The Wacky World Of Mayoral Politics

Howard Gardner says he’s going all the way. Charlie Coviello says the same thing. A lot of political positioning is underway for a potential September Democratic mayoral primary in a challenge of two-term incumbent Bill Finch. While Gardner and Coviello are officially in the race, former Mayor Joe Ganim and 2011 candidate Mary-Jane Foster are preparing to enter as well. Saying you’ll be on the ballot and getting there, however, are two very different things.

The only sure-fire way of making the ballot is the party endorsement. The other way is securing nearly 2000 certified signatures of registered Democrats in the city. Easier said than done. Requires lots of boots on the ground, knocking doors.

Right now Finch is the favorite for the endorsement at the July party convention with Ganim the only other potential candidate with a solid bloc of town committee support. The 90-member Democratic Town Committee conducts party business and supports candidates for office. Securing the endorsement requires 46 votes. Finch should get there, but Ganim is working the party regulars to support him, some of them based on relationship history and some who do not support Finch.

Some town committee members tell OIB they are still uncommitted, depending on the configuration of the race. If this one’s in maybe they vote one way versus another.

Coviello, for instance, is a town committee member in the East End district. He has no shot for the endorsement. So where will his vote go if not to himself? He says it will not go to Finch or Foster. So that leaves Ganim or Gardner. Coviello dropped out of the 2007 mayoral primary to support Finch over Chris Caruso. Finch and Coviello had a falling-out when Finch became mayor. Coviello supported Foster in 2011. He says he’s not heard from Foster so why support her.

Coviello could also proxy his vote to someone else. All sorts of weird things have occurred through proxy votes. Proxy votes can be leveraged for something.

Some committee members will commit their vote to a candidate for the first round of voting. “If no endorsement, I’m giving it to someone else.” Translation: I wanna be a kingmaker.

While Finch should be positioned for the endorsement the next best thing if no one else can get there is to block his endorsement in the name of chaos.

If there’s no party endorsement at the convention the town chair could call an open convention, meaning all candidates must secure signatures to appear on the primary ballot. That happened in 1983, Republican Lenny Paoletta was mayor, and a large field of Democrats including Tom Bucci, John Mandanici and Charlie Tisdale split up the town committee votes. Tisdale, one of the strongest political organizers in city history, won the primary becoming the first African American to win his party’s nomination. Charlie won the black vote, the others split the white vote.

Paoletta won a close reelection, Tisdale finished second and Mandanici, running on a third party line, finished third. The general election turnout eclipsed 70 percent. That’s not a typo.

And then there’s also another crazy–if unlikely–possibility. What if at the convention Finch and Ganim both have 45 votes? Democratic Town Chair Mario Testa could break a tie. Hmmm, how would that go?