Tag Archives: sean ryan

Pettiness is still alive and well

Posted by thebastard on

 

Not picture: Integrity (lifted from http://westroxbury.patch.com)

A despicable show of political theater took place in West Roxbury Monday night with the return of the annual Harry Truman Society Rally.

The rally is supposed to serve as the last opportunity for candidates to make their appeals for votes, so naturally, this year’s rendition of the event brought a display of that same decrepit dirty-pool system of politicking that Boston is famous for.

It basically turned into one last shot for John Connolly and Crew to make Felix Arroyo look bad, as District Councilor Matt O’Malley – one of the events hosts – repeatedly let the crowd know that every councilor was there.

Conveniently left out of the mix was Felix Arroyo, the odd man out among the four incumbents seeking reelection.

Months before Matt O’Malley and Ed Coppinger had begun to lay the groundwork for the rally, Arroyo had scheduled his own campaign event in Jamaica Plain at the same time. Arroyo was told that the rally would last from 7-9 p.m. so naturally the rally was kept short and ended just in time for Arroyo’s 8 p.m. arrival.

Even when Arroyo did show up, every candidate decided to treat him like any other West Roxbury resident would treat a minority, by avoiding eye contact and praying he doesn’t approach them.

I guess O’Malley still hasn’t forgotten that Arroyo was one of the only Councilors to endorse O’Malley’s opponent in the special election that won him the seat.

Michael Flaherty and Steve Murphy gave speeches that really were nothing new if you’ve already seen them speak a few times.

Ayanna Pressley flawlessly played the role of the popular girl/stuck-up bitch, dismissively smirking as Will Dorcena spoke out about violence in Boston’s communities of colors – you know, the communities that Pressley claims to speak for.

Also, am I the only one who finds it odd, that when other candidates would list their experience and credentials, Pressley likes to bring up the fact that she was sexually assaulted

I may completely agree with Sean Ryan’s stance that the US War on Drugs needs to end, but what does that have to do with being a City Councilor?

The main event of the evening was John Connolly, who spoke last for no reason other than I assume O’Malley and Coppinger are rooting for him to take first in the polls.

The whole affair made me wonder if Connolly is dropping any hopes that Flaherty won’t win a seat, and is hoping to hedge his bets by knocking Arroyo down in the polls. If the fifth spot in the four-seat race comes down to Flaherty or Arroyo, Connolly wins either way.

Considering this is a post regarding the at-large candidates, I figure now is as good a time as any to share my picks for the Council.

 

Who Should Win

In two years time, Arroyo has proven that he cares about the right things, fighting for youth jobs and pushing for the city to only support banks that return the favor. He isn’t done yet, so I say give him two more years.

Ayanna Pressley often speaks about important issues that no one else does, such as sexual assault and human trafficking. She’s also a disingenuous, conniving, arrogant political hack who speaks with the integrity of a dope fiend slipping out of what was supposed to be his first NA meeting. So fuck her, vote for Will Dorcena.

Dorcena is a political neophyte who may have the deck stacked against him and would likely struggle to get anywhere in City Hall, but at least he’s not blowing smoke up anyone’s ass.

Michael Flaherty is a conservative whose true intentions of setting up another run for mayor are even obvious to someone whose glittery lips betray a morning of paint huffing. He’s also someone who prides himself on picking fights with the mayor’s office. The entertainment of that alone is worth one of my four votes.

Finally, consider a vote for Steve Murphy. He’s kind of a buffoon, but only in how he carries himself. In a way, his biggest flaws are his biggest strengths. He’s not conniving enough to get dirty, he’s not a good enough politician to be disingenuous. He means well, and he usually knows what he’s talking about – eventually.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Occupy the Ballot Box: a protestors’ municipal voting guide

Posted by thebastard on

Anytime there is a large enough crowd of people protesting long enough or in large enough numbers for the media to take more than a passing notice of, there is always pundits who criticize the protesters for not taking part in the electoral process.

It doesn’t matter that many who do protest also actually vote, nor does it manner that direct action can be more effective than the ballot box, there’s always a compulsion/borderline-addiction among those in the media to focus all of their coverage on what the protesters are doing wrong – which has been Fox 25 and the Boston Herald’s MO from the first day of Occupy Boston.

Bullshit aside, I figured it couldn’t hurt for the protesters who are registered Boston voters to know which At-Large City Council candidates are sympathetic to the cause and which ones are just half-assing a show of support because they’re too wimpy to come out against them.

Sean Ryan was the only candidate willing to offer any discussion on the campaign at Dewey Square, when directly contacted through email.

