Throughout this entire campaign we have emphasized the need to capture the intellectual capital of our city-the best, brightest and most passionate minds-to bring innovation and efficiency to City Hall. We need to empower a new generation of leaders to improve our under-performing schools, make our streets safer and our neighborhoods cleaner.
I am so proud to announce that we are making good on this promise-by making Sam Yoon my partner in City Hall-we are recognizing the talent and very best of our city. By standing together tomorrow, we are showing Boston that a Flaherty-Yoon administration will embrace good ideas, even if they originate from former rivals. And, in the first 100 days of our new administration, we will proudly enact term limits for the office of Mayor. We will put an end to the “Mayor for Life” culture that has held Boston back. Together, we will create a city for all of us.
Last Tuesday, Mayor Menino spent $1.5 million and activated his whole political machine, but half of the people who voted refused to accept the status quo of the last 16 years. We are confident, over the next five weeks, with your help, that we can change our city. However, we are facing an entrenched political machine – a machine that won’t give up power without a fight. In order to win, we need your help – and we need it now.
Please join the Flaherty-Yoon campaign at our press conference outside of City Hall tomorrow morning at 10:15 a.m. and help us usher in a new day for Boston, a city for all of us.
Thank you,
Michael Flaherty
Candidate for Mayor of Boston
But is it legal?
Don’t see why it would be. Bold, unprecedented, and a potentially huge coup for the challangers? Definitely. Someone has finally decided to step up and redefine Boston politics. Flaherty and Yoon together should make a formidable team–Flaherty is experienced and solid on policy and Yoon has progressive ideas for reforming the office itself. I’m impressed: I was expecting Flaherty to get Yoon’s endorsement and be done with it. Instead, he reached out to his former opponent, recognized his talent and potential, and created a true partnership to benefit the city. The decision to embrace Yoon’s supporters and share the ticket shows real leadership and a commitment to changing the standard winner-takes-all mentality Boston has been stuck with for years.
But can you show up at your job tomorrow with your new deputy? That would require authorization, no?
Last time I looked, Boston doesn’t have a Vice Mayor or Lieutenant Mayor. What would Yoon’s title be in a Flaherty administration? What authority would he have?
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p>I have no problem with Councilor Yoon supporting Councilor Flaherty, but I’m confused by the partnership that is being described here.
Because if there’s one thing Boston needs, it’s a local version of the post “vice president” or “lieutenant governor”.
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p>And I can’t help thinking that term limits has nothing to do with the quality of the idea. Methinks this was part of the deal, whereby Yoon gets a path to an easy slide into the mayorship over the near term.
Both the VP and Lt. Gov take over should the Pres/Gov leave office. That would not be the case here unless the city charter were to be changed.
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p>I am not sure whether such a change would be good or bad, but I sure don’t want to see the charter changed just for expediency of getting Flaherty elected.
Leave it to these two to come up with an office like the vice presidency, unless less useful…
Not sure it amounts to much, but it’s different and should generate a little buzz which is good.
So far all the Menino people can do is wonder if it’s legal! Talk about a surprise… I think it’s amazing!
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p>Take that one to the voters, they’ll flock to such … something.
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p>For the record, I’m not a Menino person, and my question remains unanswered.
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p>Ditto. Don’t assume, just because I’m not immediately enraptured, that I’m working for the other guy.
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p>I can’t conceive a more forthrightly ill-advised concept as ‘term limits’. They are inherently anti-democratic and thoroughly inimical to a republic. Yuck. I can’t conceive of any other instance where the actual performance of the job further disqualifies you from performing that job.
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p>Nor does it follow, necessarily, that lack of term limits ‘has held us back.’ You’ll have to do a whole heap of a lot better than simply asserting this is so.
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p>I might agree that the BRA is as venal as you say, except that you, again, extend an extremely tenuous thread between the BRA and ‘term limits’. I don’t buy it.
Shows why this guy is a political light weight. If he was smart he would’ve either stayed quiet or endorsed Menino to get the green light to replace him. Instead he will go down to defeat with this ticket. Even if every Yoon supporter (those that don’t feel betrayed by this move) voted for Flaherty he would still lose to Menino. And that is before Menino unleashes his massive patronage army for the general election, the preliminary was just a dress rehearsal. People are unconvinced they need new faces with less experienced leadership. I am a lifelong Cantab so this race doesn’t affect me much, but I have seen nothing wrong with the way Menino has handled the city and can see nothing bad happening with four more years-and a lot of bad happening if these two neophytes take over. I hope its a competitive race to keep Menino honest-but I don’t expect the result to differ.
