If Golar Richie Makes Final All Bets are Off
by Howie Carr Boston Herald 8/25/13
Most of the candidates for mayor have two goals in the preliminary election Sept. 24.
First, finish either first or second, thereby winning a ticket to the Nov. 5 final.
Second, make sure Charlotte Golar Richie is not the second candidate on the final ballot.
She’s a black woman, and the men need to keep her out of the final to avoid another one of those hope-and-change, high-turnout elections. Other pols want to take their chances in a traditional, boring, two-white-guys-from-Boston-in-the-final fight.
If they can keep the turnout down and make sure it comes disproportionately from the usual wards, the next mayor will in all likelihood be another good old boy who knows the words to both “For Boston” and “Wild Colonial Boy.” Right now, it looks like the regulars are getting their wish. Charlotte Golar Richie is not exactly dazzling them out there on the campaign trail. Several minor black candidates —this means you, Charles Yancey — are chipping away at what should be her natural base. According to most observers, she’s also being outworked by City Councilor Felix Arroyo. Her fundraising has been less than spectacular.
According to the polls and the fundraising, going into the final month the two top contenders appear to be state Rep. Marty Walsh of Dorchester and City Councilor John Connolly of West Roxbury.
Until very recently, Walsh was the $167,911-a-year secretary/treasurer of the Boston Building and Construction Trades Council. The unions even provided him with a $38,750 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee. This explains why you see his bumper stickers on every pickup truck at every construction site in the city. Whether the guys driving the trucks still live in Dorchester or have long since moved to Weymouth is another question.
But the pinky rings are pumping big bucks into the Walsh campaign and watch what they do for him at the Labor Day breakfast next week. He’ll come out of the Park Plaza looking like a cross between Samuel Gompers and Joe Hill.
John Connolly has the advantage of being the first candidate into the race. You could make the argument that he’s the one who forced the ailing incumbent Mumbles Menino out, which is not a positive. As a lame duck, Mumbles’ clout fades by the day, but whatever juice he has left in the fall, he’ll use on behalf of whoever is running against Connolly. As we all know, Mumbles can hold a grudge.
Then there is Suffolk DA Dan Conley. He’s got it all on paper — a lot of money, a citywide organization, half-Irish, half-Italian, City Hall experience — but somehow it hasn’t jelled, at least not yet.
City Councilor Rob Consalvo has been working hard and has a shot, but there is a certain Mumbles fatigue out there, and how many Italians are left in either the North End or East Boston?
City Councilor Mike Ross has a geographic base. That’s the good news. The bad news is, it’s the city of Newton, his real hometown. Fortunately, he hasn’t wasted his years (and free parking space) at City Hall. He’s got a law degree, which will come in handy in January when he has to get a real job.
City Councilor Felix Arroyo is campaigning tirelessly, going door to door, trying to galvanize his base, collecting dough from the lefty unions. But this is probably not his year.
Walsh-Connolly would be an interesting race. Walsh would portray himself as the second coming of Ray Flynn, and Connolly would change his middle name to “Harvard.”
It might be the first final race ever with even an echo of the old James Michael Curley class struggles, between what little is left of old Southie versus the Irish of Ward 20 and the newcomers who are supplanting them.
On the other hand, maybe Charlotte Golar Richie catches fire and gets into the final. We’ve seen that race before. So has Hillary Clinton. And so has Tom Reilly.
AVI in for Howie today, Wed, Fri.
Col Hunt Tue and Thu
Howie off all week
No michele