Today’s Globe endorses Boston mayoral hopeful John Barros, while scolding former Menino aide Charlotte Golar Richie for running a lackadaisical, identity-laden campaign. That may not be enough to push Barros over the top. (He shared the Globe endorsement with perceived frontrunner John Connolly.) But maybe it’s enough to get Richie surrogates to stop trying to elbow Barros out of the race.
The Globe endorsement is a huge coup for Barros, who has been gaining steam in recent weeks. The editorial argues that Barros’s fine-grain experience helping to “turn around a deeply troubled neighborhood” more than outweighs his lack of political experience. And it lauds Barros’s ability to work two tracks at once — the neighborhood nonprofit head can speak from experience to the needs of the poor, while also focusing on citywide economic development issues.
The lengthy editorial makes an effort to assess all 12 candidates for mayor, so it’s significant that it singles out two candidates for rough treatment. One is Rep. Marty Walsh, whom the paper doubts has the temperament to take on the powerful firefighters union. The paper is especially uncharitable to Richie: It knocks her for “rarely miss[ing] a chance to remind voters that she’s the only woman in the race,” and for clinging to “the powerful symbolism of her candidacy” while pushing a platform that’s “less forward-looking, and less detailed, than most of her rivals’.”
The editorial appears on the same day that the Herald runs with Richie’s endorsement by several high-profile neighborhood ministers. The story is significant, not just because the likes of Eugene Rivers, Jeffrey Brown, and Liz Walker are lining up behind Richie. Rivers jumps at the chance to argue that his candidate of color is the only one who should remain in the mayoral race. “The smart thing for those who put the interest of the community first would be to take their resources and put it behind the individual most likely to go to the finish, which in this case would be Charlotte Golar Richie,” he says. “That would be the wise, mature, adult thing to do if you want to win.”
Rivers runs with a tactic that Richie surrogates have been playing for weeks now, hinting that candidates like Barros, Charles Clemons, Charles Yancey, and Felix Arroyo are siphoning off votes that rightly belong to Richie, and, therefore, they should take it upon themselves to exit the race early. This is a line of attack that boiled over two weeks ago, drawing a sharp rebuke from the Globe’s opinion writers, and forcing Richie to distance herself from the whisper campaign.
Asked at a recent mayoral debate about the attempts to clear the field for her, Richie responded, “If anyone from my campaign is bullying anyone in this race, I would not want them to be associated with this campaign.” But there she was yesterday, accepting the backing of supporters who would jump at the chance to elbow the likes of Barros. If anything, the Globe’s backing should help Barros bury these attacks for good. The city’s most important paper wants him to stay in the race. Even if Eugene Rivers doesn’t.
–PAUL MCMORROW
BEACON HILL
Republican Rep. Dan Winslow says he is leaving the Legislature to take a job with Rimini Street Inc., a Las Vegas-based provider of software services, the Associated Press reports (via WBUR).
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Worcester City Manager Michael O’Brien advises the City Council that he is exploring a job opportunity with WinnCompanies, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
The website Next City plugs the whole concept of Gateway Cities as a novel idea.
West Bridgewater officials have reached a settlement with a police officer who filed a claim of discrimination against the town, the fourth time in 10 years the town has paid a settlement for discrimination claims filed with the state.
Worcester prepares to open a park on land on Indian Lake that the municipality leased from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation for $10 for 99 years, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
New Bedford officials held a public meeting to get feedback on a proposed cultural district for the downtown area.
CASINOS
Wilbraham seeks community mitigation agreements from Mohegan Sun and MGM to hedge against a future casino in Palmer or Springfield.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
Time reports on the lone gunman involved in the Washington Navy Yard shootings. The finger-pointing over how an employee with weapons gained access to the military facility will accelerate once a Defense Department’s inspector general’s audit, which was in draft form before the shootings, is released.
