The seriously crowded Boston mayoral race is beginning to winnow. On the progressive scale, City Councilor John Connolly bets that he can excite the electorate with his visions of higher planes for the city in three areas — schools, safety and jobs. He joined us at Left Ahead this afternoon for a candid half hour about his platform and challenges. Click below to hear the show.
Of course, he faces a common problem with the 10 to 15 candidates who will eventually qualify for the preliminary ballot. He needs to differentiate himself from the others and prove why he should succeed, as he puts it “the shadow and the legacy and the legend” of Tom Menino. While he’s one of the few with cash in hand and the ability to raise more, he doesn’t think money will determine the race.
Instead he figures the voters are ready for his level of vision. He’d attack crime, education and employment at root causes. That more abstract position has often been a harder sell, one that works only when times are right.
It’s easy and glib to say that Connolly is the education guy as DA Dan Conley is the law-and-order one. Theirs and other candidates’ cases are not so simple right now. Boston has been through a recent spate of assaults and murders, but is not as fearful of violence as it has been. Its schools still have underlying problems, but during Menino’s years, they have gotten incrementally better. As a result, no one-issue candidate has a clear path to the fifth floor of city hall.
John had some high-minded talk to go with vision. He claims that in his fora, hand shaking and stump speeches, voters are energized and in agreement about education. Even those without kids in the house see the vital role of schools in the city’s health and future. He speaks in progressive terms of high-quality schools in every neighborhood linked to his other big issues of safety and jobs.
He spoke plainly with us about the ongoing charter versus public school drama. He thinks that is a artificial batter. While some call him too pro-charter-school, he does not see a conflict. If he were mayor, he’d want to support and replicate the best schools and fix the lesser ones, regardless of their types. He goes from a background of family teachers, including him and his wife, as well as having kids in the BPS system and heading the City Council’s education committee for years.
He spoke with us near the end about anticipating fights with the teachers’ union leaders, fights he thinks would be of their making. He figures he can get past that for the larger goals.
Listen in as he describes why he figures Boston has the will and resources to break the underlying causes of street violence, including the health infrastructure, law enforcement, and education to break the cycle. He envisions preventing the drop-out and crime problems years before they manifest themselves. This area requires a lot of buy-in by voters to install a reformer mayor.
Connolly said that his website intentionally is more detailed and specific than his competitors’. He wants voters to pay attention to his platform, even if it means picking on what they think is missing. He claims to be learning daily and refining his message to bring people on board.
right out of Scot Lehigh-land. Connolly’s positions on schools might just be enough to get me over to Boston to campaign for someone else. The charter vs. traditional public school tension he calls artificial, yet he’s gearing up for fights with the BTU. Wonder why that is? He wants to make their jobs go away but of course the fights will be their fault.
He can take his “reform” somewhere else.
Someone with the courage to blame teachers for all education problems. You know who Connolly reminds me of? Pretty much every other misguided mayor.
“The shadow and legacy of a living legend”
Who he was prepared and willing to run against, so either Menino is not a great mayor or he will say whatever it takes to serve his ambition. He seems to know as much about education as Paul Ryan knows about budgets.