As first runner-up and the first choice of 3503 voters, Amy Sangiolo earns the coveted title of most-sought-after-endorser. Who’s Amy going to back? With Ruthanne Fuller and Scott Lennon separated by just 544 votes in the primary, could her endorsement tip the balance?
Who’s Amy going to endorse?
by Sean Roche | Sep 13, 2017 | Newton | 31 comments
Understanding Amy’s base and the opps for both SL & RF requires negotiation, recognizing that Amy’s endorsers are not necessarily transferable. Amy’s efficient use of resource and delivering those kinds of numbers has an attractiveness which the savvy candidate will morph personally in character building beyond stern campaign strategy. Amy’s effort as Mayor is in effect a poll which, if both successful candidates recognize, reveals preferences reminiscent of McGrath v. Baker.
well done Amy.
I think Amy’s votes will most likely go to Scott in the final.
The voter turnout for Mayor may be very low as many people simply can not vote for either Scott or RuthAnne. Both favor high density development everywhere, both support future overrides, both plan to vote yes on Charter reform and both fail to understand that the School dept. can not continue to run $4million deficits annually. Both have not demonstrated in any forceful way strong leadership qualities. Both will be weak leaders and continue to manage the city in a detrimental manner.
Colleen, isn’t Amy the only one who already said yes to an override? And has Scott Lennon said he supports the charter reform? I think you’re making a lot of assumptions, including the assumption that people are going to sit the election out because Amy didn’t make it past the primaries.
I suspect Amy will endorse Scott since he is will be considered less offensive than RuthAnne to Amy’s supporters.
@Mary: Both Scott and Ruthanne have been strong supporters of a yes vote on the charter.
Bryan, do you have anything on Ruthanne and Scott’s views on the charter? I thought I knew about Ruthanne but now my Googling can’t find anything on either.
She might not endorse either. I could see her deciding that she doesn’t have a strong preference for one over the other and might have more political influence/cred going forward if she stays neutral. It’s not like there are huge differences between them.
Meredith has it right.
Tweddle Dee. Tweedle Dum.
Just like setti and teddy messy hands.
It make no difference who wins now without a major shift on the part of one or the other.
Blueprint: I’m fairly confident that’s not what Merdith was saying.
Also, I’m with Andy and Bryan, I’ve never understood this fear that Newton will one day degenerate into Brookline.
I know I won’t be voting for either of them. My vote for Amy does not translate/is not transferable given they are both ‘yes’-ers for the charter and will open the floodgates to development. Goodbye Garden City. Hello Brookline 🙁
@Pat: Did you just imply that your nightmare scenario for Newton is Brookline?
What’s wrong with Brookline (other than school overcrowding)? Much nicer than the “Ws” in my opinion.
I love Brookline.
Turn Newton into Brookline. Hmm… We could do it with conventional weapons, but that could take years and cost millions of lives.
Coolidge Corner is far superior to any Newton village. Same biases though when it comes to an over-active local government.
@Blueprint – Greg is correct. My comment was not meant to denigrate either candidate. Although I’m disappointed that Amy didn’t make it to the next step, I think both Ruthanne and Scott are highly qualified. Just because I don’t see a huge difference between them doesn’t mean I think poorly of them.
Brookline is a great community. I taught there for 12 years and loved it.
Brookline is fine if you prefer anurbanized community. Beacon Street with the MBTA running down its middle is very reminiscent of European cities ( Amsterdam, Vienna, etc etc.). Brookline lacks the space we have, the tree canopy ( what’s left of it ), the gardens etc.
Brookline because of its density has even more traffic problems we do, there are more side yards paved over, and don’t you just love those fire escapes tacked on their houses to allow them to have all the accessory apartments.
Oh sure let’s make Newton more like Brookline! It’s happening.
Blueprintbill is describing what a fraction of Brookline looks like. Many Brookline neighborhoods are pretty indistinguishable from Newton (except the pavement and sidewalks in Brookline are probably in better condition). There are some blocks in Newton that are less than idyllic.
Perhaps if those trains in the middle of Beacon and Commonwealth went further west, Brookline would have less traffic on their streets from Newton drivers.
And I do love that people who cannot afford single-family homes have apartments with safe egress in case of fire. We’re going to begrudge people safe affordable housing because fire escapes are ugly?
Newton is big enough that some of it can change without “ruining” all of it.
I just hope turning into Brookline doesn’t include having all our turkeys turn viciously aggressive.
