The next election for Boston City Council members will be held in November of 2007. This is shaping up to be a big election for numerous reasons. Between what is on the ballot, who is on the ballot and other issues there are a lot of factors that must be considered.
There is a proactive agenda being taken on both the state and federal levels this election time. This is mainly happening because of the Democrats. They want to have you consider the following objectives when it comes to expanding democracy and protecting the right to vote:
1. Recurring problems with electric voting machines and inadequate poll worker training are causing serious security flaws and huge threats to the integrity of these elections. As such, they have to be addressed so that an end is put to unaccountable, unverifiable and unauditable voting.
2. Deceptive practices and voter intimidation also need to end.
3. Restrictive voter ID requirements that disenfranchise eligible voters without improving the integrity of elections are another thing that must be ended.
4. The protection of minority voting rights must continue.
Some of these things are especially important with Boston due to the fact that there are so many minority groups living in this area. This is also why so many Bostonians believe that these reforms must start on the local level if they are ever to be changed by Congress. Unfortunately, since elections are obviously unfair, this may not happen on this level either. For this reason a lot of people are campaigning for it to be on the forefront of these elections, hoping that their voices will at least be heard, even if their votes are overlooked by this unfairness.
It is also important to understand here that since tens of thousands of eligible voters have been disenfranchised this year, it is quite possible that this will make a huge difference in some very key races, such as that which will occur for the Boston City Council. As such, this really is a problem that needs to be heard about and solved prior to these elections.
There are some people who have wanted to run for the Boston City Council for quite some time now. Many of these candidates are simply hoping that they will be elected for an at-large seat on the Boston City Council. If they truly have these hopes, then they really need to have already started raising money. In fact, this should have been done in December 2006 for the November 2007 Boston City Council elections. The reason why this is so important is because it is the only way in which key supporters can give the candidate the $500 annual maximum donation twice. When these candidates are able to get $1,000 instead of $500 from these people, it actually means a lot. This is especially true whenever they are trying to raise $150,000 or more just for a citywide campaign.
For this year's Boston City Council elections there are 2 people upon whom you should keep your eye. They are:
1. John Connolly has already declared that he is a 2007 challenger for this position. He got off to a very good start in December. During the month of December alone, he was able to raise nearly $36,000 to place into his campaign account. This is a lot more money than he was able to raise in 2005 when he started off the year with only $26,000. It was at that time that Sam Yoon had nearly $30,000 banked before going on to win that election.
2. Peter Torkildsen is the other candidate upon whom you should keep your eye. He is closely aligned with the former governor. As such, committee members have some very high expectations of him already. However, the demands that he is making are out of line with what has been offered in the past years. They are also out of line in regards to what other candidates are asking for. There is another problem with him as well though. It is the fact that he seems to want to get this position in order that he can be able to rebuild his own public profile. Some people are saying that he wants to do this so that he can go on to a higher political office. This does not stand well with many people who are tired of self-serving party leaders skipping out on them.
Unfortunately, neither of these candidates have actually been able to gain any traction. Although some people do think that Peter Torkildsen likely has the votes. However, this is probably true only because the anti-establishment voters are divided this year.
It really should not come as any surprise to anyone that some of Boston City Council's current members are putting this year's candidates through an open campaign process. After all, much of what is going on within Boston's politics has been taking place in the open instead of behind very secretive, closed doors, as it has in the past. However, some people are still startled to this change away from the usual back-room deal-making that is still happening in a lot of the state party elections, regardless as to whether they are Democratic or Republican in nature. Along with this nice change comes public candidate debates that people are able to keep their eye on. This is what should be happening though since this is probably the most important vote the committee has faced in the last 2 decades. Many of the committee members say that this is because the governor's office is no longer establishing the agenda which then must be backed up by a paid professional whose job is to merely deal with the press. Now,they will also have a lot of work to do too.