When contacted over a week ago, Ryan had already visited the encampment multiple times. It should be no secret to anyone who has paid any attention to Ryan’s previous Boston campaigns, that despite his voter registration status, he is ideologically a Libertarian.

Marxists protesting Bank of America?!

This shows when he discusses ending the War on Drugs in regards to crime impacts as well as practically any time he speak about anything of an economic nature, as his views predictably lean towards deregulation.

“Although the Boston group has (as far as I know) not yet drafted a specific list of demands, the platform of the NY protesters is philosophically inconsistent, as it demands that banks stop using government power for their own personal gain, and at the same time demands that government use its power to give “the 99%” all sorts of stuff to which they feel they are entitled,” he wrote via email. “The protesters lack a clear philosophy, and their platform suffers because of this.  It isn’t enough to say wealth disparities are egregious and unjust.  They are.  But most of the worst shocks to our economy can be traced directly back to the Fed and the U.S. government, which created conditions of which Wall St could take advantage.”

He also praised the police for not using excessive force, as if we should pat our local officers on the back when they decide to not beat the shit out of someone.

“I witnessed the entire police operation on the night of the arrests, and was glad to see that the officers in charge were ones that I know to be calm and genial personalities.  I think Commissioner [Ed] Davis did a good job, and that the police did not use excessive force,” Ryan wrote. “I believe that the protesters erred in courting arrest.  Without a clearly defined grievance or cause, they accomplished nothing through their acts of civil disobedience.  Their actions were effective, however, in reminding folks that all activities of government are ultimately backed by the police power.”

That being said, Ryan has consistently spoken positively of the protesters.

“I met a lot of great and interesting people,” he wrote of an earlier visit to the encampment. “It’s a youngish crowd, leans to the left politically, and is full of people with various axes to grind with the government and the economic system.  Most also have other issues they feel strongly about, such as the wars.  Knowingly or not, they have picked an appropriate location for their protest, since the Federal Reserve is the bailout back-stopper of Wall St and the enabler of some of Wall St’s more egregious practices.”

For what it’s worth, while I happen to have substantially different political views than Ryan, at least he’s willing have the conversation.

It was easy enough for most candidates to simply offer a half-hearted show of support for the protesters while still making their pleas to “keep things peaceful,” in case the candidates need an excuse to decry the protests further down the line while still saving face.

“I support them and I hope they continue to demonstrate peacefully and know that if they don’t the costs will be borne by the resident taxpayers of Boston and not the corporations,” wrote Michael Flaherty in response to my email query.

Later on at one of the many candidates’ forums that have taken place in the last couple of months, Flaherty continued to pay lip service, while still leaving room for his true expectations to slip through.

“My position is that if we can keep the demonstrations peaceful and if they do not go out and destroy city property or prevent emergency services, is that my position is that men and women are overseas to preserves their right to do that. I appreciate that,” he said, reportedly. “I sympathize with the demonstrators and I believe in the message. As long as they’re peaceful they’re welcome in our city.”

I have to give credit to Felix Arroyo for having the testicular fortitude to take an actual stance on the protests and taking the effort to actually listen to what they have to say.

“I very much support the message of what’s going on in Dewey Square,” he said, reportedly. “The message is that something’s got to give. We’re losing the middle class in this country. You want to be able to take care of yourself and your family and you want to believe that your family or your children will have better opportunities than you did.”

Arroyo has been attempting to change which banks the city of Boston supports with deposits, by amending the city law that governs how the city handles its own money and what considerations there are when determined which banks in which to deposit.

“I’m working now on something that would force banks to tell us what they’re doing with our money,” he said. ”The banks that invest the most in our city, will get the most of our money. If I was a billionaire, I would not invest in a bank that was not working in our interest, so why should we.”

Arroyo also showed his support of the protesters when he called out Council President Steve Murphy after he began spouting leaked information – most likely from within the police department – that proved to be bullshit.

A couple of weeks ago, Steve Murphy spoke out in an interview with Fox25 that the protestors would likely cost the city up to $2 million in overtime pay for police officers in the month of October alone. He claimed this number came from Boston police brass, which probably means the cops decided to leak some bogus information to the biggest gossip on the Council.

Murphy – who is essentially the Droopy Dog of the Council – took the bait and immediately raising the specter of school closures and cuts to city services with the subtlety of a fedora with a giant rubber dong attached to the top of it.

We're gonna run out of money because those darn protestors.

Almost immediately, the media relations department for Boston Police was inundated with Freedom of Information Act requests. Shortly after, the Police released the information that two weeks into October, the city’s police overtime bill was $146,000. That doesn’t look too bad, considering the fact that the city budgets $30 million annually for police overtime pay.

