Blame Game Over U.S. Senate Race -- and Flip-Flop of the Year Award

The Democratic Party and its supporters wasted no time to start passing the blame over the loss their candidate, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, in the U.S. Senate special election last Tuesday to State Senator Scott Brown.

Political reporter Bob Katzen writes in his Beacon Hill Roll Call column about how the blame could be passed all the way back to 2004 -- when the state legislature passed a law changing the way a new senator is chosen. At the time, Senator John Kerry was the Democratic nominee for president; if he would have won that race, the law up until 2004 gave the governor the power to appoint his successor in the senate.

And the governor at that time was none other than Mitt Romney, a Republican.

If the 2004 bill had never been passed, then Senator Paul Kirk, temporary appointee of Governor Deval Patrick, would continue in his post until after the November 2012 election for the seat.

While the 2004 bill passed the legislature overwhelmingly, finger-wagger Jon Keller singles out Milton State Sen. Brian Joyce and Mattapoisett Rep. William Straus for their roles behind the bill.

Locally, we can ask: How did our Allston-Brighton representatives vote on the 2004 bill to change the way a senate vacancy is filled from an appointment to a special election? A "yes" vote was in favor of a special election instead of a gubernatorial appointment.

Rep. Kevin Honan - Yes
Rep. Michael Moran - Was not yet elected
former Sen. Anthony Galluccio - Was not yet elected
Sen. Steven Tolman - Yes

Note that Rep. Moran played a more recent role in September 2009 in chairing the legislature's committee on elections that reformed the 2004 law in order to provide for a temporary gubernatorial appointment pending the outcome of the special election.

Honan, Moran, Galluccio, and Tolman all voted for the September 2009 bill.

Reps. Honan and Moran both voted against a similar bill in 2006 that would have granted the same temporary appointment powers to the governor. They both win the "Flip-Flop of the Year" award for Allston-Brighton.

BRA Ought to Drop the Shovel and Stop Digging

One of the basic rules of crisis management and organizational communications is that when you find yourself deep in a hole, the first thing you do is stop digging.

The BRA slipped into that mistake on Monday.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority has been criticized during the last few days over a project manager's emails that were viewed as disparaging towards some Allston-Brighton residents. Mayoral candidate Councilor-At-Large Michael Flaherty, his unofficial running mate Councilor-At-Large Sam Yoon, District 9 City Councilor Mark Ciommo, and Ciommo's challenger Alex Selvig -- as well as Mayor Thomas Menino himself -- all expressed criticism of the BRA's emails on Monday.

The BRA was doing a reasonably good job at crisis management over the issue: the employee was disciplined in response to a Boston Globe reporter's inquiries; the employee offered an apology; criticism from Flaherty was forcefully rebutted by BRA director John Palmieri; etc. Political campaigns are fair game for this kind of back-and-forth; that's what the sport of politics is all about.

All of this followed the crisis management script until BRA spokesperson Susan Elsbree went beyond criticizing mayoral candidate Flaherty's proposals to reform the BRA to point her finger once again at a few Allston-Brighton residents:

Elsbree said [BRA project manager Jay] Rourke has already apologized for his statements and said his comments were not aimed at the Allston-Brighton community as a whole, but rather a product of frustration at “two or three individuals who are trying to stop the relocation of 700 residents” [in the Charlesview redevelopment proposal]. [emphasis added]

Oops.

Who might she be speaking about? I can think of some.

Four Allston-Brighton residents wrote to the BRA on October 13, 2009, stating that they "support a Charlesview relocation proposal incorporating the following revisions and recommendations." And those were some pretty substantial revisions they requested.

They wrote requesting the BRA and developer to: expand the area of land in the development to include the Brookline Machine building; reduce the number of rental units (those that are beyond the low-income units for the current Charlesview tenants); reduce overall the project's density; increase the number of home ownership units; reduce of the height of the eight-story Telford Street building; express a concern about a "lack of open and recreational space" in the project; increase the amount of retail space; and halt further development of Harvard property in North Allston-Brighton until "significant development of the Holton Street Corridor is realized." Pretty broad stuff which will take a while for the BRA and the project's developers to modify and accommodate.

Who are these obstructionist A-B guys who are "trying to stop the relocation of 700 residents"?

State Senator Steven Tolman, State Representative Kevin Honan, State Representative Michael Moran, and Boston District 9 City Councilor Mark Ciommo. (Cambridge State Senator Anthony Galluccio was also a co-signer of the letter to the BRA.)

