On Tuesday, just under one-third of our fellow Bostonians who are registered to vote turned out to choose a new mayor. Most of that number— 64 percent— picked Michelle Wu. She deserves our congratulations and the good will of everyone, including those who supported her worthy opponent, Annissa Essaibi George.
Mayor-elect Wu has her work cut out for her. Typically, newly elected mayors have about two months to mount an orderly transition, assemble a cabinet, and take a breather from a year-long campaign. Wu has less than two weeks. Our city’s charter calls for an acting mayor to be replaced swiftly by a duly elected one. She will take the reins on Tues., Nov. 16.
Acting mayor Kim Janey will go back to being City Council president through Jan. 1, when her District 7 replacement— Tania Fernandes Anderson— is sworn-in, along with four other new members of the council: Brian Worrell, who will succeed Andrea Campbell as the District 4 councillor; Kendra Hicks in District 6, replacing Matt O’Malley; and two new at-large delegates: Ruthzee Louijeune and Erin Murphy.
What do we make of Michelle Wu’s rise to the city’s highest office? First off: She ran a masterful campaign, particularly in the six weeks since she topped the ticket with a 12,000-vote lead over the runner-up Essaibi George on Sept. 14.
It was advantage Wu from that moment on.
A drumbeat of high-profile endorsements followed in relentless fashion: Janey, US Rep. Ayanna Pressley, US Sen. Ed Markey and a succession of union and community groups joined her team. There’s no question that these validators — particularly in Black and Brown Boston—were critical in Tuesday’s outcome. Wu was dominant in the Blue Hill corridor from Mattapan Square to Nubian Square.
But she also ran strong in Essaibi George’s natural base in coastal Dorchester. Wu was the victor in Columbia-Savin Hill’s Ward 13 double precinct at the Kit Clark Apartments. At the bellwether 13-10 precinct on Savin Hill Avenue, Essaibi George topped the ticket, but only by 20 votes.
That result, one of the first posted after polls closed, was an indicator that it would be a good night for the “Wu train.”
Bemoan the lackluster turnout all you’d like, but make no mistake: Wu’s 28-point margin of victory amounts to a clear mandate for her nascent administration. The choice, after all, was quite clear: Wu presented a forward-looking, aspirational vision for a Boston that might not, in fact, materialize on her watch.
But, voters in what is now unquestionably a progressive bastion are no longer satisfied with a methodical, moderate pace of change. That’s clear from the down ballot races and ballot questions, including an advisory measure to return to an elected school committee, which passed by a whopping 79-21 margin.
Mayor-elect Wu has proven that she can assemble a multicultural coalition of voters that reflects the true complexities and breadth of the city’s neighborhoods. Her campaign— from start to finish— was brilliantly conceived and executed in near-flawless fashion.
Now, what will Mayor-elect Wu do with this remarkable mandate now that it’s time to govern? The coming weeks will be a test of her capacity to manage the expectations of her adherents and her former foes alike. If past is prologue, it says here that the woman we just chose to map out our next decade is more than up to the task.
