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Boston, Massachusetts municipal elections, 2015
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The city of Boston, Massachusetts, held elections for city council on November 3, 2015. A primary election took place on September 8, 2015. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was May 19, 2015. All 13 city council seats were up for election.
Only two races held preliminary (primary) elections: District 4 and 7. In District 4, incumbent Charles C. Yancey, first elected in 1983, faced two active challengers. Jovan J. Lacet withdrew from the race in August to endorse Yancey but Lacet's name remained on the ballot. Yancey made it through the primary, although his challenger Andrea Joy Campbell received the highest percentage of votes. Campbell defeated Yancey in the general election. Read more about this race below.[1]
In District 7, first-term incumbent Tito Jackson faced five challengers. He came away as the clear leader of the primary, with 66.4 percent of the vote. He defeated Charles L. Clemons Jr., who came in second place in the primary with 18 percent, in November.[2]
Too few candidates filed for the other races to merit preliminary elections. City law required at least nine candidates to hold a preliminary election for the four at-large seats and at least three candidates each for the nine district seats.[3] All 13 council incumbents ran for re-election. Five were unopposed. The previous time there were only city council seats in the primary was 2007. Voter turnout for that election was 13 percent.[4] So although a low turnout was expected for the primary in 2015, it turned out to be lower than in 2007. About 5,500 people voted on September 8, which was a voter turnout of 7 percent.[5]
One issue that attracted attention around the election was the disagreement over whether the salaries of the council should be raised. The mayor and the council president submitted separate proposals on compensation increases in September. Read more about this issue below.
City council
Candidate list
District 1
- General election candidates:
- Salvatore LaMattina
- Incumbent LaMattina was elected in 2006.
District 2
- General election candidates:
- Bill Linehan - Incumbent Linehan was elected in 2007.
District 3
- General election candidates:
- Frank Baker - Incumbent Baker was elected in 2011.
- Donnie Palmer
District 4
- Primary election candidates:
- Andrea Joy Campbell
- Terrance J. Williams
- Charles C. Yancey - Incumbent Yancey was elected in 1983.
Note: Jovan J. Lacet withdrew from the race in August and endorsed Yancey. Lacet's name remained on the ballot.[6]
- General election candidates:
District 5
- General election candidates:
- Timothy McCarthy - Incumbent McCarthy was elected in 2013.
- Jean-Claude Sanon
District 6
- General election candidates:
- Matt O'Malley - Incumbent O'Malley was elected in 2010.
District 7
- Primary election candidates:
- Charles L. Clemons Jr.
- Kevin A. Dwire
- Haywood Fennell Sr.
- Althea Garrison
- Tito Jackson - Incumbent Jackson was elected in 2011.
- Roy Owens
- General election candidates:
District 8
- General election candidates:
- Josh Zakim - Incumbent Zakim was elected in 2013.
District 9
- General election candidates:
- Mark Ciommo - Incumbent Ciommo was elected in 2008.
At-large (4 seats)
- General election candidates:
- Michael Flaherty - Incumbent Flaherty was elected in 2013.
- Annissa Essaibi George
- Stephen J. Murphy - Incumbent Murphy was elected in 1997.
- Ayanna Pressley - Incumbent Pressley was elected in 2009.
- Michelle Wu - Incumbent Wu was elected in 2013.
