to say if he'll spend his $1-million+ war chest and try for an unprecedented fifth term.
Jimbo wonders:
... Yoon would appear to be the most liberal of the three Democrats, while Flaherty should have strong backing from unions and Menino has a vast political machine at his disposal. Does Yoon's candidacy weaken Flaherty's chance to unseat Boston's longest-serving mayor?
Yoon's campaign Web site (perhaps now that he's running for mayor, he'll update his blog for the first time since 2005).
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Comments
With two open seats, I'm giving Bennett the bullet vote!
With these open seats, I giving Doug Bennett a bullet vote to replace one of these guys. I live in East Boston. Bennett came to my house last Summer and the other day he came back through my neighborhood. His signs are in in store windows accross the city. I think Bennett could top the ticket. Check out his website at
No way that happens. Bennett
No way that happens. Bennett will have a tough time getting onto the Council.
way too early to tell
Yoon's entry into the race makes this much more interesting, but it's too early to see who is hurt most/least by his candidacy:
Will the unions that endorsed him in '07 go with him, Flaherty, or Menino?
What about Boston's communities of color, which have been fractured to some degree by the Wilkerson & Turner situations? (Yoon stuck with Wilkerson till the Bitter End; I don't recall him endorsing Chang-Diaz even after the primary.)
And how will his close relationships with Wilkerson and Turner play to the voters?
Barack Obama's short stint as a U.S. Senator notwithstanding, does Yoon appear too inexperienced with two two-year Council terms under his belt?
He's definitely the most liberal of the group.
Jimbo's take on Flaherty and Yoon
I think it certainly creates problems for Flaherty since he was the anti-Menino vote getter. Don't forget that since there are already three people running (assuming they all get enough signatures), only two of them will make it to the Final election (November) since the other(s) will be whittled off after the Preliminary election (September).
Assuming either Yoon or Flaherty don't make it to the Final, the loser will be out of a job since they can't also be on the ballot for city council.
Also, I'm still not convinced Menino's going to go for a 5th round...
Issues & Ideas or Mud & Thuggery?
In various posts people have suggested that this is going to be one nasty campaign.
Wondering if that will be the case, or whether we'll actually have a debate over ideas for the future of the city...
Yoon too young?
Ross Levanto has his concerns:
more than simply age
Yes, I think the concerns go to both age and experience. Yoon is very capable, he ran a great campaign four years ago that showed he had bonafide political smarts, and he deserves to be considered among the up and coming young politicians in the city.
However, because Boston gives its mayor a lot of power and the council less so, the councillors don't get a chance to show their A games (in a few cases, C games) as much as would be good to develop city leaders. So four years on the Council is a less than ideal training ground.
If Yoon wins and is ready for the job, then great, he's young, smart, and energetic. But if he wins and isn't ready, or loses and is considered a has-been at age 39 or 40, then that would be a shame for everyone.
Age
Flaherty and Yoon are the same age so I don't think that should even be part of the question. One of the great things about him is he doesn't seem to be like many other city councilors that came before him - he really seems like he wants to improve the city and not just find a lifelong job in the Mayor's office or some other government office. Remember, he had already established himself before he was elected to the council as a smart, visionary planner that did some great work for Chinatown. As you can imagine, I'm sure their were a lot of competing interests in those citing and development deals down there.
Also...kudos to those that have thoughtfully commented on this site. The Globe and Herald comment sections seem to be chock full of nuts.
in any event, he can win
There's a genuineness about Yoon that I've liked from the beginning. And yes, as an Asian American, I confess that for me, his election in 2005 was one of those signs of change in Boston that I very much welcomed.
I was very disappointed over his sticking with the likes of Wilkerson, because as much as I believe there are times when Boston's communities of color need to stand together, rallying around a corrupt state senator who happens to be African American wasn't one of them.
Yoon and Flaherty may be contemporaries age-wise, but Flaherty has been playing the insider game longer. Maybe Yoon figured he's learned what he needs to know after 4 years on the City Council and concluded there's only so much one can do in that position. If he runs and loses, he may recede from the visible political arena, but he's not the kind of person to stop trying to make a difference.
IN ANY EVENT, HE CAN WIN: He places a strong second in the preliminary, then goes head-to-head with the Mayor in the final round. In a two-candidate race, anything can happen.
Yoon has wide appeal
There are a lot of people in Boston of all political stripes who are sick of the machine. Newness to the political scene in Boston gives Yoon wide appeal. He doesn't owe favors to so many people.
My office neighbor is an Angry White Man, given to fulminations about how we should all buy ammo because now Obama's elected those people are going to rise up and come after us. He's a rabid right-wing hawk. And he says he likes Yoon.
Between me and him there's quite a gap, politically. And I like Yoon too. So that makes me think Yoon's got a good chance.
Your office neighbor sounds like a strange mixture, anon.
Although I reside in a city just outside Boston (Somerville), it sounds as if Sam Yoon would be a welcome change, especially if he appeals to so many people, including your angry office neighbor.
Is Boston a non partisan
Is Boston a non partisan primary city?
Yes
So technically, we have preliminaries to reduce the number of candidates in the final elections to two times the number of open seats.
That having been said, everybody knows that every single candidate running this year is a Democrat, except Doug Bennett (who wants to be the first Republican on the city council since, oh, John Sears, unless you sort of count DINO Dapper O'Neil, who tried to get appointed U.S. marshal by Reagan, and Chuck Turner, a Green/Rainbow member).
