Tito flush with volunteers if not $ in City Hall bid
Touts engagement with youth
Tito Jackson’s cash-poor mayoral campaign is banking on eager volunteers and young operatives — including a coordinator who is still in college — to drum up support for the underdog candidate, but political observers are skeptical that approach can topple Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s machine and its high-priced consultants.
Walsh, who has nearly $3 million in his war chest and $1.5 million in separate reserve accounts, has consistently raised more money than Jackson, who has $98,475 on hand, according to the latest state reports. And Walsh has spent more than $230,000 on staff and consultants since January, including $60,000 on consultants Precision Strategies — whose members have former President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign on their resumes.
Jackson, on the other hand, has spent about $40,000 on staff and consultants since starting his campaign in January, with one his most recent hires including an Emerson College sophomore and a 2016 Middlebury College graduate.
“I am leading a campaign ran by and for the people of Boston,” Jackson said in a statement. “And instead of simply pledging to create a better future for the youth in our city, we are engaging and empowering them to participate in the planning and political process that will ensure the ability to actually create a future for the city of Boston they can not only be proud of, but thrive in for generations to come.”
Campaign manager Ta-Shonda Vincent-Lee said the campaign was focusing on grassroots support and building person-to-person connections instead of raising cash for more consultants.
“I’m not taking a dig at (the Walsh campaign), it’s great if you can do that ... we’re about getting young folks in the city to engage and be active with us,” said Vincent-Lee, who worked as a social media outreach coordinator for the Yes on 4 campaign last year that successfully passed a ballot measure legalizing marijuana — a measure Walsh opposed.
“What I’ve learned about campaigns is what matters most is passion — you can’t pay for passion, you can’t pay for belief in your support,” Vincent-Lee said.
Walsh campaign spokeswoman Gabrielle Farrell said in a statement: “Mayor Walsh is proud of the campaign team he has assembled and looks forward to talking to Bostonians about his record of creating good jobs for Bostonians, building affordable housing, and increasing investments in our schools.”
Christine Vapsva, a 19-year-old Emerson sophomore who is getting $2,000 a month as Jackson’s volunteer coordinator, said she began volunteering with the campaign when it began and became a staffer in May. She said she wasn’t worried about the financial gap the campaign faces.
“This is a grass-roots campaign, I don’t think relying on volunteers and community support is a weakness or limiting requirement, it’s a strength,” said Vapsva, who is originally from New Jersey. “We’re lucky to be able to run a campaign like this, as opposed to being forced to.”
But veteran political observers had a less rosy outlook. Former City Councilor Michael McCormack said it’s hard to keep volunteers engaged over a long campaign and candidates need to pay people to manage campaign strategy as well as knock on doors.
“Money buys experience, it buys campaign operatives, it buys people who understand how to run campaigns, it buys air time,” McCormack said. “What it gives Walsh that Tito can’t do is the opportunity to get his message out ...
“Tito is in a footrace, it’s very much an uphill race, to be charitable,” McCormack said.
City Hall watcher Joe Slavet added, “It’s unusual, but people do a lot of weird unusual things in a campaign.”
‘I’m not taking a dig at (the Walsh campaign), it’s great if you can do that ... we’re about getting young folks in the city to engage and be active with us.’ — TA-SHONDA VINCENT-LEE Tito Jackson campaign manager