Election results
General election
| Boston City Council At-large, General election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Ayanna Pressley Incumbent |
24.2% | 31,783 |
| Michelle Wu Incumbent |
22.0% | 28,908 |
| Michael Flaherty Incumbent |
20.2% | 26,473 |
| Annissa Essaibi George |
17.9% | 23,447 |
| Stephen J. Murphy Incumbent | 14.9% | 19,546 |
| Write-in votes | 0.86% | 1,131 |
| Total Votes | 131,288 | |
| Source: City of Boston, "November 3, 2015 - Municipal Election," accessed December 7, 2015 | ||
| Boston City Council District 3, General election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Frank Baker Incumbent |
84.9% | 4,745 |
| Donnie Palmer | 14.5% | 811 |
| Write-in votes | 0.61% | 34 |
| Total Votes | 5,590 | |
| Source: City of Boston, "November 3, 2015 - Municipal Election," accessed December 7, 2015 | ||
| Boston City Council District 4, General election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Andrea Joy Campbell |
61.3% | 4,311 |
| Charles C. Yancey Incumbent | 38.4% | 2,701 |
| Write-in votes | 0.26% | 18 |
| Total Votes | 7,030 | |
| Source: City of Boston, "November 3, 2015 - Municipal Election," accessed December 7, 2015 | ||
| Boston City Council District 5, General election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Timothy McCarthy Incumbent | 64.0% | 4,836 |
| Jean-Claude Sanon | 35.5% | 2,690 |
| Write-in votes | 0.42% | 32 |
| Total Votes | 7,558 | |
| Source: City of Boston, "November 3, 2015 - Municipal Election," accessed December 7, 2015 | ||
| Boston City Council District 7, General election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Tito Jackson Incumbent |
66.6% | 2,983 |
| Charles L. Clemons Jr. | 32.3% | 1,444 |
| Write-in votes | 1.09% | 49 |
| Total Votes | 4,476 | |
| Source: City of Boston, "November 3, 2015 - Municipal Election," accessed December 7, 2015 | ||
Primary election
| Boston City Council District 4 Primary Election, 2015 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Andrea Joy Campbell |
57.9% | 1,982 | |
| Charles C. Yancey Incumbent |
33.9% | 1,159 | |
| Terrance J. Williams | 6.3% | 217 | |
| Jovan J. Lacet | 1.8% | 60 | |
| Write-in | 0.1% | 4 | |
| Total Votes | 3,422 | ||
| Source: City of Boston, "Official primary election results," accessed September 24, 2015 | |||
| Boston City Council District 7 Primary Election, 2015 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Tito Jackson Incumbent |
66.4% | 1,409 | |
| Charles L. Clemons Jr. |
18% | 381 | |
| Haywood Fennell Sr. | 4.9% | 104 | |
| Althea Garrison | 4.6% | 98 | |
| Roy Owens | 3.5% | 74 | |
| Kevin A. Dwire | 1.6% | 34 | |
| Write-in | 1% | 22 | |
| Total Votes | 2,066 | ||
| Source: City of Boston, "Official primary election results," accessed September 24, 2015 | |||
Districts map
Below is a map of Boston's council districts as of the 2015 election. There were nine districts. Each district elected its own representative on the council. Click the map to return to the candidate list.
Issues
Council pay raise
| Candidate | Vote on 2014 pay raise bill[7] |
|---|---|
| Salvatore LaMattina | 
|
| Bill Linehan |
|
| Frank Baker |
|
| Charles C. Yancey |
|
| Timothy McCarthy |
|
| Matt O'Malley | 
|
| Tito Jackson |
|
| Josh Zakim |
|
| Mark Ciommo |
|
| Michael Flaherty |
|
| Stephen J. Murphy |
|
| Ayanna Pressley |
|
| Michelle Wu |
|
From 2014 to the election, the Boston City Council grappled with the issue of whether to give itself a raise. As of October 2015, the salary of the city council members was $87,500. In October 2014, the council voted 9-4 to raise their compensation by $20,000. Mayor Marty Walsh, however, vetoed the bill and asked a compensation advisory board to make a recommendation on the council's pay. The table to the right shows how each city council member voted on the measure to increase their pay in 2014.[8]
The board released its 64-page report in July 2015, recommending a more modest pay raise than the one that was voted on in 2014. After looking at the compensation of city government officials in ten different cities—Baltimore, Dallas, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Portland, San Antonio, San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle and Virginia Beach—the board found that Boston's pay was in the top half of the cities that were studied. They recommended a salary increase of 11 percent, or $97,000 for council members and $194,000 for the mayor.[9]
Mayor Walsh filed a proposal that was higher than the recommendation of the compensation board. His proposal would raise the council members' salaries to $99,500. He said that he would not accept a pay raise for himself, so his proposal kept his salary at $175,000. Council President Bill Linehan also filed a proposal seeking to raise council pay to $105,000 and the mayor's pay to $210,000. He criticized the board's recommendation, saying, "We are undervalued and your report devalues [us]."[9][8]
Reactions on the issue varied among the city council members. Frank Baker agreed with Linehan, and said that the report disrespected the council. Michelle Wu said it was "pretty annoying" that the matter had come back up. Charles C. Yancey also expressed hesitance, saying "This is never fun."[8] Matt O'Malley said, "It’s important to take the mechanism outside councilors’ hands."[10]