That hole just got a bit deeper. I think the BRA needs to drop the shovel again and stop digging.


Image of Digging in the Dark by Wessex Archaeology provided through a Creative Commons license.

Boring Legislative Ballot This Fall in Allston-Brighton

While the nation-wide presidential race is wide-open and full of voter interest, local elections this fall will be comparatively boring.

All sitting Allston-Brighton representatives and senators in the State Legislature are running for re-election unopposed.

Yawn.

While the certified nomination signatures are not due until Tuesday, May 27th from the local elections officials to the Elections Division in the Secretary of the Commwealth's office, the names of those individuals who pulled out nomination papers for each office are available. Only the current office-holders have pulled nomination papers for the two representative and two senator offices in A-B, according to an official at the Elections Division. Assuming that each candidate has submitted a sufficient number of valid signatures, they will all run unopposed.

17th Suffolk: Representative Kevin Honan (Democratic Party)
18th Suffolk: Representative Michael Moran (D)
2nd Suffolk and Middlesex: Senator Steven Tolman (D)
Middlesex, Suffolk, and Essex: Senator Anthony Galluccio (D)

Two years ago Representative Moran faced a Republican in the general election, Russell Evans, who mounted a vigorous campaign throughout the district. The challenger only garnered 17% of the vote in the election, however, because, of course, A-B is quite liberal and heavily Democratic. (In 2006, 54% of registered voters across Suffolk county were listed as Democrats while only 8% were listed as Republicans.)

Senator Galluccio won his seat in an open, special election last year after Senator Jarrett Barrios stepped down to take a position with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts. The Democratic primary seemed a reasonable race, but, lo and behold, no Republican challenger for the subsequent general election.

Neither Representative Honan nor Senator Tolman faced opposition for their seats in 2006.

Will somebody, please, spice up this fall's local elections in A-B by running a sticker/write-in campaign, !


Image of optical scanner and ballot by .michael.newman., and fluffernutter sandwich by roboppy, provided through a Creative Commons license.

Don't Turn to Boston Magazine for Election Information

Writer Amy Derjue Paul Flannery [see comment #2] of Boston Magazine, the magazine supposedly about the City of Boston in Massachusetts, appears to be a bit ignorant of Boston elections activity:

Hey, did you know the elections are coming up? No? Well, it’s an off-year, to put it mildly. Last year, we had the gubernatorial and senate races. Next year, we’ll get to vote for a new president. But for now, political junkies and journalists alike are left with the 5th Congressional District race, the crazy umbrella-wielding guy in Cambridge, and a few mayoral races.

Derjue then proceeds to talk about martinis and the mayoral race in Pittsfield.

I ask you, Boston Magazine: "Hey, did you know that Boston is holding an election for all 13 City Councilors on November 6th? No? It's November 6th of this year. Yes, I mean 2007." Maybe the problem is that the City Council candidates don't dress fabulously or go for plastic surgery -- they're not Boston Magazine's target demographic.

If we held the City Councilor-At-Large Candidates Forum Wednesday night at Louis Boston instead of the Brighton Elks Lodge, then do you think we would make it onto Boston Magazine's radar? Would we have to snag a red carpet, and have Big Papi and Brady-Bundchen walk it, in order to get election coverage from them? Should we have arranged to have the event sponsored by Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom, instead of the Brighton Allston Improvement Association and the Allston Civic Association? Some of the candidates could use a pair of sturdy Nordstrom shoes, though.

Maybe I also ought to remind those Boston Magazine writers that today, October 9, 2007 -- the day that Derjue Flannery wrote that blog entry -- there is an election happening right here in Boston (at least in Allston-Brighton, Charlestown, East Boston) for State Senator. The guy's name is Anthony Galluccio, running unopposed for this special election because he beat all his Democratic challengers in the primary last month. Someone needs to show up at the polls to make sure he gets enough votes to beat the usual write-ins. There's 35 minutes to go before the polls close.

No wonder turnout is so low in Boston when the MainStream Media needs notification of an election.


EDIT (10:50 pm): Senator-elect Galluccio managed to beat Mr. Write-In by a factor of only 12.5-to-1 (in Boston). Galluccio only got 453 votes in Boston. If such an election were to occur over here in Brighton, that Wallingford Road bloc could write-in more votes all by themselves. Now that would be funny!