Mike Freedberg blogs about state and city politics at Here And Sphere.
It's frustrating to write about an election in which it was, until yesterday, almost impossible to find any evidence that voters are interested. In the Fifth Suffolk District, one of the lowest-income in the entire Boston area, voter interest should be on red alert — urgency, a loud cry for attention. The opposite has seemed the case. Along Columbia Road, through Uphams Corner, there's plenty going on — flea markets, Pilgrim Church activities, socials at Bird Street Gym, tax season customers lining up at Pacific Insurance, meals at the KFC and Trinidadian Roti near Edward Everett Square — but no candidate in sight. Several "Cherry Valley" blocks of Blue Hill Avenue — same thing. Dudley Street from Vine Street Gym eastward? Much shopping in small bodegas and conversation in Cape Verdean and Hispanic eateries, but not a candidate was to be found.
Bowdoin Street and Geneva Avenue, the crime-pocked neighborhood near which all four candidates live, looks a bit more attentive. One finds signs in the various store windows for Karen Charles Peterson; more for Evandro Carvlaho; a few for Barry Lawton; even a couple for Jen Johnson, the most issues-oriented of the four, and by no means the weakest.
Bowdoin Street also features Cesaria, the restaurant owned by John F. Barros, who ran for mayor last year and got 2,071 votes within the Fifth District, 600 more than his nearest rival (who is now supporting Karen Charles-Peterson). Barros was expected to run and was greatly desired by most; but as soon as his candidacy was mentioned, Walsh appointed him to a key City Hall post.
Thus Barros as the Fifth's voice on Beacon Hill was not to be, and all four of the candidates who did run have had to overcome looking like consolation prizes. Perhaps this situation is why most of the district, with less than two weeks left before voting day, has remained at the sideline.
In the neighboring 13th Suffolk, whose special election was held two weeks ago, there were loads of candidate forums; almost every neighborhood association held one. Yet here in the Fifth Suffolk, only one forum is on offer: next Sunday at 4 p.m. at First Parish Church on Meeting House Hill. Attempts — including by me — to arouse other neighborhood forums failed for lack of interest.
All four candidates deserve better.
Barry Lawton, of Mount Ida Road, boasts many years of City Hall and State House staff experience. He knows the issues and spoke eloquently to them at the Ward 14 Democratic caucus on March 1. Lawton as the Fifth's legislative voice would be heard and listened to. So far, however, his campaign has generated the slimmest activity.
Jennifer Johnson, who, of all things, lives next door to Lawton, boasts twenty years of environmental activism, much of it working with MassPIRG (Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group), one of the state's most effective reform advocates. Johnson has plenty of support among progressive church congregations — and despite the district's image as one of immigrants chiefly, it also boasts several such Berkshire County-ish churches. Johnson is almost a throwback to the age of social gospel politics, doing good things for others: and no district in Boston more needs such articulate altruism.
Charles-Peterson, a third generation resident of the district, lives on Percival Street hard by Ronan Park, an area which, 30 to 50 years ago, was home to the political elite of the Ward 15 part of Dorchester; and political elite she is. Charles-Peterson made a career in state administration, rising to the top staff position at the Transportation Department, many of whose key politically connected people are actively supporting her campaign. She's already held some "friend raiser" events, offers the completest campaign literature, and seems the closest of the four to the kind of political connectedness the Fifth District needs.
But connectedness to politics isn't as vital to voters as connectedness to them. Of all the four, the candidate with the largest number of people who feel connected is Evandro Carvalho. Any candidate who is able to be the icon of an identifiable ethnic community has a leg up in Boston politics; and, as John Barros proved, the Cape Verdean community has the numbers and is well aware of it. Cape Verdean voters dominate at least seven of the district's 19 precincts and have presence in almost all the others.
Carvalho has been a Suffolk County assistant prosecutor in District Attorney Dan Conley's office, posted to Roxbury District Court, where he prosecuted gun crimes. As gun violence, street crime, and drug addiction are the 5th District's ongoing urgent concern, Carvalho stands in the center of what makes the Fifth's voters want action. His voters are showing themselves energized, too. My interview of him went viral almost the minute that I posted it; a day later it's been viewed 150 times more often than my interviews with the other candidates combined.
Carvalho may yet fall short. Charles-Peterson and Johnson both have the eloquence or institutional support to carry the day. In the last couple of days Johnson has greatly boosted her social media campaign and developed a serious issues-based candidacy — an impressive effort almost overnight — on many fronts, all of them badly needed by the Fifth Suffolk's voters. Charles-Peterson, too, has stepped up her door-knocking. She's calling on supporters, this Saturday, to knock on 1,000 doors.
She will need that and more. Johnson, too, will need to marshall actual voters behind her issues placards. They have one big chance, at the March 23 forum, to up their game even further, and a week thereafter to arouse the street. It still might not be enough. Carvalho draws on the district's largest single voter base, one that has already coalesced. Right now the race looks like Carvalho's to lose.
