Election Roundup: 7 Mayoral Candidates, Forum reports, + poll results

It’s June! Summer is almost here! Covid restrictions have been eased and campaigns are kicking into high gear! Remember all those signatures potential candidates needed? The Election Department has until June 22nd to certify them. We know for sure who most of the candidates are but the field might change slightly as all the signatures are verified.

As of right now there will be seven candidates for Mayor of Boston on the ballot in the September 14th preliminary election. After those results are tallied, the field is narrowed to two candidates and we all vote again in November. There are 6 “major candidates” for Mayor with hundreds of thousands of dollars in their campaign accounts. The 7th candidate, who will be on the ballot in September is retired police officer, former member of the Boston School Committee, and East Boston resident Robert Cappucci.

Like in everything there are similarities and differences between the major candidates and there have already been many forums held by various groups in which the candidates are laying out their cases as to why they should lead Boston in the future.

Here’s are some recent highlights:

The Environmental League of Massachusetts and The Boston Globe held a forum on environmental and energy issues: 6 candidates participated: Andrea Campbell, Annissa Essaibi George, Michelle Wu, Kim Janey, Jon Santiago, and John Barros. All of them would opt Boston out of the state’s mosquito-spraying program and all 6 would give each Boston household a compost bucket and promote a citywide composting plan! According to WBZ, the development of Southie’s Seaport loomed large!

The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department held a forum focused on criminal justice, substance abuse disorders, mental health, and homelessness. The same 6 candidates were there and when I said ”were there” I meant it!  This was an in-person forum, and the audience was mostly made up of incarcerated people. Mass and Cass was a focal point of the forum, as were Police Officers in Boston Public Schools.

The Boston Teachers Union and the Education Justice Alliance held a forum and the “Big Six” were there as well. An issue that differentiates the candidates is the makeup of the Boston School Committee (as of now Boston has a wholly appointed School Committee making it different from almost every other town and city in Massachusetts). Annissa Essaibi George and Jon Barros want the Committee to remain an appointed body. And the rest of the candidates want the School Committee to be made up of both elected and appointed members. Police officers in schools also came up in this forum – Annissa Essaibi George and Jon Santiago want to keep them in schools while the other 4 disagree.

New Poll!

Poll Progressive LLC and the advisory firm Emancipated Group just released the results of a new mayoral poll. The results:

Annissa Essaibi-George 22%

Michelle Wu 18%

Kim Janey 16%.

Andrea Campbell 6%

John Barros, 5%

Jon Santiago 5%

29% are undecided

Poll has a margin of error of +/-4.1%

Read more about this poll here! 

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