What I meant was I am not exactly thrilled with the idea of seeing multiple-story boxes going up next to Victorians on once-quiet side streets. No problem if you can band together with your neighbors and purchase adjacent properties so as to keep them at bay. What about the rest of us?
There is a lot of density in Brookline (excluding South Brookline) and that is not something I personally want replicated in Newton. I moved from Brookline to Newton so that I could have the city conveniences with the neighborhood feel. I enjoy having a yard and some pleasant areas to walk. I am all for providing housing for seniors and others but I don’t think adding sheer units benefits our community. I think that is where people are indicating they don’t want to become Brookline.
On the turkey front I saw an article a while back in the Globe where Brookline was catching the turkey and bringing them to Hallandale Farm. They were then relocated to a more appropriate place (Newton?)
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/01/15/tom-turkey-terror-brookline-caught/dqVLVm3gfjIVqlL5Tm8yUK/story.html
Brian Yates has earned my endorsement in the Ward 5 At-Large City Council seat. I have served with Brian and worked with him on environmental, historic preservation and zoning issues. His depth of knowledge is unparalleled and his passion to serve all Newton residents is exceptional. I worked alongside with him and Bill Brandel to keep our community libraries within the community and I’ve worked with him assisting Newton Housing residents with their unmet needs. Brian is a treasure and all Newton residents should join me and support Brian Yates.
The up and down comments on Amy’s post. 1936 Literary Digest redux?
This is shameful. I will give Fuller the benefit of the doubt and assume she had nothing to do with it, but this is very nasty and unfortunate.
https://www.facebook.com/AmySangioloforNewton/posts/484460608619231
Thanks for posting this Mary – this email sent out by Kathleen Hobson is shameful. And even if Fuller had nothing to do with it – you would think she would respond. But then again Fuller with her Fuzzy Facts might be better off not responding as she only digs herself deeper when she does.
Maybe it is just me, but I didn’t find the post by Kathleen Hobson shameful, nor particularly nasty. I’m curious as to what folks found about that email that was nasty. Amy seems to be objecting to the part about the affordable housing on Austin Street and for being not being labeled the “progressive” candidate. As someone very much involved with Austin Street, I give Amy credit for voting for it in the end, but I certainly wouldn’t call her the leader on affordable housing in this city. I’ve always thought she identified more with the NVA actually than the Engine 6 crowd.
My take on Amy in this election was that she was trying to be something different from Ruthanne and Scott. She was the candidate against the charter, able to talk about the NVAs concerns and affordable housing, etc. But sometimes triangulation isn’t enough, and if a candidate owns a particular issue with more sincerity that you do, that tends to shine through. I’d personally view Ruthanne and Scott as more favorable to affordable housing than Amy for instance.
Finally, Supporters of candidates tend to send out emails…supporting their candidate. I got several about Scott, and quite a few about Amy, and one or two about Ruthanne. They all were a mixture of praise and some criticism of the other candidates. Friends and neighbors just being honest. You can disagree, but it isn’t dirty or nasty. At least none of the ones I got were. And as far as I could tell, the candidates themselves had very little involvement (at least to judge by the spelling errors).
It can certainly be frustrating to hear negative statements about your candidate (or yourself), but there is a difference between someone’s honest opinion and a lie. Opinions are partisan in politics. It is possible for Amy to feel she is a progressive and for someone else to feel she is not. This aren’t terms that come with sticky labels you grab off the shelf. I like Amy on many levels, but Kathleen’s letter read to me like these were her opinions from experience dealing with these issues. How does that cross the line in terms of discourse? Are we just supposed to state the positions of our chosen candidate and that’s it? Did Amy supporters do that? (they certainly didn’t on this blog)
I’m also somewhat uncomfortable with a public official putting a private citizen on blast on facebook, but if you send out a email, I suppose that is always the risk.
I do hope Amy stays involved in Newton, and if she ran at-large for city council I’d vote for her. Just wanted to give my 2 cents.
Thank you, fignewtonville, for clearly articulating what I was thinking.
I’ve never sent or received an email telling me who not to vote for. Messages have always expressed reasons why the messenger supports a particular candidate or candidates. In part, that’s because email isn’t a private form of communication.
When one sends an email, the receiver has three basic choices and has every right to use any one of them: Reply, Forward, or Delete. If you don’t want something forwarded, don’t send it.
I like Amy but didn’t vote for her for several reasons and I thought this was a nasty email to put out. Amy has been graceful and candid this whole election season and deserves the respect of our community.