A political hot potato
Police support shunned by some candidates
Police union endorsements once were among the most prized endorsements in the city, but now less than half of the candidates will say they actually are seeking them — though the largest union’s boss says that should be done at their own political peril.
“These endorsements were once very coveted,” said Larry DiCara, a former Boston city councilor and longtime political observer. “But the building blocks to get elected are different than they were a generation ago.”
This comes after a year of chants to “defund the police” and increasing anti-cop rhetoric from the left nationwide — plus multiple homegrown scandals that brought negative headlines for the department and the largest police union.
“The candidates who are running on the progressive side aren’t interested in them at all,” political strategist Mary Anne Marsh said of the endorsements.
In that vein, City Councilors Andrea Campbell’s and Michelle Wu’s campaigns both said they aren’t looking for the unions’ blessings.
Acting Mayor Kim Janey’s campaign declined to answer whether she’s seeking the endorsements of this group of her employees.
Former city economic development director John Barros’s campaign said he wants to hear more about their endorsement priorities, but didn’t say directly if he’s looking for their blessing.
State Rep. Jon Santiago is seeking all the unions’ endorsements, according to his campaign.
That makes him the only one, as even City Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George — a favorite of many cops, who have donated her plenty of cash both before and after she happily received former Police Commissioner William Gross’s endorsement — left things a little shorter, saying she’s currently courting the smaller police unions, but not the big Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association. She’s also been endorsed by the union representing the city’s firefighters, International Association of Fire Fighters Local 718.
The BPPA, which also includes EMS workers, has about 1,500 members — and once flexed enough political clout to bring the 2004 Democratic National Convention nearly to a halt as they beefed with then-Mayor Thomas Menino over a contract.
But the past few years haven’t been kind to the BPPA, which is on its fourth boss in the past decade. The powerful longtime head Tommy Nee was ousted in 2014 — and recently has had his name dragged through the mud regarding an evidence-room scandal, though he doesn’t face charges. His short-lived successor Pat Rose is behind bars on charges that he raped multiple children over the course of decades. And then Michael Leary left the top spot in 2019 after a controversy over a letter he sent to the NAACP.
BPPA president Larry Calderone has tried to move the organization forward, and says candidates do themselves no favors by ignoring the group.
The first-responder unions held a forum this past week for the candidates — though Janey and Campbell sat it out. Janey said she was busy, while Campbell, who’s repeatedly feuded with the BPPA and has taken the strongest stance on cutting money to the department, said it was because she didn’t want the unions’ support.
“If some candidates are content in distancing themselves from police officers, who are residents and taxpayers, and are willing to advocate for them, they’re making a grave mistake,” Calderone said in a statement to the Herald. “The fact remains, the people of Boston that vote on election day, love their cops and first responders. If you’re a candidate refusing support of police officers, their families, friends and citizen supporters because of a few bad apples, that’s your decision and a poor one.”
Essaibi-George’s distinction that she isn’t seeking the BPPA’s blessing, as first reported by Politico, is news to many cops; asked about it, Essaibi-George in a statement said she needs “to see more willingness from BPPA leadership in partnering with me to make the critical changes we need in this city” in order to seek their blessing.
“It’s no secret that l’m supportive of our city’s police officers and will be as Mayor,” she continued. The other — much smaller — police unions include the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society and the Boston Superior Officers Federation.
Calderone said that Essaibi-George “has been visiting roll calls and seeking support from our members personally for months.”
He said Essaibi-George has “met with us on several occasions, accepted our financial backing and working tirelessly to win support of police officers throughout the city. She gets it, cops vote and citizens support us.”
Marsh, the political strategist from Dewey Square Group, noted some potential political semantics hairsplitting.
“She may not be quote-unquote ‘seeking’ it,” Marsh predicted, “but she would certainly accept it.”