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the direction of the country could well be what led to an increase in issue-driven campaigns and grassroots activism in last year’s election. That season saw some long-term officials, including state Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez and U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, lose their seats to challengers running to their left. It also saw groups like JP Progressives, Progressive West Roxbury/Roslindale and Downtown Progressives — all affiliates of Progressive Massachusetts — flexing their political muscle and helping drive those electoral changes.
“JP Progressives has a bias toward action,” said member Ziba Cranmer. “Knocking on doors is the antidote to money in politics and years of incumbency. The way we balance power is through volunteer energy.”
They’re not the first group to hold a candidate forum this year. In May, Progressive West Roxbury/Roslindale held a District 5 candidate forum. In February, Amplify Latinx and the Haitian American Chamber of Commerce held forums during which candidates spoke about their stands on housing, school closings and other hot-button issues.
Members of those groups are volunteering their time on campaigns and opening their checkbooks to support multiple candidates — but not before they know where the candidates stand.
“People know you can’t take for granted how people vote once elected,” Sullivan said. “There’s a deeper understanding among a broader group of the electorate of the impact elected officials can have on our daily lives.”
New politics, new map
The increased focus on issues stands in stark contrast to the electoral politics of past decades, when race and neighborhood affiliation were the most prominent drivers of voter preference, with issues coming in a distant third. The electoral landscape reflected that reality, with black city councilors relegated to the city’s two majority black districts in Roxbury and Dorchester, Italian Americans representing the Hyde Park-based District 5 and the East Boston/North End District 1 and Irish Americans representing Dorchester, South Boston and West Roxbury and holding all or the majority of the citywide at-large seats.
Voter turnout is shifting, too. Last year in primary balloting, voter turnout in South Boston’s wards 6 and 7 was 20 percent and 22 percent, respectively, while Roxbury voters in Ward 12 turned out at 23 percent. Even as recently as 10 years ago, South Boston voters had turnouts 10 points higher than those in Roxbury. In decades past, the predominantly Irish American and Italian American neighborhoods on the periphery of the city voted in consistently higher numbers than those in the center of the city, giving the electoral map a doughnut shape.
But voter participation and interest among blacks, Latinos, Asians and progressive whites has increased in recent years, and that pattern no longer holds. Immigration and gentrification have further altered the city’s electoral map. Twenty years ago, it would have been unthinkable for a black candidate to beat a white candidate in East Boston and Charlestown. But in 2017, Lydia Edwards did just that, grabbing 52 percent of the vote to Walsh administration official Stephen Passacantilli’s 47 percent, with her strong showing in those two neighborhoods offsetting her loss in the North End portion of District 1.
In 2018, with J.P. Progressives backing Ayanna Pressley’s congressional campaign, Rachael Rollins’ bid for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office and Nika Elugardo’s bid to unseat Jeffrey Sanchez in the 15th Suffolk District, the two Jamaica Plain wards posted turnout numbers among the highest in the city.
Ward 11 had 30 percent turnout — well above the city average of 24 percent. Ward 19 had 40 percent — the highest percentage of any ward in the city.
JP Progressives’ Cranmer said interest in this year’s races is already ramping up. Between in-person attendance and online views, 300 people watched the group’s at-large candidates forums.
“It’s about at the same level of interest as the DA’s race was last year,” she said.
Know your electorate, know your candidates
Michael Flaherty, consistently the top vote getter in the at-large field in the early 2000s, polled well behind Wu and Pressley in the last municipal race in 2017. Flaherty in December said the council should consider some form of rent control, stopping short of endorsing an actual policy, a departure from his opposition to rent control measures during his earlier tenure on the council.
But as for JP Progressives, the group refused to let Flaherty participate in its debates. His 2014 endorsement of Republican Governor Charlie Baker disqualified him from the group’s endorsement process, Cranmer said.
Former District 7 Councilor Tito Jackson said that beyond partisan politics, candidates should think through their stands on issues such as rent control and an elected school committee before appealing to voters.
“Housing for people who make under $250,000 a year is an issue,” he said. “There are issues that are unifying the city. The electorate wants to see solutions, not a simple restatement of the problem.”
For voters, Jackson advises a close read of the candidates’ positions.
“The great part about having a robust field is that there are robust differences in people’s responses to those issues,” he said.
“Even though the pool of candidates is large, there’s no place to hide. It’s critical that people put forward what they stand for.”