By Adrian Walker, The Boston Globe
Ayanna Pressley has heard the predictions that she is in trouble, in terms of retaining her seat on the Boston City Council.
But she has also heard praise from voters: the woman in Brighton who thanked her for standing up for branch libraries, the mother in south Boston who connected with her work on drug addiction, the people thanking her for speaking out against human trafficking.
“I know what the predictions are, and I reject them,’’ Pressley said Friday. “I’ve already defied them.’’
What people are saying, as she knows full well, is that an election that may be dominated by voters from South Boston and West Roxbury doesn’t bode well for a black woman. “What they’re really saying is that municipal-election voters are traditional voters, and that’s not my vote. I think that stereotypes me, my message, and especially, the voters.’’
As you may or may not have heard, tomorrow is Election Day in Boston. More precisely, it is the preliminary election for the Boston City Council, in which the field in some competitive and entertaining district races will be whittled down to two candidates.
But - with all due respect to the district candidates - the most interesting race is not on the ballot this time around. There is no preliminary in the race for four at-large council seats. In that contest, four incumbents and one former longtime incumbent are doing battle for four seats. Somebody is going to lose.
According to conventional wisdom, Pressley is the candidate on the hot seat, the one who finished fourth two years ago, the one whose progressive base is the most difficult to drag to the polls, the one most imperiled by former councilor and mayoral candidate Michael Flaherty’s surprising decision to return to office.
The conventional wisdom also says she is likely to suffer from the lack of a preliminary. In her race against three other incumbents - Stephen Murphy, Felix Arroyo, and John Connolly - and Flaherty, a primary might have offered an early opportunity to get her supporters motivated about a council race that much of Boston seems poised to ignore.
The race raises questions for the city, too. With the retirement of veteran councilor Maureen Feeney, Boston could well end up with the first all-male council in nearly 40 years. Do voters care? The record of female candidates for the council isn’t encouraging.
“I don’t think you can use history to answer the question,’’ said Pressley, the first black woman ever elected to the council. “Absolutely, it does matter.’’ She bristles, understandably, at the idea that focusing on issues confronting women and families is political poison, arguing that issues like poverty fundamentally affect the city as a whole.
One of Pressley’s most visible stands was the campaign she helped lead against the Cure Lounge. The Theater District nightclub was at the center of a nasty dispute after closing its doors on a Saturday night as a large number of black patrons arrived. The would-be patrons had attended the Harvard-Yale game that afternoon. The club agreed to pay a fine of $30,000 and participate in antidiscrimination training.
“I think people want to live in a city that is welcoming and inclusive,’’ Pressley said. “I don’t think people want to feel that they can only go into a place with a rainbow flag in front.’’
Being a perceived underdog in politics is not necessarily a bad thing. It encourages opponents to underestimate you, and can make supporters more determined to prevail. And Pressley is correct when she says she beat longer odds last time, when she ran as a complete unknown, one that wasn’t even originally from Boston.
In truth, the race really begins in earnest after the preliminary ends. “I’m very confident about my ability to earn votes in every neighborhood.’’