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p>Also a deputy mayor is usually just a small time administrator even in big cities like Chicago and New York, I really doubt Yoon will have much influence with this position unless Flaherty is proposing some kind of co-mayorship. That seems both illegal and unmanageble.
I am going to guess that it is legal and brilliant. The Mayor can appoint a person to do a job. Whether they are called Chief of Planning and Policy or Deputy Mayor, they are both titles and jobs. Michael Flaherty is telling Boston that he wants Sam Yoon to be one of his trusted advisor’s. That is smart. As for putting Flaherty-Yoon on signs and running as a “ticket”, that is a question for the office of campaign and political finance. Since Sam Yoon is not on the ballot for an office anymore, he can see no benefit electorally from Michael Flaherty’s committee spending money to get elected and hence Sam Yoon installed as a Deputy Mayor, which by the way existed under Kevin White. I see no issues here but I am sure someone will weigh in. If I was Menino’s camp I wouldn’t touch the argument but too late according the globe.
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p>Also, does the first amendment not exist? Why can’t Michael Flaherty scream from the top of city hall he wants Sam Yoon to be a large part of his administration? Must be that Princeton and Kennedy school background Yoon has. Scary I know.
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p>The Boston Herald is also reporting that Kevin McCrea will be part of the team in some way. In Kevin’s words from the Herald:
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p>A team of rivals for sure. If this doesn’t excite the electorate in Boston, nothing will. Wow is all I have left to say.
Having been in Boston the last 8 years, I’ve seen the benign neglect that Menino has provided for the inner city. He’s living off the reputation of his first two terms in office, but crime, schools, housing, and commercial real estate have not improved.
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p>In addition, the guy’s missed out on substantial opportunities to commercialize the waterfront more quickly because of a quixotic focus to move City Hall there, instead. I’m glad Menino balances the budget, but you also have to go directly through his machine to get any substantial constituent services.
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p>He’s also a decade behind on Green/sustainability and bike transit issues. And has no idea of what he’s doing to bring new technology and businesses into the city. And obviously has no control or understanding of how his administration is using technology to keep in touch with each other or with constituents.
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p>Realistically, I think the “deputy mayor” will be a Gore-like vice presidency where Yoon will be handed zoning, housing, and technology issues. But we could do worse than go back to the Kevin White era when Boston’s leadership was about innovation, not stagnation.
Sounds like a fundraising concept more than a policy team. Councilor Flaherty tapped out his fundraising base. Councilor Yoon’s supporters across the country can still contribute to Flaherty. Thus the “ticket” and a undefined role for Sam.
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p>Actually a very interesting move and fun to warch. As a supporter of Mayor Menino’s I don’t see it as a winning move but I have to give the rollout a thumbs up.
First, Yoon also mostly tapped out his fundraising base as well. Second, additional contributions would have to go to the Flaherty campaign since the “ticket” has no legal meaning and Yoon cannot transfer his campaign funds. I don’t think he will be able to excite out-of-state contributors to help elect another Irish-American into office just to get Yoon an appointed position.
It’s not a transfer of funds from one committee to another. But think about a letter from Yoon to high end contributors asking for contributions to Falherty for Mayor. Sam proved he could fundraise outside the city. Giving to Falherty is a great way for Yoon donors to “double up” legally.
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p>And I disagree – if you cared enough to give to Yoon to get hime elected, you most likley will care enough to help position him for the future.
I did care enough, as did my wife, but both of us see this as a gimmick.
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p>We shall see if this really nets a lot of new financial support for Flaherty, but I rather doubt it. It’s not like most of Yoon’s supporters had already maxed out their contributions to him; they just have already given what they were willing to give.
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What would the pitch be from Yoon to his supporters? My understanding from here and elsewhere is that techinically Yoon will not be on the ticket, so you can’t actually vote for a “Flaherty/Yoon” ticket the way I voted for Obama Biden. So isn’t the pitch really:
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p>Dear Supporter, I lost the Mayoral primary and since I am not running for the City Council again, I have no job come November. Michael Flaherty has been nice enough to offer me a job in his administration if he wins in November, so it would be great if you could throw some dough his way. That way your buddy Sam can have a job.
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p>I just don’t see how this isn’t simply throwing support behind Flaherty in exchange for a job. And isn’t that a quintisential example of the old boys, backroom politics Yoon is supposedly standing against?
and Deputy Mayor is just fine with me — whatevs.
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p>I just don’t get the BRA move though. I agree that at times it’s been like NYC’s Robert Moses. But they’ve also done some really good things for the city. The LEED certifiably for all major renovations/new spaces bigger than 50,000 square feet comes directly from the BRA. Nicole Freedman, the Boston Bikes Czar, works for the BRA. In fact, I know exactly three people who work/worked for the BRA, and every single one of them is smart, qualified, passionate, and working for good.
