Expanded field of candidates for District 7, at-large Council seats

Tania Fernandes Anderson earlier this month agreed to plead guilty to charges in a federal case in which prosecutors allege she gave a former staffer and $13,000 bonus, then took a $7,000 kickback from the staffer.

As part of her plea agreement, she has vacated the District 7 City Council seat, paving the way for what has already become Boston’s most populated district council race for 2025.

So far, seven challengers have either filed with the Office of Campaign and Public Finance (OCPF) or filed a statement of candidacy with the city's Election Department.

They are:

·  Said Abdikarim, director of policy advocacy and civic engagement for African
Community Development of New England, is making his second run for a Council
seat, having run at-large in 2021. He has raised more than $28,991 since
December.

·  Mavrick Afonso, the director of external affairs at the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, reports $25,115 in contributions for the month of March.

·  Said Ahmed, executive director of United Somali Youth and deputy director of
the Somali Development Center, launched a campaign for the 7th Suffolk District
last year, but did not appear on the ballot. He raised $40,794 since last
November in his bid to unseat Fernandes Anderson.

·  Wawa Bell, a program manager for a local community development corporation, who is making his first run for elected office.

·  Tchad Cort, a business owner and transportation specialist with Boston Public
Schools, filed with OCPF earlier this month.

·  The Rev. Miniard Culpepper, who in 2022 ran for the 2nd Suffolk District state Senate seat and placed fourth out of five candidates.

·  Joao Gomes Depina, a florist and veteran political office who has run for various city and state offices.

·  James E. Grant, who in 2022 ran for the 2nd Suffolk District Senate seat, coming in more than 20,000 votes behind winner Liz Miranda, with 2.6% of the vote.

·  Kamar Winston Hewitt, an operations manager at the Mattahunt Elementary School and an Army veteran, is making his first run for office.

·  Samuel Hurtado, who served as an aide and advisor to former Mayor Kim Janey and now is the city’s Supplier Diversity business manager, launched his campaign in January and reported $15,385 in contributions as of February 28.

·  Jerome King, who ran for the District 7 seat in 2023, coming in 4th behind Fernandes Anderson, Althea Garrison and Roy Owens with 200 votes.

·  Shawn Dwayne Nelson, a certified nursing assistant and Marine Corps veteran, who ran for an at-large seat on the Council in 2023, coming in 6th with 10,512 votes.

·  The Rev. Roy Owens, a perennial candidate who in the 2021 preliminary balloting came in second to Fernandes Anderson, with 1,300 votes.

·  Robert E. Stanley, who has provided no number to the Election Department.

·  Natalie Juba-Sutherland, a client service associate with Bank of America, filed with OCPF this month.

·  Steven Alan Wise, who in 2017 ran for the District 7 seat, garnering 1.04% of the vote.

Preliminary elections in Boston have suffered from notoriously low turnout in recent years. The 2021 race saw just 20% of registered voters cast ballots. If this year’s crop
of candidates are vying for a number of voters similar to the 2021 turnout —
7,626 voters — they could see a similarly low threshold for making it past the
September preliminary which will winnow the field down to two candidates.

“Without instant ranked choice voting, it leads to someone winning with a tiny plurality,” said political consultant Kristen Halbert. “Under that scenario, it doesn’t mean a winner would have a real mandate from the voters.”

To a much greater extent than in citywide races, wining candidates in district races need to set a target for how many votes they need to win the preliminary and general election, knock doors of likely voters — those who turn out in preliminary elections, identify those voters most likely to support them, then, on Election Day, make sure those voters are turning out to vote.

Such an operation requires a good number of volunteers and usually campaign staff to coordinate volunteers. Add in the cost of a campaign office, website and campaign literature, and the costs go into the tens of thousands of dollars.

Fernandes Anderson raised $40,468 in advance of the Sept. 14, 2021 preliminary, in which she dominated with 2,038 votes. In the seven-way 2023 race for a vacant District 3 seat in Dorchester, John Fitzgerald raised $181,215 in advance of the preliminary and prevailed with 2,785 votes before going on to win in the final.

With candidates already raising funds, residents of the Roxbury, Dorchester, Fenway and South End precincts in District 7 can expect door-knocking to begin as early as late spring. Registered candidates will receive nomination papers by April 30.

Other districts

While District 7 stands out with the largest field, five of the other eight district
councilors have challengers:

East Boston-based District 1 incumbent Gabriela Colett Zapata faces challengers Ricardo Rodriguez, a Republican State Committee member, and Rasheed Laborde of Charlestown.

South Boston-based District 2 incumbent Edward M. Flynn, whose campaign account balance of $828,464 rivals the combined accounts of his council colleagues, is facing Brian Matthew Foley.

Dorchester-based District 4 incumbent Brian Worrell is facing challenges from Michael Grant and Juwan Khiry Skeens.

Hyde Park-based District 5 incumbent Enrique Pepen is facing a challenge from Winston Pierre.

Allston/Brighton-based District 9 incumbent Liz Breadon is facing challengers Michael Bailey and Pilar Ortiz, chief of staff of the city’s Law Department and a volunteer on Mayor Michelle Wu’s 2021 mayoral campaign. 

At-large

The incumbent -large candidates are (in order of the number of votes they received in the 2023 election) current Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, Erin Murphy, Julia Mejia and Henry Santana.

Also running are challengers Alexandra Valdez, director of the city’s Office of Cultural Affairs; Café Ula co-owner Marvin Mathalier; Will Onuoha, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Fair Housing and Equity and Reggie Stewart, a director of community relations for the City of Boston, Dorchester resident Michael Grant, political activist Clifton Brathwaite, Joao DePina — who also pulled papers for District 7, Brighton resident William Robert Regan, Brighton resident John Foy and Alston resident Phillip Ryan Kelso.