Pennsylvania is denying eight of every 10 welfare applicants under a new state law requiring them to seek at least three jobs and document their efforts, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Margery Eagan casts Larry Summers’s exit as would-be Fed chair as a victory for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who views Summers as too close to Wall Street, and who, by the way, had Summers squeeze her out of a job running the federal consumer protection agency.
ELECTIONS
The Boston Teachers Union, which had signaled last week that it was likely to wait out the endorsement game until the final election, moved toward a dual backing of Felix Arroyo and Rob Consalvo. They got the nod of the union’s executive committee on Monday night; the full membership will vote on Wednesday afternoon.
In part 2 of CommonWealth’s series on Boston mayoral races, Jim Aloisi examines the Irish ascendancy and the fabled John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald.
Attorney General Martha Coakley hits the gubernatorial campaign trail by pressing the flesh in a big way. Coakley says she will make longer school days a priority if she is elected governor, WBUR reports. The Berkshire Eagle sees the North Adams native as a formidable candidate. Count Keller@Large among those few who think Coakley’s loss to Scott Brown will not be a factor in the governor’s race. The Herald News notes that Coakley, who is being advised by the same people who provided counsel to Sen. Elizabeth Warren in her campaign against Brown, seems to be targeting Gateway Cities, which provided Warren with a key margin of victory.
The Republican rounds up the election scene in Springfield and surrounding areas.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Boston will give $7.8 million in tax breaks to the development project rising on the Filene’s site on Washington Street, but a Boston Redevelopment Authority spokeswoman says the giveaway is “modest” by comparison to typical deals.
Gov. Deval Patrick is calling on the federal Small Business Administration to make loans available to the local commercial fishing industry that has been battered by changes in the environment and quotas.
Cape Air ends off-season flights to Martha’s Vineyard; but begins service in Montana (yes, Montana) December 1.
Several South Coast lawmakers toured the Fall River garment district to see and hear the impact that shipping jobs and manufacturing overseas has on the state’s Gateway Cities.
A study by the charity watchdog Guidestar found that the salaries of CEOs at nonprofits climbed about 2 percent in 2011, well below the pre-recession levels of 2008 and earlier.
EDUCATION
The state takeover of the Lawrence schools is having a positive impact, as standardized test scores due out later this week are expected to be up, CommonWealth reports.
The president of the New Bedford teachers’ union blasted the mayor and schools superintendent, saying goals for the embattled district are “unrealistic and unattainable.”
Enrollment increases in the Gloucester Public Schools, possibly due to the closing of two charter schools, the Gloucester Times reports.
HEALTH CARE
State officials say 2,000 drug overdoses have been reversed since the state began using the nasal spray Nalaxone, or Narcan, in 2007, WBUR reports.
California is tackling runaway hospital pricing, Governing reports.
The state’s health care world is anxiously awaiting word, expected any day, on whether federal regulators will approve Partners HealthCare System’s acquisition of South Shore Hospital in Weymouth.
John McDonough writes that debates over health care policy are complicated by the fact that many Americans lack an even basic understanding of how Medicare and the rest of our health care system work.
A new study finds that while binge drinking among young adults has decreased, one in five high school seniors admit to binge drinking within the last two weeks of the survey, with nearly 6 percent admitting to “extreme binge drinking” of 15 or more alcoholic drinks in a row. From JAMA Pediatrics via U.S. News & World Report.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Scituate officials have ordered a new round of acoustic testing for the town’s wind turbine after residents complained the initial study, which determined the turbine was operating within safe parameters, was taken with a faulty protocol.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The Essex County District Attorney decides not to prosecute the Rev. James Gaudreau after a year-long investigation into an allegation of child sexual abuse, the Item reports. Gaudreau remains on leave pending the completion of an investigation by the Boston Archdiocese.
Brockton officials are looking for information on whoever shot and killed a federally protected Red Tail Hawk with a pellet gun.
A New York Times editorial urges an end to mandatory life sentences for young offenders.