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Getting out the candidates
In the coming months, Boston could end up with eight majority-minority state House districts. Are the city’s communities of color ready to take advantage of the electoral opportunity?
BY ADAM REILLY


IT’S TOO SOON to predict the end result of two lawsuits challenging the 2001 redistricting of Boston’s state House districts. In Black Political Task Force et al. v. William Francis Galvin — which targeted the illegal dilution of African-American voting strength in Boston — a panel of US District Court judges emphatically sided with the plaintiffs, so it’s reasonable to think the final redistricting, whenever it comes, will offer increased options for candidates of color. The plaintiffs in Angel Meza et al. v. William Francis Galvin, on the other hand, failed to convince the trial court that linking predominantly white Charlestown with largely Latino Chelsea illegally diluted Latino voting strength in the Second Suffolk House District. Depending on how the Boston House districts affected by Black Political Task Force are reconfigured, however, the Second Suffolk’s lines could still shift in a way more favorable to the Meza plaintiffs. Whatever the final details, the plaintiffs in both cases are surely hoping that seven or more of the redrawn districts will be "opportunity districts" with large minority populations — thus making it easier, at least in theory, for candidates of color to win electoral office.

If this does transpire, however, will Boston’s African-American and Latino communities be ready to capitalize on the opportunity? Since the late 1990s, there have been relatively few buzz-generating candidacies of color in Greater Boston — think of Marie St. Fleur’s State House run in 1999, and Jarrett Barrios’s state House and Senate runs in 1998 and 2002, respectively, Chuck Turner’s and Felix Arroyo’s city-council wins in 1999 and 2003, or Ego Ezedi’s and Eddie Jenkins’s failed bids for city council and Suffolk County district attorney last year and in 2002. This shortage of compelling candidates could be due, in part, to an abiding belief that the deck is stacked against nonwhite candidates. But it also raises the question: are communities of color doing enough to cultivate strong candidates?

THE 1970s and early ’80s were the heyday of black politics in Boston. In 1972, four African-American newcomers — Bill Owens, Mel King, Doris Bunte, and Royal Bolling Jr. — were elected to the state legislature. Eleven years later, Mel King parlayed support from African-Americans and white liberals into a groundbreaking run for mayor, finishing close on Raymond Flynn’s heels in the preliminary election and becoming Boston’s first African-American mayoral finalist before losing to Flynn in the final. In addition to landmark electoral successes, the period was also marked by an attitude of burgeoning possibility and self-assertiveness. The Black Political Task Force (BPTF) was formed to develop a cohesive, strategic vision for African-American political advancement, and black legislators began following their swearing-in at the State House with a similar ceremony in which they took an oath of accountability before a black judge. Just as important, there was an ongoing, community-wide focus on identifying and encouraging potential candidates. "There was a time when this was pretty prevalent in the black community, to talk about grooming people [for office]," recalls South End state representative Byron Rushing.

At some point after King’s mayoral defeat, the enthusiasm that marked black politics in the 1970s and early ’80s ebbed. And whatever the primary causes — victories in most accessible legislative districts, the dissolution of King’s "Rainbow Coalition," and the abolition of the elected School Committee in 1991, just to name a few — widespread attentiveness to candidate development was one casualty. It was replaced, Rushing argues, by more of a do-it-yourself mindset. Some new black pols emerged after receiving the stamp of approval from well-established political luminaries; for example, when Doris Bunte left the House to head the Boston Housing Authority in 1984, she anointed antipoverty activist Gloria Fox as her successor. Other African-American political newcomers burst onto the scene largely through sheer individual will, as when, in 1992, Dianne Wilkerson of Roxbury ousted African-American incumbent Bill Owens for the Second Suffolk state Senate seat.

That shift is a significant reason why, at present, Boston’s African-American community lacks a single organization or network capable of providing a political road map for aspiring candidates. Instead, a smattering of individual organizations and programs fills this void piecemeal. At Northeastern, a new program led by Bunte offers 25 people in their 20s and early 30s, most of whom are African-American, a half-year primer on the history of Boston’s communities of color. Eddie Jenkins, who made two unsuccessful runs for Suffolk County DA and fell short in an at-large bid for city council 10 years ago, formed the Building the Road Foundation to provide leadership training and a political rite of passage for young blacks and Latinos after his 2002 loss to current Suffolk County district attorney Dan Conley. (Jenkins declined to be interviewed.) The Commonwealth Coalition, whose goals include electing progressive candidates of color, held its first Boston-based training program for aspiring candidates and campaign managers in Boston last year. And while the Black Political Task Force has, of late, focused more on legal fights like redistricting than on candidate development, BPTF member James Cofield says the group is lobbying two individuals to run for state House seats this fall. (Cofield won’t divulge their names, but promises both would be strong candidates if they decide to run: "They’re good, strong people, credible people.")

But these efforts don’t add up to an aggressive, systematic effort to recruit people to run for office. As Cofield concedes, the BPTF — and the entire African-American community — has some serious organizational shortcomings when it comes to grooming potential candidates. "We need to do more," he says. "We’d like to have a bigger net.... We’d like for people who have any inclination in that area to become involved, because we can’t see everybody."

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Issue Date: March 26 - April 1, 2004
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