Media

Rehashing old theories

by Seth Gitell

Working as a cub political reporter for the Harvard Crimson more than a decade ago, I became taken with a theory: the many Back Bay professionals who lived in the district of then-Senate president William M. Bulger would come out and vote in droves for his pro-good-government opponent, John DeJong.

DeJong was a pro-choice Republican, who figured that he could rally the many newcomers in his district who were disgusted by the spoils-dividing largesse of the Bulger era. Like many nifty theories, mine was dashed on the rocks of reality: the people in South Boston -- with their Bulger signs in every yard -- voted. The DeJong yuppies stayed home.

Now comes the Boston Globe's Sam Allis, trotting out a new version of that tired theory. On Sunday, in a piece headlined CHANGING OF THE OLD GUARD: THE POWER OF THE CHIEFTAINS DIMINISHES AS NEW BLOOD REDEFINES A PAROCHIAL CITY, Allis described the great transition the city faces at the hands of all the newcomers

The piece opens with a quote from Elizabeth Hardwick, describing Boston's Brahmin culture from the '50s -- but it's basically a retelling of an old Boston story. Or, as one Boston wag puts it, it's "the Back Bay syndrome, where they read the New York Times and don't vote for the city council."

To be sure, the Boston area boasts many new residents who have come to work in the city's high-tech and financial industries. What Allis neglected was something his Globe colleague Joan Vennochi has frequently mentioned in the past: these hip dot-com types don't matter because they don't vote. They certainly don't participate in the contests for city council and state legislature -- elections held later this month that somehow escape mention in the piece.

"They are right about one thing: there is no question that the percentage of Massachusetts residents who are native-born is lower than at any point in the past," says Lou DiNatale, a senior fellow at the McCormack Institute at UMass Boston. "These are not just people who came here to come to school, which is how we used to view these people. These are people who moved to Boston in the two recent economic boom cycles."

Still, he says, "Traditionally, they never have voted in the city." He adds: "You're not going to see them banging stamps in the campaign headquarters anytime soon."

One thing Allis could have mentioned to buttress his case, but didn't, was the successful race of City Councilor Michael Ross, who rode to victory last year on an outsider coalition of students, Russian Jews, and professionals. But even Ross benefited from the assistance of his father, Steve Ross, a long-time hand in Boston politics. The true test of the new political alliances in the state will be the 2002 governor's race. So far, two candidates have made official moves: MassEnvelopePlus owner Steve Grossman, who's formed an exploratory committee, and attorney and former state senator Warren Tolman, who announced Tuesday that he is running. Victory may go to the candidate who can learn to harness the new economic class in a way DeJong never did.

But I'll believe it when I see it.