Two very good pieces in today’s Globe. (Ironic, right? Now that the election is over, the Globe is running all this really interesting stuff.) First, Yvonne Abraham’s column, in which she talks to a Walsh voter who didn’t vote in the preliminary, and in fact had decided she’d never vote in a local election again because nobody listened to people like her.
A few months ago, black voters like [Andrea Dowman] were inclined to dismiss Walsh as just another typical — and yes, white — politician who knew little about how to solve their problems…. Until recently, Dowman was done with city elections, had vowed never to vote in one again. “I gave up hope,” she said. Her husband, a retired police officer, was in a dispute with the police department, and nobody seemed able to resolve it. She needed help caring for her elderly mother but couldn’t find it. Though her two children are grown now, she worried that the schools weren’t improving fast enough.
So, what changed? Why did she end up enthusiastically backing Walsh?
His people showed up. They came to her door and rang the bell. They wanted to talk – not just leave leaflets. They told Dowman of Walsh’s struggles, and of how he wanted to bring jobs to the community. One of the canvassers told Dowman she’d been homeless before Walsh gave her a spot on the campaign.
“No one has ever taken the time to talk to us,” Dowman said. “They listened to our problems. I felt like I was a voice again.”
One has the sense that conversations just like that one happened a lot over the last several weeks, and that those conversations were a big part of what happened Tuesday night – which, by the way, is broken down pretty well in this article.
Abraham is also right that Walsh’s biggest challenges lie ahead. She talked to another voter at the same polling place, Bertha Harris, a 77-year-old retired teacher who was skeptical of Walsh’s backing in her community.
“Walsh has all the people behind him, but he reminds me of the politicians of the ’60s and ’70s,” she said. “They just use our community to get into power.”
Here is the huge challenge for the mayor-elect. Walsh’s job now is not just to keep Dowman’s faith, which will be tough enough, but to restore it for Harris, and the many others like her.
Abraham concludes: “this man of surprises is up to it.” I’m very hopeful that she’s right.
And the second must-read is Dan Wasserman’s excellent editorial page cartoon, which pretty much sums up what was wrong with much of the prevailing narrative of this election. Two old, rich white guys in suits having a fancy downtown lunch analyze the election, and capture the attention of their waiter.
absolutely captured the core of this election!
To the extent that this was supposed to be ‘old boston’ vs ‘new boston’ can the Globe finally concede that old Boston was Connolly and new Boston was the rainbow coalition of black, white, brown, pink and blue collar that Walsh got together?
the late “Vault”?
Now, the following definitions are in effect:
Pre-2004 season ticket holders: ‘old Boston’
Owner of a pink hit or Ellsbury jersey: ‘new Boston’
Anyone not a rabid Red Sox fan: ‘not Boston’.
Walsh’s win means there’s a House seat opening up, right? Any word on the special election schedule or who might run?
which he may not do until January, I would assume. As to who is considering running, I am not sure if some people from Dorchester who might consider it, might now also be looking at cabinet posts in City Hall, or at least being part of the transition team, so it remains to be seen. I would keep an eye on the Dorchester Reporter and commentary from Joyce Lineham.
Did they cancel the 5CD general election? Nothing but crickets on that front. I realize the Boston mayoral took up all the oxygen, but I see nothing from either candidate.
the voter breakdowns?
i.e., to what degree did walsh beat connolly among gays, professionals, seniors, and asians? is there some exit polling?
i’d seen polling before the election and it was clear that african-american and latino voters were leaning walsh, margin of 10 points plus.
bonus q – what does “professional” mean in this context? does that mean ” have a job” or “have a white collar job” or something else?
What does it mean to you? I generally think of it as a white-collar job often requiring advanced degrees.
refers to “professionals.”
…with Chinese-Americans in going heavily for Connolly. Vietnamese-Americans going equally heavily for Walsh. Broadly speaking, the two communities are concentrated in different parts of Boston, with Chinese-Americans in the Northern precincts from Chinatown, Bay Village, Back Bay,the South End, and Allston-Brighton. The Vietnamese community tends to be in those precincts comprising Savin Hill, St. Marks, and Fields Corner in Dorchester.
That’s an interesting data point.
The link is here (pdf).
Below is a demographic sort of the top nine Asian precincts by voting-age-population percentage, with neighborhood designation and the winner within the precinct:
3/8 Chinatown-Asian VAP 45.95% (Chinese-American) – C
15/6 DOT/Savin Hill-Asian VAP 44.22% (Vietnamese-American) – W
16/1 DOT/St. Mark’s-Asian VAP 35.80% (Vietnamese-American) – W
5/1 South End-Asian VAP 29.70% (Chinese-American) – C
16/3 DOT/St. Mark’s-Asian VAP 27.22% (Vietnamese-American) – W
15/9 DOT/Fields Corner-Asian VAP 25.92% (Vietnamese-American) – C
21/3 A/BU-Asian VAP 25.84% (Chinese-American) – C
13/9 DOT/Columbia,Savin Hill-Asian VAP 25.49% (Vietnamese-American) – C
16/6 DOT/St. Mark’s-Asian VAP 25.34% (Vietnamese-American)-C
There is a Mission Hill precinct (Wd 10, Pr 2 – Asian VAP 24.65%) – which would be tenth on the list – that went for Walsh, where I’m not certain of the ethnic mix within the Asian communities; otherwise the pattern is consistent Citywide.
FWIW, even when Asians are minorities within given precincts, their turnout rate is higher than non-Asians, irrespective of ethnicity.
Ward 13, Precinct 9 and Ward 16, Precinct 6 went for Walsh. Both precincts’ Asian voters are primarily Vietnamese-American.
Consistency triumphs. Including consistent typos on my part.
.
Ward 15, Precinct 9 also went for Walsh (not surprisingly, given its Vietnamese population).
Next time I’ll just ask David how to post a spreadsheet.