It’s not too much of a surprise, I suppose, that Andrea Cabral has won the Suffolk County Sheriff race. But given the 60-40 lead, it seems that this race is the Steve Murphy challenge is the best thing that could have happened to her career, as it’s given the politically untested appointee the mantle of popularity. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cabral seek a higher office a few years down the road.
I have a couple of questions, though. First, why was $360,000 spent between the two candidates? Boston’s an expensive media market and this was a heated race (well not too heated - 55,000 votes total in a city of 600,000). But sheriff is ultimately an administrative post, one without much room for ideological or even policy differences to cohere around candidates. Yet these candidates raised money as if they appealed to ideological differences.
Second, why did the Democratic party machine get behind Cabral? I understand Diane Wilkerson, but my phone was ringing with recorded messages from Ted Kennedy, too. Did they know something about Murphy the general public didn’t? Or were they staking their lot with the New New Boston, a political landscape of multi-racial coalition? The Globe article today would suggest the latter, but again, this much effort on such a non-ideological position puzzles me. It’s as if a new machine is the works.
By the way, best whopper of the night was from Patricia White: “White, who said last night she wasn’t following the sheriff’s race, promised another run for the council in 2005.”
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