Even before the rule overtime figure was released, Arroyo spoke out two weeks ago in response to Murphy’s claim, arguing that Occupy Boston was protesting conditions which have and will continue to cost the residents of Boston in far greater capacities than an overtime bill could.

“The question is, though, what the cost is to the city if we don’t change our economic practices now, what is the cost then and that’s the lens I hope we [use to] look at this, to say what is the cost to all of us if we continue on this track, if we continue on the track where the 99 percent of the population is essentially struggling and 1 percent has all of our wealth,” he said, at a union rally in support of Occupy Boston.

Murphy has since backed down from his criticism and now offers the standard half-assed fake support shared by fellow candidate Michael Flaherty.

Will Dorcena also did not get back to me about his thoughts on Occupy Boston, but he has visited the site, and whether or not his reasoning has any connection to the protests, he has spoken favorably about Arroyo’s efforts.

“If the city is putting money in a bank, we should make sure that that bank is lending its money to small businesses,” he said, reportedly.

John Connolly, who is among the candidates expected to easily win reelection, has been in no rush to make any public statements about Occupy Boston.

“I haven’t visited the camp yet, but I’ve been reading a lot on OB [Occupy Boston],” wrote John Connolly. “I’m out until about 11 p.m. tonight and a pretty full campaign schedule tomorrow, but I’ll try to email you some thoughts ASAP.”

That was two weeks ago, and I’m still waiting for his response.

Ayanna Pressley also never bothered to answer my email query.

I’m not sure if she has visited the encampment, but it was anything like many of her other public appearances, she probably stuck around just long enough to be photographed, while taking great effort to minimize the amount of interaction she has with the crowd.

A match made in desperation

Posted by thebastard on

The latest buzz on the Boston politics scene is the alliance between John Connolly and Ayanna Pressley, which includes combining campaign finances.

The reasons for such a union are plainly obvious, with Connolly’s mayoral ambitions and Pressley’s desire to remain relevant in a city that has always favored the white male politicians, the duo have a chance to ensure that the two-year status quo in City Hall remains intact.

As everyone is well aware, the at-large city council race has pitted four incumbents against Michael Flaherty, a council veteran who discovered oppositional politics just in time for his run against Mayor Thomas Menino in 2009, as well as Sean Ryan and Will Dorcena – two candidates who are dividing their time between being ignored by local media and attempting to crack into a political establishment that heavily favors insiders with wide-eyed naiveté.

In just two terms, John Connolly has risen to the top of the heap, with a massive fundraising ability that comes despite his recent transformation of boyish youthfulness into the bloated demeanor of a Ambian abuser.

Just behind Connolly is his behind-the-scenes nemesis Felix Arroyo, who manages to walk the line of talking like the people’s politician, while getting as close as he can to that line of cynical pragmatist. The best part about Arroyo being an incumbent is watching Connolly taste the bile in his mouth as he includes Arroyo in his call for voters to support all four incumbents.

It doesn’t matter that he’s the council president, Stephen Murphy is definitely looking weak coming into November. Murphy is a career politician with more jowls than charisma who slowly slips ever closer towards to falling into the political minor leagues. Nevertheless, he does have a lot of loyal support among Boston voting blocs most likely to bother coming to the polls on an off year.

That leaves Ayanna Pressley.

Conventional wisdom (i.e. half-assed assumptions based on campaign finances and the fact that most Boston politics reporters are substantially less-familiar with the communities of color.) has it that Ayanna Pressley is most at risk in the election.

Last election, Pressley edged out Tito Jackson following a fifth-place finish in the preliminary election to grab the number four spot and a ticket to the council. District 2 notwithstanding, if Pressley were to come up short, the council could become a sausage party for the first time in decades.

As Connolly said In a Globe article from over the weekend, he “couldn’t look my wife or daughter in the eye If I didn’t do everything I could to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

I assume that Connolly is referring to the fact that if Pressley loses, that likely means that Flaherty regained his seat, which in turn means who can’t guarantee a clear shot at the mayor’s office and the perks that come with it.

Plain and simple, Connolly is full of shit. It doesn’t matter how friendly he may be with Pressley, he is very likely well aware that publicly aligning himself with her helps rinse off some of the perceived racist stench of “White Roxbury,” the sort of neighborhood full of seniors who are still wistful for a time when public use of the N-word was still acceptable behavior. (In some corners it still is acceptable).

Connolly obviously wants to be mayor, which means he’s going to need the support of constituencies he hasn’t had to worry about before. Pressley on the other hand is comparatively low on cash, and suffers from an inability to not come off like a campaign press statement. Having to share the spot light with Flaherty is probably a worse scenario than losing Pressley on the Council.