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p>I’m not arguing that the BRA doesn’t have problems; I’m sure it’s got plenty. Unaccountable organizations in MA seem to breed them. I’m just really skeptical that dismantling the BRA is the right answer. Fix what’s broken. Open it up. Get some new leadership. Revise it’s mission. But it ain’t completely broke — so don’t destroy it.
Remember Robert Moses did a lot of great things for New York as well. His only big problem was that he was a consummate New Dealer way after it was out of fashion. He supported expensive and devastating (in the sense they tore neighborhoods apart) bridges over cheaper tunnels, high rise housing projects isolated from the broader community, etc. because he knew these bigger projects would get more federal funds and create more jobs.
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p>But he also created scores of swimming pools and public libraries in places that didn’t have them, rebuilt battery park, and did a host of good things as well. Its a complicated legacy, one unworthy of the hack piece the normally objective Robert Caro wrote of him.
Robert Moses had an awesome impact on NYC, both positive and negative. He was also politically untouchable and unaccountable. That’s how the BRA has been like Moses: they seem completely insulated from accountability, and they have the raw power to do big projects without that accountability. Sometimes they do great things, sometimes they do terrible things, sometimes it’s somewhere in between.
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p>And that’s why I wouldn’t want to see the BRA destroyed, per se. I want to see them use their power to bring Boston into the 21st century — high performance buildings, mixed use, transportation that relies less and less on owned automobiles, city blocks and neighborhoods that are livable and vivacious instead of concrete chasms, and economic, cultural, and age diversity throughout. Make Boston more livable, and you’ll see the population increase as New England’s Hub grows more and more sustainable. That can’t happen without an agency like the BRA, who to their credit is working (hard enough?!) on some of those issues.
But how do you get that with an organization that is supposedly detached from the city budget and operations as a whole? I’d like to see Boston come into the 21st century, too, but why not take an approach that actually aligns taxes and city policies with a triple bottom-line approach to living?
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p>To me, that makes more sense than simply having an independent authority or organization that controls the future of the city. Right now, we’re all beholden to the whims of a hopefully-benevolent force that makes its own rules. Rolling up the BRA into an integrated city planning strategy seems more straightforward.
There is no “Deputy Mayor” in Boston, but if there was, I am sure I would not want it to be an appointed position. By all means accept Yoon’s endorsement and promise him a prominent place in your administration, but don’t make up misleading titles. This seems like a big gimmick to me and at least on first impression is really turning me off to Yoon.
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p>I also strongly dislike term limits on principle, so promising to enact them is a sure fire way to get me not to vote for you. Pushing for term limits just tells me that you think the voters are too stupid to stop voting for the incumbent. You should rethink that promise, since only people who have already decided to support you are going to be attracted by that position.
I’m particularly turned off by the reference to term limits.
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p>I think term limits are a terrible idea. I am repelled by this attempt to pander to the worst instincts of an already nauseating mob.
They’re called elections.
Saying we don’t need term limits because we have elections is like saying we don’t need business regulation because we have capitalism. It assumes that people have complete and honest information about their choices, and there is perfect competition in the marketplace/political arena, so the invisible hand never errs. Neither is true, not about candidates and not about capitalism. Both tend to concentrate power in monopolies, hide information from consumers, buy out democratic politics, and make promises they can’t and have no intention of keeping. Sometimes the theory is better than the reality and we need to adjust for the reality.
Term limits are a crude technique for fixing a perceived problem. They do indeed assume that the voters are not capable of making their own decisions.
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p>I am all for more openness and transparency in government. Indeed, the internet now allows for more openness than we have ever seen before. Already, the average citizen with a computer has access to a vastly greater array of information than was available under previous administrations.
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p>So why are you rushing to institute term limits? One reason, and one reason only: you want to get rid of a politician you do not like. This discussion of term limits is not being carried out in the abstract, it is direct attempt to do an end-run around the existing election process.
Sam Yoon endorses Michael Flaherty in exchange for a job. Sounds like the same old politics to me.
The letter implies that they will run as a team. It further implies things the ‘administration’ will do when elected. Nowhere does it say Yoon will be a part of that team, doing such and such, in this position, because none exists. It just lets the readers think that.
What ‘running mate’, what ticket? There is no such thing. There is no office of vice mayor, executive mayor, or whatever you like to call it. Instead, there is a transparent attempt to attach Yoon’s 21% of the primary vote to yours, instead of actually earning them by campaigning. It’s different, though.
‘nearly 50% voted for change’, is more than 75% didn’t vote for Flaherty. This is an attempt to cut that figure down.
He’s calling them…Floon.