Jackson shrugs off campaign fund shortfall
Councilor Tito Jackson joined Boston Herald Radio yesterday to talk about his campaign for mayor and his rival, Mayor Martin J. Walsh. Here are excerpts:
Q: You’ve raised money, obviously, but it’s at a slow pace. Is that a concern?
A: So we are continuing to raise money. And as I’ve noted, when we look at what the incumbent mayor is going to have, of course he is going to have more funds, but when it comes down to the support that we’re seeing on the ground, we have hundreds of folks who have signed up to volunteer for our campaign and we are continuing to build our base.
Q: Is it hard to compete with an incumbent who is anti-Trump like you are?
A: Well, Donald Trump is loud but the needs of the people of the city of Boston are louder. ...
Q: How does somebody get that many parking tickets? More than $4,000 in fines, more than 100 parking tickets.
A: Well, it means that I live in the city of Boston, and the question is: do you trust somebody who’s never gotten a parking ticket in the city of Boston? So that should be your question, right? And I will say this, I work my butt off in this job and on a regular basis I am at meetings for elders, for youth programs, and you know what? Every single time I get them I pay them, right? So the real issue is I’ve actually added revenue and value to the city of Boston with my contributions to the city. And I’ll be honest with you, the last ticket I got was when I had to get down to Dudley Station when there was a shooting at the Bolling Building, that was my last ticket. This issue, I think, to me is not really that big of an issue.
Q: You don’t think there can be any shade put on you?
A: Hold on a sec. Let’s also be very clear: this is a parking infraction, this is not a moving violation, right? So I’m not taking U-ies in the middle of 93, right? So these are parking tickets.
What I will also say is that it shows that we also have issues in the city of Boston around parking. ... I think we also do need to note as mayor I also wouldn’t raise the parking fees as this mayor has done. It’s now almost 13 bucks to park on Boylston Street for three hours. We’re raising fees, we’re giving away funds for General Electric and others and we don’t have money for our schools. So the real issue as mayor and having a conversation around what would help the city of Boston as a whole is actually being fiscally responsible, not getting ourselves in the situations like Olympics and IndyCar, and actually focusing on what the people of Boston would have us focus on and that’s what you’ll get from me.