For the past three days, I have been circulating nomination papers to be placed on the ballot for at-large city council. There are thirteen city councilors in Boston, nine district councilors and four at-large (representing the entire city). Two of the four at-large councilors (Yoon and Flaherty) are currently running for Mayor - unless they change their minds some time in the next 2.5 weeks, they will be vacating their seats. It is very rare for there to be one open at-large seat, let alone two. I need to gather 1500 signatures of registered Boston voters, and I have until May 19th at 5 PM to do so.

In my first official act as candidate, I applied for nomination papers on April 15. Also applying was Sam Yoon, current at-large councilor and mayoral candidate. Yesterday, on my way home from canvassing in West Roxbury, I also met Scotland Willis, another candidate for an at-large seat. He lives in Fort Hill, a neighborhood in Roxbury just over the line from where I live in JP. We only had a few minutes to talk, but we did make time to sign each others petitions. Another notable signatory for me yesterday was James W. Hennigan, whose father is the namesake of the public school I attended for 4th and 5th grades.

Tomorrow, I’ll have a table at the “Wake Up the Earth” festival in JP. Some volunteers and I will be gathering signatures and I will also be circulating voter petitions concerning H.R. 1207 and S. 604 - bills to audit the Federal Reserve system that are currently making their way through congress. Not a single elected representative from New England has signed on to co-sponsor either of these bills, and I hope to change that soon.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 12:00 AM and is filed under Ballot Signatures, Council Candidates, Local Politicians.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.