Battenfeld: Boston voters could pass on making history with first elected Black mayor – Boston Herald

Bostons chance to select the citys first elected Black mayor could be slipping away, with voters more concerned about neighborhood issues housing, schools and crime than making history.

A new Emerson College/7News poll confirms what has been reported before that Acting Mayor Kim Janey has failed to inspire voters and capitalize on her incumbency just two and a half weeks before the preliminary election.

The move to force the other leading Black candidate, City Councilor Andrea Campbell, to drop out of the race has also completely fallen flat.

Campbell in fact has nearly as many supporters as Janey, according to the poll, which shows Janey in third place at 16% and Campbell in fourth at 14%. The top two vote-getters in the Sept. 14 preliminary election earn a spot in the November final.

And theres little evidence in the poll to back the speculation that Janey is being hurt by black residents splitting their vote between her and Campbell.

Janey, the citys first black non-elected mayor who took office in March when former Mayor Marty Walsh left, and Campbell together are drawing 55% of the black vote, which means nearly half of all black voters are choosing other candidates.

The Emerson/7News poll also reveals that its City Councilor Michelle Wu who is drawing the most broad-based support, especially among younger voters and liberal voters. Wu leads the poll overall with 24%, followed by City Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George at 18%. A quarter of all voters are still undecided, meaning theres plenty of time for late movement in the race.

Wus proposed housing solutions like rent control and her strategy to blitz every neighborhood in the city with block parties and other events, seems to be the most effective. Shes also running high-energy TV ads featuring her smiling face and proposals like making the MBTA free.

She and Essaibi-George have been helped by the fact that both are at-large councilors who have triumphed before in citywide elections. Janey and Campbell are district councilors.

Janeys campaign strategy of using her office to run the citys coronavirus-fighting program and tout city programs and grants has not been enough to impress more voters.

Campbell, meanwhile, has been on the rise, running TV ads backed by a super PAC that showcase her background growing up in Boston. But neither candidate has been able to break through to the No. 2 spot, which would guarantee them a place in the November final election.

Janey has been unable to inspire voters the way that former Boston city councilor and current U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley did in her successful bid to oust former U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano. Pressley ran a bold campaign, taking on the white power structure that had been propping up Capuano and others.

If Pressley had decided to run for mayor, shed be way ahead, ensuring Boston would pick its first ever elected black mayor. But she passed on the race and instead focused on her career in Congress and status as one of U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs squad.

And the fact is that if Wu wins, shed be Bostons first ever Asian American mayor.

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Battenfeld: Boston voters could pass on making history with first elected Black mayor - Boston Herald