Campbell close to decision
Councilor stresses ‘different type of leadership’ in weighing mayoral run
City Councilor Andrea Campbell said Friday she’ll make a decision “within the next week” of whether she’s going to run for mayor of Boston, a move she said she’s “seriously considering.”
“If, you know, I decide to do this, it’s because I feel this moment demands a different type of leadership to finally eradicate systemic racism and the inequities we see across Boston, and to have a clear focus on solving generational inequity,” the city councilor said on GBH’s Boston Public Radio program. “I’m continuing to have a lot of conversations with my family — of course, that is very important — my constituents. I’m praying on it.”
Campbell has been seen as a possible candidate — and potentially a strong one — for some time. The 38-yearold third-term councilor from Mattapan was the first Black woman to serve as the council’s president when she took that post in 2018, and she’s been an outspoken critic of Mayor Martin Walsh, pushing for more reforms geared toward racial equity and government transparency.
This comes just a few days after City Councilor Michelle Wu made her own long-rumored announcement into the race.
Walsh still hasn’t said whether he plans to run for a third term in 2021, though he did acknowledge he started calling around to other pols to firm up support after Wu told him about her own run.
Asked by GBH host Jim Braude about a run, Campbell said she’s “seriously considering it.” She then immediately cited her local roots, which observers have said is one significant advantage she has over Wu, a native Chicagoan.
“I was born and raised in the city of Boston,” Campbell said on the radio station. “I’m a BPS kid, and, you know, started my legal career in Roxbury. And you guys know that I came to this work on pain and suffering after the loss of my twin brother Andre.”
Her twin brother died in state custody. She regularly cites that as a reason she entered politics.
Campbell on the radio touted the fact that she’d already ousted one entrenched incumbent — Charles Yancey, the 32-year veteran of the Mattapan-Dorchester district seat.
She made headlines last year with her push for a city inspector general, which she said would have improved transparency and cut down on corruption. This year, she — and Wu, plus four others — voted against the mayor’s proposed budget as they sought deeper cuts to the police budget and more money toward social programs.
But lately, Campbell has been in the news for reasons against her will: Her brother Alvin Campbell is accused of serial rape, indicted this week on even more counts of allegedly preying on drunk women around Boston.
Campbell is currently the council’s public safety chair. She’s a district councilor who, unlike Wu and Walsh, has never run — let alone won — citywide, so she will start from a position of lower name recognition.
Boston has never had anyone other than a white man as mayor, so either Campbell or Wu would represent significant change for the majority-minority city.
There’s also speculation that Walsh could depart from his seat for a Cabinet post if his friend Joe Biden wins the presidency in November, which would likely create a wide-open race for the big office on City Hall’s fifth floor.
Walsh, if he runs, would be formidable, with a war chest of well over $5 million, near-universal name recognition and the huge organizational structure the former union boss’s labor support affords him. The mayor also is popular, with multiple polls — including the most recent by GBH — showing Bostonians giving him high marks, particularly for his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Campbell had $285,000 on hand at the start of September, according to state data.