Saw an iPhone update reporting this from the Globe, no article yet.
—–
Update:
Wu votes for Linehan. Some in the crowd hiss. Linehan wins Council presidency.
— Gintautas Dumcius (@gintautasd) January 6, 2014
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Reality-based commentary on politics.
striker57 says
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2014/01/06/bill-linehan-elected-boston-city-council-president/vG2kj0kqD7kpMqe1LAYHSM/story.html
striker57 says
I haven’t seen the roll call but 8 votes means that Wu, while a solid Linehan vote, was not the deciding vote. All an elected official has is their word and Councilor Wu demonstrated her word is her bond.
johnk says
Christopher says
…but maybe just because I’m in the BMG bubble on this particular matter.
stomv says
Councilor Wu also demonstrated that she should talk less.
JimC says
As I pointed out on the other thread, 8-5 is very different from 7-6. 7-6 gives someone else a chance to be the deciding vote and might have made a difference.
I’m moving on. But I do hope Councilor Wu heard some of the feedback she got on this. I mean that in the guitar sense of the term.
massmarrier says
I’ll not use appalling, but this is at least disappointing. There’s a cliché uttered by casual observers of Boston politics that the job is ceremonial, even meaningless. Instead, the prez sets the agenda and what comes up when. Even more important, the council head appoints the committee chairs. It makes a terrific difference who runs the committee shows.
Picking the least productive, most conservative member is inane.
johnk says
Linehan got Frank Baker, Mark Ciommo, Michael Flaherty, Sal Lamattina, Timothy McCarthy, Steve Murphy and Michelle Wu.
Pressley got Tito Jackson, Matthew O’Malley, Charles Yancey and Josh Zakim.
striker57 says
by early divisions within their own group.
Hiss
David says
it also seems that Wu’s voting for Linehan would doom pretty much any progressive’s attempt to win the council presidency. So, yes, it would have been better if Jackson and O’Malley had initially not both been competing, or if Pressley had gotten in earlier, or whatever. But it’s not obvious to me that the outcome would have been any different.
jconway says
I think her’s is a vote people will remember next election, less so for the other fence sitters that gave Linehan a majority. And even if he doesn’t do a bad job, it is hard to fathom what favors he gives her that offset this massive snub to her base. But who knows, in October it looked like the shutdown was going to give us the majority back…
HR's Kevin says
Perhaps she isn’t the Progressive everyone assumed she was. That seems like a much more likely explanation.