CORNER OFFICES TOP TICKET
Sights set on mayor’s prelim, gov’s 2022 campaign
Forget the Oval Office. For Bay State politicos, 2021 will be all about the corner office(s).
After a year in which politicians, strategists and activists on both sides poured their efforts into federal races, local attention is already shifting to the Boston mayoral race — which has a September preliminary before a final showdown in November — and the governor’s race that looms in 2022.
Neither Boston Mayor Martin Walsh nor Gov. Charlie Baker has announced whether they’ll seek third terms in their respective offices. But hopefuls to replace them aren’t waiting around.
And the more local the race, the more likely the focus will turn to more “granular” issues such as transportation and recovery from the coronavirus pandemic than big-picture visions of “Medicare for All,” Suffolk University Political Research Director David Paleologos said.
“Oftentimes those races come down to local concerns, like potholes and parking,” Paleologos said.
The Boston mayoral race will be the most high-profile contest to be decided this year. Michelle Wu, an atlarge councilor from Roslindale, began her run with calls for a change in leadership and a better planning around big-picture ideas, while Andrea Campbell, a district councilor from Mattapan, centered racial and geographic disparities in the city in her pitch.
Either would be the first person who’s not a white man to be elected mayor of Boston.
Though Walsh has remained reticent about whether he’s running again, indications are he’ll shoot for a third four-year term. He continues to poll well in the city.
Rumors do continue to swirl about whether Walsh’s friend President-elect Joe Biden will offer him the posting of Labor secretary — with recent stories in national publications saying the mayor is the current frontrunner. A knowledgeable Democratic source told the Herald that Walsh is among the top “three or four” candidates being considered for the position, but various people who have spoken to the mayor around Boston have said he’s unlikely to leave his hometown, where he takes care of his elderly mother and enjoys being mayor.
If Walsh were to leave, City Council President Kim Janey would become acting mayor — and the rare prospect of an open mayor’s race likely would draw a host of interested candidates.
Hub politics won’t be the only hot ticket in town this year with the 2022 governor’s race already taking shape. As Baker’s fundraising slows, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito’s is ramping up. And former Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Geoff Diehl recently told the Herald he’s “considering the run.”
On the Democratic side, Harvard University political science professor Danielle Allen became the first to formally announce she’s exploring a run. And state Attorney General Maura Healey, who’s also been floated as a possibility for a job in a Biden administration, remains at the top of the list of potential candidates.
Baker vs. Healey “would be the heavyweight match,” Democratic strategist Scott Ferson said. “And then if Charlie Baker opts not to run for another term, it’s a free-for-all.”
Other names being circulated include Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone and outgoing U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, though the latter laughed off the idea in a recent interview with the Herald. Sources tell the Herald that state Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, could make a statewide run, though potentially as a running mate. And even Walsh has been tossed about as a potential candidate.
Regardless of who runs on the Democratic side, party Chairman Gus Bickford said it’s “extremely important” to take back the corner office.
“We really have recognized what it is not to have someone who is focused on the emergency things that we need to have happen now,” including transportation, renewable energy and increasing public education, Bickford said.