Democrats’ winning strategy in Mattapan: Champion the ticket

Governor-elect Charlie Baker and his wife Lauren receive a blessing from Archbishop A. Livingston Foxworth at a Grace Church of All Nations service on Sunday morning. 	Photo by Lauren DezenskiGovernor-elect Charlie Baker and his wife Lauren receive a blessing from Archbishop A. Livingston Foxworth at a Grace Church of All Nations service on Sunday morning. Photo by Lauren Dezenski

As Election Day drew near in Mattapan, campaign insiders were anticipating that one in four neighborhood votes would swing to Republican Charlie Baker over Democrat Martha Coakley. In the end, only one in ten voters chose Baker, and Democrats were able to claim victory in one of the most civically engaged communities in the city.

“The whole point of getting out communities of color is the fact that we thought we’d bring it over the top” for Coakley, said state Rep. Russell Holmes, who represents parts of Mattapan. “I think communities of color did show up more than what folks expected, but it wasn’t enough.”

Both Holmes and state Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry attributed Coakley’s relative success in Mattapan and Dorchester’s communities of color to the fact that campaign messaging focused on the Democratic Party and the ticket as a whole, instead of simply boosting Coakley over Baker.

“Where we did work, we focused on the Democratic piece,” Dorcena Forry told the Reporter. “It was about telling people we have to vote Democrat and why the party represents the issues people care about.”

Holmes saw this first hand on Election Day. “My experience at the poll,” he said, “was that people would support the entire Democratic ticket. It was not all Martha, it was more support for the party and the values.”

Although the attorney general won Boston, 66-34, that number was three points down from what her campaign needed from the city. She did, however, pull Deval Patrick-like numbers circa 2010 in Mattapan: She won the Groveland Senior Center precinct (18-4), which covers Mattapan Square proper, pulling 640 votes to Baker’s 21. Four years ago, Patrick topped Baker, 639-46.

Still, Coakley’s success in Boston was inconsistent, with strong get-out-the-vote efforts shoring up her bid primarily in Dorchester, Mattapan, Hyde Park, and West Roxbury. One negative for her was that the turnout numbers last Tuesday were the lowest in a general election in more than 12 years – 41.9 percent, down roughly 4,000 votes from 2010.

Dorcena Forry, who represented the Mattapan precincts over the last decade as a state representative before moving to the Senate, said that while the neighborhood’s vote for Coakley was not enough, her campaign had relationships that allowed her, a white woman from western Massachusetts, to make inroads in the community.

“Mattapan worked well because we were vigilant,” Dorcena Forry said.
“There were boots on the ground. Twitter, Facebook are fantastic in terms of the advance we’ve done, but that can’t substitute people and the human connection.” She also credited Patrick, who made frequent visits to the area.

Baker, too, was a familiar visitor to the neighborhood, with stops, tours, and meetings with local activists and community leaders in an area that is largely uncharted territory for a statewide Republican candidate. “The fact that he was out in communities of color asking for votes, as he should be, does give permission or allows folks who are white to say, ‘Yes he’s not a radical, we can feel better about supporting him,’ ” Holmes said.

The representative, while noting that he and his wife voted for Coakley, calls Baker a friend. The two met after a Big Sister of Boston event a year ago and after that they had a number of discussions about the campaign. “When I said something, he listened,” Holmes said. “So much of success is showing up and Charlie is committed to showing up,” he added in pointing out that Baker did it during the campaign as well as after the election.

Dorcena Forry and Holmes expressed confidence in Baker’s administration with the caveat that he needs to continue to listen to his new constituents.

On Sunday morning, Baker and his wife Lauren attended a two-hour-long service at Grace Church of All Nations, an experience that was nothing new to them; this was their third visit to the largely black, Dorchester Center Pentecostal church.

“I think one of my fundamental objectives as governor is to show up and make clear to people that we’re going to be listening to all parts of the commonwealth,” Baker told reporters after the services. “We’re getting their sense of what’s going on and see what we can do to make things better.”

While giving a blessing over Baker and his wife during the service, Archbishop A. Livingston Foxworth told the crowd of 600, “I’m not going to tell you who I voted for. But I voted not Republican or Democrat, I voted for the candidate. If we could take some of the labels off, go for the person that spirit says is the man or the woman of the hour.”


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