My town is like that as well
My town is like that as well (and we have the same situation where everyone is a democrat as well.) I think it makes sense, especially in areas dominated by one party, to have a non partisan primary. I actually kind of feel that with the balance of power being so heavily in the democratic corner in Massachusetts that we should have non partisan primaries in some of our state rep/state senate races so the election doesnt just end in September when the democrat wins his primary and has to wait 2 months before he steps over the republican carcus (spelling?) on the way out.
Yes
Yes
This will split whatever
This will split whatever opposition there is to Menino, and give him an easy win for re-election. He's still well loved in Boston. Even if things are a litle frayed around the edges, Menino is keeping the streets plowed, property taxes pretty low, and the trash picked up. That ought to be enough for him to keep weighing the votes in the big precincts.
Sam Yoon can very well be our next mayor, but I doubt that'll happen before '13.
From an outsiders
From an outsiders perspective I think he is doing a really good job, but if I lived in Boston I would like to see Menino move on. That being said, and I hate to be the guy to say this, but I think it would be smarter to let him serve four more years then strongly suggest he step aside next time around. It really is not a good time to be changing mayors for a city the size of Boston, the budget will be in chaos because of the economy and IM not sure if its the best time to let someone like Yoon prove himself. Its not even like Boston is the only place in trouble, the whole country is in turmoil, and sometimes the difference between a 5 percent cut and a 7 percent cut in aid is who you know, and how much you can show you need the money, a new person may not be as able to do that.
Stay tuned shady, stay tuned
Keep the old adage in mind - figures never lie, but liars know how to figure. Is there really a crisis at the city level if revenues are still expected to increase and if so was it caused by the financial crisis or poor planning of leadership? City hall projected a $33 million deficit for FY '10 back in the Spring of 2008. What did they do to correct it? They kept hiring and handing out raises until the real crisis hit in the fall (and even after that) knowing that we supposedly had 5% collective bargaining raises, 7% pension increases and 12% health care increases right around the corner. If those are the real numbers, that's plain irresponsible and you can rest assured Beacon Hill was watching. Stay tuned - this may start to get interesting if people start poking around a little.
This is good news
Yoon getting in is great news. He is a smart, honest, and will bring the level of debate up a few notches. That is if the attack machines of Flaherty and Menino don't get him first. I'm wishing him all the best...
Sam has always impressed
Sam has always impressed me as a thinking, sincere public servant who's concerned about "small d" democracy. From where I'm sitting, the biggest issues facing the city are the relative lack of transparency and accountability city officials and departments have to the people of Boston. And when Sam talks about those things like transparency and access to government, I believe that he actual does care about them, and would try to make some changes at City Hall if he were Mayor.
I firmly believe, however, that no matter who gets elected,
elected officials, whoever they may be, have to be held accountable, no matter what kind of promises they make , how impressive they are, or what kind of documents or whatever that they may sign into law. Ralph Nader was 100% right on his money when he said that if we don't hold our elected officials' feet to the fire, we'll continued to get screwed. The electorate cannot afford to be lulled into complacency no matter who's in office, whether it be mayor of a big city, POTUS, or whatever.
Yoon is an interloper
Sam Yoon has no more business being Mayor of Boston than he does being a City Councilor. As an at-large city councilor his constituents, theoretically, are all city residents. However, Yoon has focused only on Chinatown, for obvious reasons, and on the South End/Roxbury to court the black vote. That's also why he went to the mat for Diane Wilkerson and Chuck Turner when logic and conscience should have told him to run the other way. Yoon is polarizing and divisive.
His campaign is being financed by rich Asian and Asian-American venture capitalists, mainly from the West Coast, who support him for no other reason than that they are from the same ethnic group. Don't take my word for it. Look at the blog entry of Bernard Moon who raised beaucoup dollars for Yoon last year.
http://bernardmoon.blogspot.com/2008/09/help-elect...
And here is the author’s LinkedIn profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/bernardmoon
Im not a Yoon man myself,
Im not a Yoon man myself, but I bet you if you look at Flahertys finances he must have Irish people who went to bat for him, and I would be interested to see how much time Flaherty or any other candidate spends in a district that doesnt come out heavy for him during campaigns. Nothing new, just a different race thats all.
Yikers
Yeah, CKielt's post wreaks of fears of the Yellow Peril.
Whoa....
Yoon is the not the answer
Good for Yoon trying to get ahead. He moved to Boston two years ago from Arlington so he could get elected to the City Council. I have heard him speak but once he is off a civic group's agenda he doesnt stay to find out what other issues are going on in his own neighborhood. Dorchester's Councillor Feeney knows how to actually help constituents rather than talk chop shop #'s and not understand fully the transparency that he actually talks about. Sam Yoon needs a real coach in his corner to explain to him that he is not ready for such a big job.
Candidates On ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ISSUES
I have been excited about the prospect of a real mayors race since I first heard the rumors about Flaherty and Yoon runnning, but so far with this discussion about Yoon, all I hear is that people think he "feels like" change. But then I read:
"Sam Yoon Council Record Thin" http://news.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view/20...
OR
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/09/...
Which says:
"He chairs the council's postaudit and oversight committee and has called some public hearings on issues of note: police details, mortgage foreclosures, and crime. But his staffers can point to no successful legislation he has authored as a result."
"Yoon has been criticized for his absence from some council meetings. Yoon stalled the city's purchase of an acoustic gunshot-detection system last year, saying he wanted to have more public hearings on the anticrime device. But he hadn't attended public hearings already held on the topic."
So where does he stand ON THE ISSUES? WHATS ARE HIS ACCOMPLISHMENTS? I for one am not going to vote based on "the feeling" someone gives me but what they are actually going to give me.
Can anyone enlighten me?