On the eve of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s confirmation hearing to become President Joe Biden’s secretary of labor, the Boston City Council is moving to make choosing the next mayor a lot simpler than it might have been.
Thanks to requirements laid out in the city’s charter, there could be four mayoral elections if Walsh is confirmed and leaves office before March 5. First, there would be a special-election cycle starting in spring or summer, comprised of a preliminary election featuring all candidates and a final with the top two vote-getters. Then, a few months later, candidates and voters would do it all again via the city’s previously scheduled preliminary and final elections, which take place in September and November, respectively.
On Wednesday, however, the council passed a home-rule petition authored by Councilor Ricard Arroyo that would waive the special-election requirement.
“I filed this home-rule petition because we are living under extraordinary circumstances,” Arroyo said. “Boston is under a state of emergency, and we are in the middle of a deadly pandemic that has claimed the lives of over 1,000 Boston residents to date."
“COVID-19 is the largest crisis facing Boston in our lifetimes, and … it would be irresponsible … to allow for the possibility of four in-person elections for the same office in a five-month span,” Arroyo added.
Proponents of the change have also noted that turnout in special elections is frequently not representative of the city as a whole.
Twelve of the council’s thirteen members voted in favor of the measure, including Michelle Wu and Andrea Campbell, both of whom are running for mayor, and Boston City Council President Kim Janey, who will become acting mayor if Walsh heads to Washington. Another mayoral candidate, Annissa Essaibi George, voted present.
The home-rule petition still needs to be signed by Walsh then passed by the Massachusetts House and Senate and signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker.
After the council vote, a Walsh spokesperson said the mayor “looks forward to reviewing the final language passed today by the Boston City Council."
A similar petition changing the city of Lawrence’s election schedule quickly garnered support earlier this year, and there are strong indications that Beacon Hill will also embrace Boston’s proposal.
While Walsh’s confirmation is not assured, David Hopkins, a political science professor at Boston College, said there are no signs of strong opposition in the Senate.
“We haven’t really gotten any indicators prior to the hearing that Republicans are going to mount any serious offensive against the Walsh nomination,” Hopkins said. “I think there will be probably a fair amount of opposition to him on the floor, but it won’t necessarily be anything about him personally. It’ll in part be a gesture about the Biden administration’s labor policies.”
Hopkins predicts Walsh will be asked about the Boston Calling case, in which two top mayoral aides were accused of illegally pushing the organizers of a music festival to use union labor. Those aides, Kenneth Brissette and Timothy Sullivan, were convicted in 2019, but a judge overturned their convictions the following year.
In addition, Hopkins says, Walsh may be pressed on his own labor background. Before become mayor, Walsh led the Boston Building Trades, a union umbrella group. Organized labor has been a key source of his political strength.
“I could certainly imagine Republicans wanting to raise it and at least get him on the record to pledge to recuse himself if appropriate, and give assurances … that he didn’t see himself in this position purely as an advocate for labor or an agent of the labor movement,” Hopkins said.
A congressional source agrees that Walsh’s hearing is unlikely to be contentious and predicts that Walsh will be asked about Biden’s push to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 as part of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan.
Walsh’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday.
