Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham wrote today about Boston City Councilor Charles Yancey running for both mayor and re-election to his city council seat. The parallels to what Alderman Ted Hess-Mahan is doing as he pursues both his Ward 3 alderman at-large seat and the mayor’s job are very interesting.
Here’s an excerpt:
Yancey, who has three challengers, bristles at the suggestion that his run isn’t genuine. He says he’s just as serious as the other guys.
“I don’t like to see my candidacy for mayor trivialized,” he said. “I love the city and believe I have something to offer.”
Gail,
The excerpt is biased in favor of Ted and Yancey. You need to cite what Abraham says are the negatives about what Yancey is doing in order to be fair for those here who don’t bother to read the article. She wrote the article and her views are what are relevant. The excerpt makes Yancey sound like a victim with a good heart.
Barry –
It was difficult to pull an excerpt from this column that wasn’t too Boston-focused. I trust that people who are interested will read it, and people who aren’t won’t make their decisions based on this blog thread.
There really isn’t much similarity here. Yancey most likely will not be on the Nov ballot twice — he needs to get by the primary (in Sept) which will be difficult. In Newton each Ward has many advocates at the legislative level — Boston does not. Mattapan would be crushed if Yancey went all-in for Mayor and failed them.
I wonder if Ed Prisby has had time to follow the 2013 Newton Mayor’s Race?
http://edprisby.wordpress.com/2009/11/
He made an interesting point about how Ted Hess-Mahan was one of Setti’s first and biggest backers and suggested that Ted could run his own mayoral campaign.
He doesn’t like his run for mayor to be trivialized? Can’t he see that it is HE who is the one doing the trivializing?
Dan Fahey — He’s a guy that grew up in Roxbury who has for 30 years paid the mortgage by advocating for residents of Mattapan. Two other city councilors that playing things differently are lawyers — and the other has extensive gov’t background in at the Federal level where I’m sure someone will through him a bone if he needs a paycheck. Why dis’ someone like Yancey — it’s encouraging a continuation of pols with means winning everything in sight. Newton is different. Very different
Ted told the TAB he would drop out of the race for Ward 3 aldermen at large if enough qualified candidates step forward.
We haven’t reached that threshold yet.
James Cote’s signatures have been certified, but David Olson told me that as of this morning Robin Clemens hasn’t returned any signatures.
I will never vote for Ted, for any race in this city. I watched him in action while he voted no on the resolution for the Newton firefighters. He knew the firefighters were being treated unfairly by the Cohen administration and it didn’t mean anything to him. I think at first Ted said the resolution wouldn’t have any effect and then he flip flopped and said it could interfere with arbitration. He was a true politician at that meeting. He was red faced and uncomfortable. I guess that’s what you do when you know in your heart that you are doing a group of people that lay their lives on the line and will respond to you and your family 24 hours a day 7 days a week no matter what.
Mike,
Ted is a BS artist. He floods these blogs with his own bloviating, and he floods it with info taken from documents. It’s so immense that one is never sure from day to day what his position really is, if he even has one. If he actually is as immersed in the details as his postings would suggest, we’ll have another Jimmy Carter on our hands who can’t accomplish anything and will make a lot of bad decisions. His running for two offices suggests that he can’t really make up his mind about something as simple as where to put his effort in an election.
As his last post shows, it really easy to stand on the outside and criticize, and to take a stand after he thinks there is a strong public opinion in support of that stand. My guess is that he’d be very ineffective as a mayor.
I meant his last post on another blog
http://blogs.wickedlocal.com/newton/2013/07/25/sheff-is-certified-in-race-for-newtons-mayor/comment-page-1/#comment-92005