The Boston City Council is set to debate on Friday whether to waive a special election for the Roxbury-based district soon to be vacated by Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson.
Fernandes Anderson is expected to plead guilty to federal corruption charges on May 5. She’s said she will resign from her District 7 council seat, though she has not disclosed when.
The city charter dictates that when a district council seat vacancy happens more than 180 days before the next regular city election — in this year’s case, May 8 — the city clerk makes arrangements to schedule a special election.
District 9 Councilor Liz Breadon joined Council President Ruthzee Louijeune in filing a measure this week that would bypass the procedure if Fernandes Anderson submits a resignation before the deadline. Breadon told GBH News she’s concerned about the tight timeline and turnout for a special election.
“I think it’s got potential to cause a lot of confusion,” she said, noting that voters in the district would have to go to the polls multiple times.
“We’ve done some historic look back on the turnout of special elections on a regular cycle — a non-mayoral year — versus a special election in the mayoral year and the disparities are really quite incredible in terms of turnout,” Breadon said.
According to her calculations, the average voter turnout in District 7 in the mayoral election years is 28%. In a non-mayoral election year, that average goes down to about 13%. Breadon said injecting a special election into that mix would negatively impact those figures.
“It’s just really trying to give the opportunity for as many people as possible in District 7 to vet the candidates,” Breadon said. “If we truncate that process [by injecting another, special election], they won’t necessarily get the opportunity to do that. And if we wait until the regular election cycle with a special, with this preliminary round in September and then the general in November, many, many more people will actually weigh in on choosing the councilor for District 7.”
Breadon’s point of view has frustrated some people, including longtime Roxbury resident Louis Elisa.
“The council is doing what it has continuously done for a long time which is try to undermine the effectiveness of the useful community of District 7 and basically put us at a disadvantage,” he told GBH News, noting that the city is in an ongoing budget process and pursuing development projects across Roxbury.
Elisa rejected Breadon’s idea of giving residents more time to vet candidates, calling that “ridiculous.” He pointed to the July 2023 special election that brought Councilor Sharon Durkan, an ally of Mayor Michelle Wu, to the council after the mayor tapped Kenzie Bok to run the Boston Housing Authority.
“District 8 when they had to have the special election, they had a special election. Were those people more capable of deciding who should represent them?” he said.
Greg Maynard of the Boston Policy Institute — a new think tank that has consistently weighed in on city conversations opposite Mayor Wu — also noted the disparity between the 2023 special election and the current debate.
“Tania Fernandes Anderson’s announcement that she would resign from her seat comes along an almost identical timeline to Bok’s, but the reaction from the City Council has been much different,” said Maynard in a statement.
“Councilors Louijeune and Breadon were both on the Council in 2023, and need to explain why Roxbury-based District 7 can afford to wait a few months for a new City Councilor, but Beacon Hill & Back Bay-based District 8 could not,” Maynard continued.
Wu has declined to take a position on the issue, telling multiple outlets through a spokesperson that the city stands ready to execute a special election and that the mayor’s office will review any legislation the council passes.
Former City Councilor Tito Jackson, who came to represent Roxbury-based district in a special election in 2011, said there should be a special election — or a moratorium on development projects in the area until a councilor is seated.
“It is of utmost importance that the district gains representation as soon as possible,” Jackson said.
He said city councilors are a crucial voice for their communities when it comes to zoning and building in neighborhoods, and decisions will be made in the coming months on several development projects.
“If there were a punt on this, there would have to be several guarantees, one being that there would have to be a moratorium on development decisions in that time frame,” Jackson said.
Asked whether the arrangement she’s proposing would be acceptable for constituents in her district if she found herself resigning under the same timeline, Breadon said it would.
“I think constituents like to have an opportunity to really vet their candidates and go to debates and go to meet and greets and really check out their potential candidates,” she said. “They’re anticipating that they will go to the polls in September right now, but going to the poll in July or earlier just leaves a much more truncated timeline to really vet your candidates and pick the best candidate for your district.”
