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January 1, 2004

Denver prevails in affirmative action suit

Yawu Miller

As the year 2003 dawned, state Rep. Byron Rushing was leading a renegade contingent of lawmakers aiming to topple House Speaker Thomas Finneran, Felix Arroyo was taking his seat as the first Latino on Boston’s city council, and Governor Mitt Romney was installed as the state’s fourth consecutive Republican governor.

Politics was anything but business as usual as 2003 proved to be a year of profound changes.

While Rushing’s frontal attack on Finneran’s hegemony was meant to draw attention to the speaker’s iron-fisted grip on House politics, the failed bid underscored both Finneran’s entrenchment and the lack of dissent in Legislature. Most notably, Rushing failed to secure support from all but one of his five fellow Legislative Black Caucus members.

Thus, when Finneran exacted retribution on the renegade representatives Rushing and Gloria Fox were the only Caucus members stripped of preferred committee assignments. In contrast, Caucus Chair-woman Marie St. Fleur, a long-time Finneran supporter, was tapped to lead the Education Committee, a perk that gives the rep extra staff and a higher salary.

The lack of unity on the Caucus is indicative of the long, downhill slide the body has undergone since its heyday in the early ’80s. Dissent and infighting among Caucus members prompted the defection of state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson the previous year.

In contrast, the three people of color on the City Council — Felix Arroyo, Chuck Turner and Charles Yancey — remained united in their opposition to the rule and policies of Council President Michael Flaherty. Supported by black activists and politicians in his bid for office, Arroyo worked closely with Turner and Yancey upon assuming office.

The three also worked jointly on Yancey and Arroyo’s hotly-contested races for re-election, which showed greater unity among the city’s elected officials. They formed a joint Team Unity campaign apparatus that facilitated the sharing of electoral resources. But the broader community of black elected officials did not unify behind the effort. Neither Black Caucus President Marie St. Fleur, nor Rep. Shirley Owens-Hicks endorsed Yancey.

Newly-appointed Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral and state Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez also kept their distance from Yancey, a frequent critic of Mayor Thomas Menino who was being challenged by political newcomer Egobudike Ezedi.

Like Finneran, Menino exercises near-absolute power in his realm — city politics. He benefits from a large municipal workforce under his control which translates into a powerful political organization. He enjoys a compliant city council that is usually hesitant to oppose his directives.

More often than not, the city councilors of color find themselves at odds with the administration on issues ranging from police practices to affirmative action programs. In Menino’s Boston, support for the councilors of color can be equated with dissent.

That Yancey and Arroyo were able to secure re-election in spite of white politicians’ support for competing candidates says much about the new-found clout of voters of color. Arroyo topped the ticket in every predominantly black ward in the city and won more wards than any other at-large councilor, coming within just 1,702 votes of top vote-getter Michael Flaherty.

The 2003 city council election taught political observers two valuable lessons: that people of color are now more than ever a formidable voting bloc and that Menino cannot throw his weight around in Charles Yancey’s Dorchester district.

The political unity people of color forged at the city level came at a fortuitous moment. People of color are exercising their voter power in greater numbers in neighborhoods from Chinatown to Mattapan and their increased political clout was felt palpably.

In contrast, the lack of unity at the state level has come at a time when the progressive political policies favored by people of color are under increasing attack from the Republican Romney administration. Black elected officials spent considerable time this year battling over Romney’s changes to the state’s affirmative action program.

Interestingly, while councilors Turner, Arroyo and Yancey led the charge against Romney’s revision of state affirmative action laws, Legislative Black Caucus members were far less visible in the opposition to the changes, even though they were informed of the changes before they became public. Turner lead press conferences and city council hearings on the matter, garnering support from a majority of his colleagues for a resolution critical of the changes.

The contrast between the energized city councilors and the somewhat more disjointed Caucus members suggests that the Caucus no longer has the gravitas it enjoyed in the ’70s and ’80s when members worked more closely together.

Part of the contrast between the city council members and the Caucus members is a function of the different politics of the bodies. The Legislature is controlled ever so tightly by Finneran, who does not brook dissent. With the exception of Rushing and Fox, Black Caucus members are unwilling to stand up to the speaker’s hegemonic rule.

While Menino and Council President Michael Flaherty represent power at the city level, Turner, Yancey and Arroyo have for so long functioned outside of the political mainstream, capitulation to the political bosses is almost unthinkable.

In fact, as the year draws to a close, Arroyo is mounting a long-shot bid for the council presidency — just as Rushing sought to unseat Finneran at the year’s beginning.

His win may be an unlikely proposition, but his meteoric rise in Boston politics underscores the power of political unity that seems to have evaded the Black Caucus members.

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