To be clear, Pressley has always been a better councilor than a political candidate. While she may be more prone to meeting constituents with an insincere smile and eyes that make it obvious she isn’t listening to you, she has brought up important issues that disproportionate impact women as well as communities of color. This is exactly the reason why it’s important that the Council have more diversity and in turn a greater expanse of perspective than it may end up having come next year.

It’s just too bad that her best shot is shacking up with the candidate with the most obvious ambitions for higher office to go along with a budding second chin that is bound to arrive in time for his first mayoral term.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Other Guys part 2

Posted by thebastard on

When I posted my previous article, I mentioned that Will Dorcena had yet to respond to my e-mails. He did eventually get back to me, so I figured it was only fair to add his two cents to the matter.

In terms of campaigning, Dorcena and his fellow-ignored candidate Sean Ryan differ in style and voter appeal. After having worked his way through  several municipal elections in the last few years, Ryan has established bases in Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury, while Dorcena has a solid base in Dorchester and Hyde Park, thanks in part, to his work co-founding the Boston Haitian Reporter.

While Ryan has the municipal experience between the two, Dorcena does claim experience from his college days campaigning for student government.

“While this is my first campaign for public office, I did campaign for, and win, a seat as student body president of Boston College.  Years later, I campaigned and became the MBA student body president of Babson College.”

I could very easily be wrong about this, but I’m not sure that college experience helps show that he’s a contender, or if it betrays a certain green-ness to his political street cred. My own experience with college student government included running a legitimately-recognized campaign for student body president for Andy Skaggs – a student who did not exist – which included bizarre personal attacks on the opponents, such as that one stole Andy Skaggs’ wallet, one was a closet Satan worshipper and another was secretly a killer cyborg from the future bent on the annihilation of the human race.

I wasn't kidding. I would sneak onto campus late at night on the weekends to plaster these flyers around.What's sad is these flyers still make me laugh, because I actually got to see one of the candidates find one of these and get outraged.

So you can imagine the level of seriousness with which I view student body politics.

In any case, Dorcena is a legit contender in a legit race, and he agreed with my contention that fair media coverage has been lacking.

“The coverage of this race has been grossly unbalanced,” wrote Dorcena. “Sean Ryan and I are relatively unknown candidates, which sometimes doesn’t make for a good story.  More popular candidates, such as the incumbents, have larger followings and will attract more readers to the stories published about them. However, I do have a story and a message about bold leadership to share, and I think news outlets would be foolish to ignore something of serious substance.”

I think the other important thing that the candidates are likely to learn if they haven’t already, is that a major component to Boston politics is making friends with the journalists. Most journalists are lazy and will often go after the easy story. The four incumbents and Michael Flaherty have a lot more experience working with journalists than Ryan and Dorcena and they are likely on a first-name basis with the five candidates – I know I am. That’s just what happens when you cover the politicians over the course of a few years. Access plays a big part in coverage.

In terms of his campaign, Dorcena is big on the idea of doing what the voter wants.

“The job of an elected official is to, first and foremost, represent the voters.  As I campaign, I make sure that every voter understands that I am an extension of them and that I will support the community.”

The viewpoint looks good on paper, but it’s also important to remember that the average voter doesn’t always know specifically what it wants. For instance, if voters agree that they want better schools and the candidate said “I will give you better schools,” that really doesn’t mean anything if the candidate doesn’t specifically prescribe how the schools are poor and what steps can be used to ameliorate the problem.

I’ve never run for public office, but I do know that the way to get attention is  show some teeth. I realize that it may be more prudent to save your good material until October, but a good race is like prison. If you want to survive, pick out the biggest, baddest motherfucker and knock him or her on their ass.

The Other Guys

Posted by thebastard on

The big story in this fall’s Municipal Elections seems to be the five-way battle for four At-Large City Council Seats.

The incumbents, John Connolly, Stephen Murphy, Felix Arroyo and Ayanna Pressley are hoping to defend against a challenge from former At-Large Councilor and former Mayoral Candidate Michael Flaherty.

The four at-large councilors pretending to like each other. (photo from the Globe)

The thing is, it’s not a five-way race, it’s a seven-way race. Sean Ryan and William Dorcena are also in the running, but no one seems to care.

Ryan is a becoming a regular in municipal elections with previous bids in the 2009 at-large race and the 2010 special election to replace Councilor John Tobin, who served West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain. Dorcena is a co-founder and former publisher of the Boston Haitian Reporter. While, politics is nothing new for the brother of State Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry, this is Dorcena’s first bid at elected office.

