Endorsements in September 14, 2021 Boston primary election

Early voting starts today in Boston for the September 14, 2021 primary election, so it’s time for me to share my endorsements. As usual, I am only endorsing in the races I’m eligible to vote in, but read to the end for four anti-endorsements. Local government is important, people. Get out there and vote!

For Mayor, Michelle Wu. Second choice: Andrea Campbell, whose position on police reform I prefer abstractly over Wu’s, but (a) I think Wu’s plan for how to make progress in that area is more realistic, and (b) I’m a little peeved that Campbell bought Google search ads using her opponents’ names as keywords. Kim Janey is also an acceptable choice, though I can’t say I’m entirely pleased with how she’s handled the pandemic, and I think her campaigning has been pretty weak. All of the men in the race (Spagnuolo, Santiago, Cappucci, Barros) are unqualified hacks. Annissa Essaibi George is an actively corrupt thin-blue-liner who at the very least financially benefits from the fact that her husband is a slumlord, and at worst is a slumlord herself.

For At-Large City Councillor, Ruthzee Louijeune, David Halbert, Julia Mejia, and Kelly Bates. Alexander Gray is a reasonable alternative to Bates if you’re particularly enamored of putting someone with his specific life experiences on the Council, which is an entirely defensible position; I personally prefer Bates because she has outlined a far more specific and actionable agenda than Gray. Bridget Nee-Walsh, Michael Flaherty, Jon Spillane, Erin Murphy, and Donnie Palmer are all disqualified by the fact that the’ve been endorsed by the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association.

For District 9 City Councillor, Liz Breadon. I have complaints about some of what Liz has done during her first term, but I see her listening to and learning from her constituents and evolving her positions in the right direction. Eric Porter and Michael Bianchi are both mediocre white men who have no qualifications to justify trying to unseat Breadon. (Mediocre white men running for office in opposition to more qualified women who have put in the work really piss me off.) Eric Porter is an ally of Eva Webster, which is reason enough to never vote for him for anything.^* Michael Bianchi couldn’t even be bothered to set up a web page for his campaign. I can’t endorse Sarah Iwany’s write-in campaign because she doesn’t understand how politics works, doesn’t understand what it takes to win an election, blames others for her own mistakes, doesn’t respond to legitimate criticism, and (like Bianchi) couldn’t even be bothered to set up a web site for her campaign [ref].

In addition to the endorsements above, I offer the following anti-endorsements: do not vote for Ed Flynn, Frank Baker, Brian Worrell, or John White, all of whom have been endorsed by the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, which is an automatic disqualifier.

^*For those of you who aren’t familiar enough with Allston/Brighton politics to understand why I view a positive association with Eva Webster as a disqualifier, feel free to google her name and read up on her a bit. Also, I offer this quote about Webster I found online, which I think is quite accurate:

Eva Webster of Brighton is one of the worst, bitchiest troglodytes of Boston’s NIMBYs… She fought the Cleveland Circle project and ground it down to the retirement home disaster it’s now becoming, and has opposed almost everything proposed in Brighton. She even tried to take down Maryanne’s (google this idiot) and complained that the floor was too sticky! She represents everything bad about Boston’s anti-development team.