Blue Mass Group

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JP Progressives React to the Ayanna Pressley News

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Here is what our fabulous JP Chapter just sent out (couldn’t post the email in the previous chain).  And there’s coverage in the Boston Globe – front page of the Metro section

 
Deborah,

Happy New Year to you and yours.

24 Hours.

That’s all the time that remains until Boston City Councilors select our Council President, at noon on Monday.

The Council has a profound statement to make in that selection.The Councilor best positioned to bring the body together and lead the city toward an even stronger future is JPP Favorite Ayanna Pressley. In today’s Boston Globe she says “I’m confident that I could lead and represent the council. I’m someone who has had to be able to bridge-build and form coalitions and to find common ground. That’s what I would do as council president.”

Your email in these last few hours can make the difference in ensuring that our next Boston City Council hears our voices.

It only takes a minute!

It is no accident that Pressley was the top vote getter for the council across the entire city.  She has shown her ability to work with diverse coalitions of leaders.  She has shown leadership around contentious issues such as equity in the distribution of liquor licenses, the three strikes laws, and promoting medically-accurate age-appropriate sex education in Boston Schools.

In these and many other examples, she has listened to her colleagues and to community leaders in every neighborhood in a thoughtful and respectful manner, and has empowered stakeholders to have seats at the table and stronger voices.  Exactly the kind of leadership we should expect in Boston!

The Globe’s Yvonne Abraham reminds us of all the reasons we have concerns about the other candidate seeking this important leadership position. Just last month, he was the lone vote in opposition to Ayanna’s home rule petition to change liquor license laws to reduce neighborhood inequities and encourage community development and small businesses. This is a measure critical for our city. Don’t take our word for it. The Boston Globe Editorial Page concurred.

With a new administration taking the reins of the city this Monday, we have the ability to write the next chapter in Boston’s history.  The choice of City Council President will send a powerful message about whether this next chapter will bring us forward together as a strong diverse community of Bostonians.

Council Emails (key contacts in bold)

Make sure to leave a positive message with whoever you email, letting them know how important this vote is to you, and why. Make sure to let them know that you want a Council President who honors the diversity of the Boston, has shown leadership on issues of equity, who is a person who listens to her constituents and her colleagues. Let them know we want to move away from the Boston of our past.

Thank you.

JP Progressives
Annie Rousseau and Reuben Kantor, CoChairs
 

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Comments

  1. If you keep up this temper tantrum long enough, you just might get what you want. Works often enough when the Tea Party does it in Congress.

    • Ayanna’s entry into the race is a significant new development. And is it really so bad to encourage people to email their city councillors? Isn’t that just basic civic engagement?

      • It’s now gone beyond basic civic engagement.

        Robocalls are going out into Council District 5, urging incoming Councillor Tim McCarthy’s constituents to lobby him to switch his vote from Linehan to Pressley. The robocall then offers to connect the call recipient to McCarthy’s personal cell phone. What makes these robocalls different from the email that the JP Progressives sent out, is that the calls feature Councillor Pressley herself.

        Ayanna Pressley is attempting to bully Tim McCarthy into switching his vote by trying to turn his own constituents against him, plain and simple.

        A good legislative leader is one who builds consensus and who can act to protect his or her membership. Tom Birmingham and George Keverian come to mind. It’s one thing to revoke a chairmanship or give a dissenting member a lousy office. But this kind of action is just poor form, and goes against the spirit of collegiality and respect.

        By making an end-run around McCarthy and appealing directly to his constituents, Pressley is proving that she is willing to throw her colleagues under the bus for her own personal gain. Her supporters on the council should take note. You could be the next, if it suited her purposes.

        McCarthy owed Pressley nothing to begin with. She supported his opponent. Now McCarthy owes her his enmity.

        • They have the political traction of glaze ice on a cold night when you’re driving on bald tires.

  2. Is going to be the new HHS Director according to Bernstein. Presumably another special…

      • At-large councilors, such as Arroyo was, are replaced with the 5th place finisher (because there are four at-large councilors) from the previous election so no special election would be necessary in any case.

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