Most of the election talk around town this weekend was about the upcoming Town election: Mrs. Kehoe stepping down, if Tom Polito could make a comeback, how for the second year in a row there wouldn't be a School Committee race.
Less well known was a meeting in the Square on Saturday morning between representatives of Boston City Councillor John Tobin and State Rep. Mike Rush, both of West Roxbury. Each is expecting Senator Marian Walsh to be fitted for robes and a gavel any day and both are looking at stepping into her seat. The meeting, I'm told, was held so each side could feel the other out. Nothing was determined at it, but when they last ran against each other (for the Council seat John eventually won) it divided West Roxbury. I think most people there would like to avoid a repeat.
Each side has political friends and allies in Dedham, and I would expect that they will battle it out should both names appear on the ballot. A few other things to consider. I would imagine this race to cost upwards of $225,000 a candidate. This is an insane amount, but not unrealistic. Mike has just over $8,000 in his campaign war chest, but I'm told second hand that his representative at the meeting claimed he will raise $100,000 in two months. John has over $150,000 in his account right now.
There are also personal considerations for each. Mike just got married and is in law school. Assuming Walsh's nomination is pushed off long enough that a special election will not be needed, he will have to choose between running for his House seat or trying his luck in a bid for the Upper Chamber. John, on the other hand, won't have to risk losing his Council seat if he runs for Senate, but he will take a pretty steep pay cut if elected. That can't be too attractive for someone who just had his second child.
On the Republican side, Doug Obey said here that he won't be running for the Senate this fall. That doesn't mean that there won't be a challenger for the Democratic nominee, however. At Universal Hub, Adam has speculated that Bob Joyce may be preparing for another run by crusading to rid West Roxbury of the Boston Phoenix. Though he lives in Roslindale, he says wants to ban the free weekly paper in West Roxbury because it includes a personals section with thinly veiled ads for prostitutes.
You may remember that several years ago Joyce ran against Walsh and lost every precinct. This was in 2004, the year Mitt Romney made a valiant effort to recruit Republicans to run for office, but ended up losing seats overall. Joyce ran as an Independent, but his whole campaign was centered around the same issues Romney and the state Republican Party was feeding their candidates. He still owes himself $32,000 from that run, and got a $100 donation from Doug Obey that year. I have absolutely nothing to base this on, but I have to wonder if the reason Doug has already decided not to run for what will likely be an open seat is because Bob Joyce has.
All this speculation about who our next State Senator will be, and the current occupant hasn't said a word publicly about stepping down.
