Boston Politics: Where Are The Women?

Published Feb 10 2009, 10:41 AM by David S. Bernstein

Now that Sam Yoon has thrown his proverbial hat into the ring, officially opening a second at-large city council seat, one would think the temptation to run would be overwhelming for wannabes all over town. We already have a good field of solid candidates: in addition to incumbents John Connolly and Steve Murphy, the list includes Felix G. Arroyo, Doug Bennett, Marty Hogan, Andrew Kenneally, Jean Claude Sanon, and Bob Terrell.

Arroyo already has an impressive $23,000 in his campaign account, and Kenneally has $13,000. Bennett has $7500.

But nobody new has announced, or formed a campaign committee, since the start of the year. And one can't help but notice that so far, there are no women running.

Plenty of rumors flying, though. I can shoot down one: Oiste executive director Giovanna Negretti tells me she is not planning to run. Which is good news for the others, because I think she'd coast to one of the four winning spots.

There's still talk of Catherine O'Neil, Ayanna Pressley (run, Ayanna, run!), April Taylor, and others. (As well as Ego Ezedi, Doug [Update: Dave, not Doug; D'oh!] Halbert, and other dudes.)

There are, however, two women running for the state rep seat left vacant by Sal DiMasi. Susan Passoni has jumped in, along with Lucy Rivera. They're both solid, serious candidates, but Aaron Michlewitz is considered to have the inside lane for that race. Apparently Boston women would rather run for a state legislative office they probably can't win, than a city council seat open for the taking. Which, given my opinion of the Boston City Council, goes to show that girls really are smarter than boys.

And speaking of girls, Tom Menino tells the Globe he won't announce his re-election intentions until the Spring, to which I say: Man up and get in the game, Ms. Chicken-Mayor.

Which leads me to one more thought about women and Boston politics. Would it not be freaking genius for Menino to announce that he's not running -- and that Angela is?

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4 Comments

Jamarhl Crawford said:

hey dave...

dont go giving Menino any ideas, Ok?

especially ones that are freakin genius

he may get a brain aneurism just thinking about it

lets just let this guy fade out

Flaherty, Yoon, anybody is better than this guy

you should run! at least all city communications will be understandable... suffering succotash.

February 10, 2009 2:29 PM
fedupwithfinneran said:

Hi, David. Has anyone asked Matt O'Malley if he's thinking about dusting off his purple and white signs? He finished 6th in '05 (and has kept his hand in things as political director for Mass Equality), so you'd have to believe he's another one who's "taking a hard look" at two open seats.

February 11, 2009 6:43 AM
Kyle R. said:

Thanks for raising this issue. I think part of it is that there are so few women on city council staff, especially as chief of staff. When I worked for Councilor Arroyo ('05-'07) I believe Councilor Turner had the only woman COS. Beside Turner and Yoon now, are their other councilor's who have woman COS? From the list of announced and potential candidates, I know that Kenneally, Arroyo, Halbert, and I think Terrell (Saunders or Crayton?) all worked for a city councilor. They gained hands-on experience about the inner workings of the council but more importantly they were able to significantly build their fundraising rolodex. Even with all of the great work by organizations like Emerge, a political training program for Democratic women, it is clear that Boston politics is still a good 'ol boys club.

February 11, 2009 10:25 AM
Jtinge said:

O'Malley is not interested. Waiting for John Tobin to step down I heard...or maybe he runs against John?

February 13, 2009 1:28 AM