Friday, September 20, 2013

Boston Prelim Nods


I finally got off the fence yesterday, picking and endorsing for the preliminary municipal election. I'n not ashamed to say that I have found the vast choices for mayor and council complex and I've been indecisive.

Yesterday in a me session on Left Ahead — click the player below to hear if you just can bear to click away from this post — I talked through the mayoral picks. I settled on one for the preliminary. I had winnowed my district councilor and the at-large ones too.

These may well not be the ones in the November final. The preliminary narrows the field to twice the number who will eventually hold office for that vote. That means mayoral would-be's go from 12 to 2, at-large councilor one from 19 to 8, and in my D5 race, from 8 to 2. For the first round, I went with:

  • Mayor. Rob Consalvo
  • District 5. Mimi E. Turchinetz
  • At-Large. Stephen J. Murphy, Ayanna S. Pressley, Jeffrey Michael Ross, Michelle Wu

The angst came in mayor. Even though I am pretty introverted, I figured correctly that talking through the process publicly would settle my mind. You can hear my evaluations and the process for settling.

About half the candidates were flat out for me for one reason or more. I considered various criteria for choosing as well, ended up with who'd be a mayor who could maintain the city's advances and elevate them. I ignored who is leading in polls and who would be most likely to make it to the final.

Several are likely for that criterion. Mike Ross is clearly the brightest and most visionary, plus he did a superb job in his terms as council president. John Connolly has clear goals and implementation plans for education overhaul, and I am sure he can pick up anything else he'd need to know. Felix Arroyo has a platform that covers every concern of Boston with specifics.

If you have not settled this for yourself, hearing my process may be helpful. It worked for me.









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