At-large City Council candidates rake in out-of-town cash

More than 40% of donations in the at-large City Council race are coming from out-of-towners seeking to influence Boston’s election and curry favor with the candidates.

The top candidates in the citywide at-large race are all receiving between one-third and nearly one-half of their political donations from outside the city limits since Jan. 1, 2018.

“That means there’s an outside influence on decisions on what happens in in Boston by people who don’t live here, and that has to be a concern,” said government watchdog David Tuerck of the Beacon Hill Institute. “They are diluting the control that people in the districts.”

Michelle Wu, the incumbent city councilor who’s seen as a possible challenger to Mayor Martin Walsh, saw 34.3% of her 1,876 donations come from outside the city. Fellow big-name incumbents Michael Flaherty received 44.2% of his 1,460 donations from out of town. Annissa Essaibi-George’s number was 33.6% of 1,131 donations, a Herald review found.

Three challengers also received more than 40% from people outside of the city: David Halbert with 60.4% of his 714 donations, Alejandra St. Guillen with 43.2% of 1,205 and Julia Mejia with 41.6% of 1,117 donations, according to the data.

At-large City Councilor Althea Garrison, an incumbent whose ultra-low-budget campaign is based almost entirely self-financed, said of her competitors, “They’re very corrupt, and people should look at that and see where the money is coming from and then vote against them.”

Erin Murphy, a challenger in the race for whom 24% of 384 donations came from people not in Boston, said of her opponents, “A lot of their time is being spent fundraising at parties with either some other elected officials or other influential people.”

The candidates with more outside money defended themselves, many saying they either drew on networks of family and friends or on other interested groups.

Wu said, “Fundraising is certainly a barrier that disproportionately keeps people of color, women candidates first time candidates from being successful and those of us in the system now have to navigate daily the tensions between how we spend our time fundraising and needing to raise resources and the time to actually be in the community and be with residents.”

Flaherty said, “Running a successful citywide campaign in Boston is very expensive. I am fortunate to have an extensive network of family, friends and supporters from the neighborhoods of Boston and beyond.”

And Essaibi-George said, “The donors in support of my campaign are friends and family and people who I’ve worked with over the years,” adding “I don’t leave the city to campaign.”

St. Guillen said she knows she received money from people outside Boston who might be “excited for the first Latina and the first openly gay woman on the council,” adding that when she ran she reached out to everyone she knows, though she hasn’t held fundraisers outside the city.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/34caMsw