Although Linehan, and four other council members, ran unopposed and were assured another term, at least one challenger criticized the incumbents for spending the time to seek a pay raise. Annissa Essaibi George, who was the only non-incumbent that ran for an at-large position, said the council should spend its time working on more important issues. She said those in public service should be there to help the community, not for financial gain.[9]
| “ | They spent two solid hours debating this. They’ve had just one public safety hearing this summer. And they’ve had zero education meetings this summer. Education and public safety are the two most critical issues the public have to deal with every single day.[11] | ” |
| —Annissa Essaibi George[12] | ||
Race to watch
Charles C. Yancey was first elected to represent District 4 on the Boston City Council in 1983. After coming in second to Andrea Joy Campbell in the 2015 primary, however, Yancey said it was a wake-up call. He received 33.9 percent of the vote, while Campbell took away 57.9 percent. She came out on top in 25 of the 32 precincts.[13]
The voter turnout for the primary was seven percent, which Yancey called a "very dismal day in the city of Boston." Campbell also said she was "saddened by the turnout numbers."[14]
On September 15, the two candidates participated in a debate. The candidates agreed on some issues, for example the importance of diversity of the faculty in the Boston Public Schools. At the time of the election, the schools were federally required to hire black teachers for at least 25 percent of new positions. Yancey said it should be higher. They were also both supportive of the Caribbean Carnival, despite the violence that had occurred surrounding the festival. Yancey stressed his experience and suggested that it was unnecessary to raise $100,000 for the election, referring to Campbell's campaign which raised over $130,000.[14]
Campbell confronted Yancey about complaints that she had heard about his campaign's use of negative character attacks, a tactic that Yancey denied. When asked what made her qualified to serve on the council, Campbell said she was "engaged with the city on many different levels," citing her legal work with minority youths, community leadership and working with the city and for former Governor Deval Patrick (D).[14] Campbell defeated Yancey in the general election with more than 61 percent of the vote.
Census information
The table below shows demographic information about Boston, Massachusetts, from the United States Census Bureau.
| Demographic data for Boston, Massachusetts (2015) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Boston | Massachusetts | |
| Total population: | 650,281 | 6,784,240 |
| Land area (square miles): | 48 | 7,800 |
| Race and ethnicity[15] | ||
| White: | 53% | 79.6% |
| Black/African American: | 25.2% | 7.1% |
| Asian: | 9.3% | 6% |
| Native American: | 0.4% | 0.2% |
| Pacific Islander: | 0% | 0% |
| Two or more: | 4.5% | 2.9% |
| Hispanic/Latino: | 18.8% | 10.6% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate: | 85.2% | 89.8% |
| College graduation rate: | 45.3% | 40.5% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income: | $55,777 | $68,563 |
| Persons below poverty level: | 21.5% | 13.1% |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Boston Massachusetts Election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
- City of Boston
- City of Boston - Official primary election results
- City of Boston - General election candidate list
Footnotes
- ↑ City of Boston, "Official City Councillor District 4 Ward and Precinct Results," September 8, 2014
- ↑ City of Boston, "Official City Councillor District 7 Ward and Precinct Results," September 8, 2015
- ↑ Boston City Charter, Sec. 26C, accessed June 19, 2015
- ↑ Boston Globe, "What you need to know about Boston’s City Council races," September 4, 2015
- ↑ City of Boston, "Sept. 8th, 2015- Official Preliminary Municipal Election Ballots Cast for City Councillor District 4 and District 7," accessed October 15, 2015
- ↑ Dorcester Reporter, "Edging closer to the preliminary, Council candidates focus on reach," August 20, 2015
- ↑ Mass Live, "Boston City Council approves $25,000 salary increase on a 9-4 vote," October 8, 2014
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Mass Live, "Boston City Council president to press ahead with bid for pay increase," August 20, 2015
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 90.9 WBUR, "Boston City Council Delays Action On Pay Raise; Here’s How Their Salary Compares To Other Cities," September 2, 2015
- ↑ Jamaica Plain News, "JP’s City Councilor, Matt O’Malley, Votes ‘No’ on $20K City Council Pay Hike," October 9, 2014
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Boston Globe, "Pay raise debate demeans City Council," August 25, 2015
- ↑ Common Wealth Magazine, "Tough road ahead for Yancey," October 1, 2015
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Dorchester Reporter, "Yancey, Campbell talk qualifications, negative campaigning," September 16, 2015
- ↑ Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.
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