- Joined
- Oct 15, 2008
- Messages
- 3,316
- Points
- 0
How God can give you the confidence and support to run for mayor!
Yoon launches a pioneering bid for mayor
By John C. Drake and Matt Collette, Globe Staff And Globe Correspondent | February 9, 2009
Sam Yoon, who vaulted onto Boston's political scene when he was elected the city's first Asian-American city councilor just four years ago, will look to break down another barrier this fall, seeking the seat of Mayor Thomas M. Menino in an upstart bid that has drawn interest from coast to coast.
Yoon, who has been publicly weighing a mayoral run since last fall, said yesterday he is running, joining At-Large Councilor Michael F. Flaherty Jr. and South End business owner Kevin McCrea in a now-crowded field to be the city's chief executive.
"This weekend, my wife, Tina, and I spent some time talking about what a mayoral race would mean for our family," said Yoon, 39. "We reached a decision. We prayed about it, and I am going to be entering the race for mayor."
Yoon is not only the first Asian-American to seek the job, according to longtime political observers, but he is an unconventional candidate for other reasons as well. He does not have deep Boston roots, having moved to Dorchester from Arlington two years before he ran for City Council in 2005. Born in Seoul, Yoon grew up in Pennsylvania. He became a naturalized US citizen when he was 10.
Yoon holds a master's degree in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and worked in various community organizations in Boston before running for City Council.
Word that Yoon was considering a run for mayor first hit Boston in September while he was touting his potential as a rising Asian-American politician on a West Coast fund-raising trip. And his 2008 campaign finance reports show that 58 percent of his campaign contributions came from donors outside Massachusetts, including a large network of Asian-American supporters in California and elsewhere.
In an interview with the Globe yesterday, Yoon declined to offer specifics about his campaign plans, saying he would save that for a formal announcement to come in the next few weeks.
"The campaign will be about the city's future, not about its past, and that's the rubric that I'm going to be working with."
Yoon said he called each of his potential opponents yesterday to inform them of his plans.
Flaherty, an at-large councilor from South Boston who announced his mayoral run two weeks ago, said yesterday he welcomed Yoon's candidacy.
"Boston residents deserve a real campaign where ideas to make Boston a better city are thoughtfully debated," Flaherty said in an interview. "I have always subscribed to the theory that competition is good."
McCrea, who ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2005, agreed that having more candidates in the race was good for the city.
"I think it's very good for the citizens of Boston that we're going to have an actual mayor's race where we can actually talk about moving the city forward, about talking about real issues and problems," he said.
Menino, who has swatted away challenges from city councilors in the previous two election cycles, has not officially announced whether he will seek an unprecedented fifth term this year. He has said he is too engaged in steering the city out of a financial crisis. His spokeswoman did not return calls and an e-mail yesterday seeking comment
Yoon's and Flaherty's candidacies also mean there will be two open at-large seats on the City Council for the fall election. Open seats are rare, and multiple openings are rarer.
Lawrence S. DiCara, a former city councilor and longtime political observer, said it will be the first time since the city switched to a system of nine district councilors and four at-large councilors in 1983 that there will be two openings in the same year for the coveted at-large spots.
"This adds to what could be the highest turnout in a generation" for a city election, DiCara said.
DiCara said city politics has changed significantly since people questioned whether an Italian-American could be elected mayor before Menino broke that barrier in 1993.
"All those walls have toppled down," DiCara said. "The old rules that you had to be from a large family and have been in politics a long time and all the rest of those things that seem to have determined who was mayor are all history. It's a very different city."
He pointed to the increasing number of young families of all races who have moved into his Jamaica Plain neighborhood.
But Yoon's candidacy will face significant obstacles, not least of which is fund-raising. Yoon had $140,000 on hand at the end of January, campaign finance reports show. Flaherty has more than $600,000 to spend on the race, while Menino commands a war chest of about $1.4 million. McCrea has less than $1,000 on hand.
Yoon has pointed to the challenge of raising money alongside more entrenched city politicians in defending his prolific out-of-state fund-raising.
During his three and a half years on City Council, Yoon has focused much of his criticism of the administration on process-oriented concerns. He has voted against the city budget each year on the grounds that the budget-writing process is not transparent enough.
Beyond that, his record, like that of many other councilors under the city's strong-mayor form of government, is thin with few high-profile accomplishments.
But the ground-breaking potential for his run is likely to give more attention to his campaign than would normally be afforded to a two-term councilor seeking the job. Yoon would be the city's first nonwhite mayor. Several black candidates have run unsuccessfully for the office.
"It's a historic candidacy in that seldom in the history of Boston have people who are nonwhite challenged the sitting leadership," said Paul Watanabe, a political scientist and director of the Institute for Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
And Councilor John Tobin said that Yoon could benefit from an apparent interest in voters to reward ambitious newcomers.
"He hasn't lived in the city that long, or even been on the council for long," Tobin said. "But it wasn't that long ago when people couldn't pronounce [Governor] Deval Patrick's first name. I think the days of waiting your turn, this caste system, has been shattered in politics."