Will Dorcena and Sean Ryan have been running for office, despite being relegated to the political kiddie table.

In Friday morning’s Boston Globe, Andrew Ryan wrote a piece about Michael Flaherty’s disappointing fundraising considering his mastery of it in previous races. Ryan also fell into the mold of not acknowledging Ryan and Dorcena, characterizing the race as one in which, “five well-known politicians are competing for four seats. One will lose.”

In David Bernstein’s June 9 column for the Boston Phoenix, Dorcena and Ryan aren’t even mentioned with Bernstein instead focusing on the danger posed to Pressley and Arroyo’s campaigns by Flaherty.

Bernstein followed up his coverage of the upcoming council election with a feature on Pressley that finally does reference the two challengers, but only as “Two other at-large candidates are considered long shots.”

Dave Bernstein: If Emo Phillips was more self-important and into politics.

In the Bay State Banner’s Aug. 11 edition, politics writer Yawu Miller covered Pressley’s campaign in which Dorcena and Ryan are again the only candidates who do not get a mention. To be fair, the Banner’s article was focused more on Pressley’s campaign than the entire race – similar to Bernstein’s second piece, but without the dismissive reference.

“There are at least five serious candidates (the four incumbents plus Flaherty),” according to BlueMassGroup.com.

It’s tough enough running up against entrenched incumbents, but when local media decides to not even acknowledge your campaigns,  that isn’t a good sign.

According to Ryan, who was contacted through e-mail, the dismissive coverage is the result of the media’s obsession election coverage narratives.

“The media seems to pick a theme early, and stick with it throughout the entire campaign season,” wrote Ryan. “In 2009, it was race and ‘new Boston’ vs. ‘old Boston.’  In 2011, it is whether Flaherty will knock off an incumbent.  Will and I don’t fit into this narrative.  Unlike in 2009, however, there are only 7 candidates in the field – so it is a bit strange that in some coverage our names aren’t mentioned.”

In 2009’s “New Boston” vs “Old Boston” At-Large Council race, Stephen Murphy and John Connolly were the only incumbents – Sam Yoon and Michael Flaherty opted instead to go after Mayor Thomas Menino ultimately losing with the unified “Floon” ticket.

Voters were often confused by Flaherty’s willingness to let a young intern speak at events.

Caption: Voters were often confused by Flaherty’s willingness to let a young intern speak at events

This made room for new-comers Arroyo and Pressley. Tito Jackson finished in fifth place, but was able to bounce back in last winter’s special election to replace Chuck Turner’s vacant seat. Ryan was also a candidate in 2009, but fell short of the top eight in a bloated preliminary election that featured 15 candidates.

Aside from being left out, Ryan did praise local coverage of the election, and is holding out that the Globe and Herald will pick it up as the election approaches. Unlike 2009, with only seven candidates the city is not holding a preliminary election for the at-large race, so the action is still a few months out.

“The local papers and the political blogs have done a pretty decent job of covering the at-large race, as well as the competitive district races,” he wrote. “The Globe and the Herald will generally ramp up their coverage of local politics in the fall, when readers are paying more attention – but in the meantime, their local web-only coverage of forums and other official events is pretty good.”

In campaign styles, there doesn’t seem to be quite a dramatic difference between Ryan, Dorcena and the other candidates, except maybe lacking the political machine connections to fundraise. Most of the candidates have adopted themes involving schools, violent crime and the economy.

As far as social media goes, there is no consistency among the candidates. It could be argued that Dorcena is hurting himself by not fully embracing social media. Although he does have a twitter account and Facebook page, he seems reluctant to embrace the form of communication that has pretty much become the crack cocaine that fuels the city’s newsrooms.

Incumbent Murphy is the same way with social media, only occasionally using Twitter to give shouts out to fellow councilors.

In contrast, Ryan is closer to Pressley and Arroyo in that he’s all over social media. While his tweet counts rarely reach his two rivals, in previous campaigns as well as this one, Ryan has used YouTube as a platform for his message, while regularly using Twitter and Facebook.

So, it’s tough to say that social media is to blame for the lack of acknowledgment of Ryan and Dorcena’s candidacies.

Dorcena has yet to respond to the few attempts I’ve made to reach him, though in fairness those attempts include two e-mails and a direct tweet in the span of a couple days.

Obviously, with campaign money pouring in, and name recognition from at least two years on the job, the incumbents have the advantage and most if not all of them will return for work in January 2012.

But it certainly doesn’t hurt their efforts when right out the gate, local media – the same local media that can often be easily swooned by innocuous insider gossip – has already decided who they feel are the “legitimate contenders.”