The 'choice' for Mayor of Boston comes down to this: Marty Walsh or John Connolly. While Walsh has the backing (and endorsements) of the Democratic Party establishment, Connolly still has sufficient 'juice' to wage a viable contest for the Mayor's Office.
So both men have followed traditional paths to office within the Democratic Party. Here and now, this leaves us with a mayoral race that is culturally-coded as a class-based tension between those who rose through the ranks, however brief (as in the case of Marty Walsh) and those bred to hold office (e.g., John Connolly).
Even though both men have been public officials for years now, neither are forwarding their voting records as a basis for comparison. Marty Walsh has been a State Representative (Dorchester) since 1997; and has sponsored legislation and taken key votes that might give Boston voters some insight on how he'd govern the City as its Mayor.
John Connolly has served as a Boston City Councillor-at-Large since 2007. He has taken on two committee assignments that should be of interest to Boston voters: Education, the one he's made the linchpin of his campaign; Environment and Health, the one he's relying on to paint himself 'green.'
(See upcoming post cautioning against political 'green-washing' campaigns hurt movements to build civic engagement capacity overtime.)
Yet voters are basically expected to (quite literally) overlook the track records of candidates Walsh and Connolly in favor of the implicit frame of class-based warfare. Once Marty Walsh and John Connolly are successfully cast as the working-class hero versus the hero of political elites, voters can simply prefer one or the other on that basis.
So which one will I choose? Meh!
Even though both men have been public officials for years now, neither are forwarding their voting records as a basis for comparison. Marty Walsh has been a State Representative (Dorchester) since 1997; and has sponsored legislation and taken key votes that might give Boston voters some insight on how he'd govern the City as its Mayor.
John Connolly has served as a Boston City Councillor-at-Large since 2007. He has taken on two committee assignments that should be of interest to Boston voters: Education, the one he's made the linchpin of his campaign; Environment and Health, the one he's relying on to paint himself 'green.'
(See upcoming post cautioning against political 'green-washing' campaigns hurt movements to build civic engagement capacity overtime.)
Yet voters are basically expected to (quite literally) overlook the track records of candidates Walsh and Connolly in favor of the implicit frame of class-based warfare. Once Marty Walsh and John Connolly are successfully cast as the working-class hero versus the hero of political elites, voters can simply prefer one or the other on that basis.
So which one will I choose? Meh!
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