John C. Drake can be reached at [email protected].
Yoon launches a pioneering bid for mayor
By John C. Drake and Matt Collette, Globe Staff And Globe Correspondent | February 9, 2009
Sam Yoon, who vaulted onto Boston's political scene when he was elected the city's first Asian-American city councilor just four years ago, will look to break down another barrier this fall, seeking the seat of Mayor Thomas M. Menino in an upstart bid that has drawn interest from coast to coast.
Yoon, who has been publicly weighing a mayoral run since last fall, said yesterday he is running, joining At-Large Councilor Michael F. Flaherty Jr. and South End business owner Kevin McCrea in a now-crowded field to be the city's chief executive.
"This weekend, my wife, Tina, and I spent some time talking about what a mayoral race would mean for our family," said Yoon, 39. "We reached a decision. We prayed about it, and I am going to be entering the race for mayor."
Yoon is not only the first Asian-American to seek the job, according to longtime political observers, but he is an unconventional candidate for other reasons as well. He does not have deep Boston roots, having moved to Dorchester from Arlington two years before he ran for City Council in 2005. Born in Seoul, Yoon grew up in Pennsylvania. He became a naturalized US citizen when he was 10.
Yoon holds a master's degree in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and worked in various community organizations in Boston before running for City Council.
Word that Yoon was considering a run for mayor first hit Boston in September while he was touting his potential as a rising Asian-American politician on a West Coast fund-raising trip. And his 2008 campaign finance reports show that 58 percent of his campaign contributions came from donors outside Massachusetts, including a large network of Asian-American supporters in California and elsewhere.
In an interview with the Globe yesterday, Yoon declined to offer specifics about his campaign plans, saying he would save that for a formal announcement to come in the next few weeks.
"The campaign will be about the city's future, not about its past, and that's the rubric that I'm going to be working with."
Yoon said he called each of his potential opponents yesterday to inform them of his plans.
Flaherty, an at-large councilor from South Boston who announced his mayoral run two weeks ago, said yesterday he welcomed Yoon's candidacy.
"Boston residents deserve a real campaign where ideas to make Boston a better city are thoughtfully debated," Flaherty said in an interview. "I have always subscribed to the theory that competition is good."
McCrea, who ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2005, agreed that having more candidates in the race was good for the city.
"I think it's very good for the citizens of Boston that we're going to have an actual mayor's race where we can actually talk about moving the city forward, about talking about real issues and problems," he said.
Menino, who has swatted away challenges from city councilors in the previous two election cycles, has not officially announced whether he will seek an unprecedented fifth term this year. He has said he is too engaged in steering the city out of a financial crisis. His spokeswoman did not return calls and an e-mail yesterday seeking comment
Yoon's and Flaherty's candidacies also mean there will be two open at-large seats on the City Council for the fall election. Open seats are rare, and multiple openings are rarer.
Lawrence S. DiCara, a former city councilor and longtime political observer, said it will be the first time since the city switched to a system of nine district councilors and four at-large councilors in 1983 that there will be two openings in the same year for the coveted at-large spots.
"This adds to what could be the highest turnout in a generation" for a city election, DiCara said.
DiCara said city politics has changed significantly since people questioned whether an Italian-American could be elected mayor before Menino broke that barrier in 1993.
"All those walls have toppled down," DiCara said. "The old rules that you had to be from a large family and have been in politics a long time and all the rest of those things that seem to have determined who was mayor are all history. It's a very different city."
He pointed to the increasing number of young families of all races who have moved into his Jamaica Plain neighborhood.
But Yoon's candidacy will face significant obstacles, not least of which is fund-raising. Yoon had $140,000 on hand at the end of January, campaign finance reports show. Flaherty has more than $600,000 to spend on the race, while Menino commands a war chest of about $1.4 million. McCrea has less than $1,000 on hand.
Yoon has pointed to the challenge of raising money alongside more entrenched city politicians in defending his prolific out-of-state fund-raising.
During his three and a half years on City Council, Yoon has focused much of his criticism of the administration on process-oriented concerns. He has voted against the city budget each year on the grounds that the budget-writing process is not transparent enough.
Beyond that, his record, like that of many other councilors under the city's strong-mayor form of government, is thin with few high-profile accomplishments.
But the ground-breaking potential for his run is likely to give more attention to his campaign than would normally be afforded to a two-term councilor seeking the job. Yoon would be the city's first nonwhite mayor. Several black candidates have run unsuccessfully for the office.
"It's a historic candidacy in that seldom in the history of Boston have people who are nonwhite challenged the sitting leadership," said Paul Watanabe, a political scientist and director of the Institute for Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
And Councilor John Tobin said that Yoon could benefit from an apparent interest in voters to reward ambitious newcomers.
"He hasn't lived in the city that long, or even been on the council for long," Tobin said. "But it wasn't that long ago when people couldn't pronounce [Governor] Deval Patrick's first name. I think the days of waiting your turn, this caste system, has been shattered in politics."
John C. Drake can be reached at [email protected].
