From left: then-Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Gov. Maura Healey – at the time, the state attorney general – and then-Gov. Charlie Baker take part in a commemoration for law enforcement officers on Sept. 21, 2016. Photo courtesy of the Office of the Governor
Kamala Harris will need all the sage political advice she can get as she takes on Donald Trump, one of most potent demagogues in American history.
But the vice president would be best advised to avoid tips from her fellow Californian, Gov. Gavin Newsom, an unabashed progressive with movie star looks.
Instead, she would be much better off seeking counsel from former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, who served as President Joe Biden’s labor secretary until last year, when he left to head the National Hockey League Players’ Association.
Now no one will confuse Walsh with a Hollywood celebrity, and that’s a good thing right now given the angry, anti-elite rhetoric coursing through the 2024 presidential campaign.
Having been both a top labor leader and the secretary of labor, Walsh could be a major asset for Harris as she reaches out to union members and blue-collar voters in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
While Harris has gotten her presidential campaign off to a notably strong start – winning even some grudging praise from The Wall Street Journal – her appeal to swing-state voters is a potentially fatal weak point given her roots in progressive California.
Walsh, in turn, could also provide some insights on how to be a pro-growth Democrat, especially when it comes to the increasingly dire housing shortage that is driving up prices and rents across the country.
Balance Key to Building Homes
Under Walsh, Boston underwent an historic building boom. City Hall’s development-review arm issued permits for more than 105 million square feet of new office, residential, retail and lab space during the former mayor’s seven years in office.
That’s an average of 10 or 11 million square feet getting the nod every year from city planners – or enough to fill that many new Prudential towers every 12 months.
Walsh was also able to strike a balance between demands by housing advocates that housing developers be required to include ever-higher numbers of money-losing, affordable units and the twin needs to turn a profit and earn the backing of investors and bankers.
It’s an important message for Harris to hear. The Democratic Party’s uber-progressive wing, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has worked, with some success, to push the Biden administration’s economic policies further to the left.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, as well as Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, all threw their support behind Biden’s now aborted attempt to hang on as his party’s standard bearer in the wake of his disastrous debate performance last month.
Before he dropped his reelection bid last weekend, Biden announced he would pursue a 5 percent cap on apartment rent increases in a second term – a measure championed by party progressives.
Friendship with Walsh Could Help
In fact, there’s good reason to believe that Harris might just follow my advice and reach out to Walsh, if she hasn’t already.
During his time in Washington, Walsh forged a close friendship with Harris, as a 2022 Washington Post piece details.
The two talked every week, and Harris even held a baby shower for Walsh’s stepdaughter at the U.S. Naval Observatory, the VP’s official residence, the Post reported at the time.
“In what has become one of the more unusual pairings in the Biden administration, Vice President Harris and Marty Walsh, the Secretary of Labor, have struck up a tight bond that started with policy and has evolved into a personal connection that has surprised those close to them,” the Post reported at the time.
While she is at it, Harris might also ring up Gov. Maura Healey and former Gov. Charlie Baker.
Yes, Massachusetts is considered a deep blue state. But in reality, it is a mini-California (inside the Interstate 495 beltway) grafted onto rust belt Ohio (everything beyond I-495).
Both Healey and, before her, Baker crafted convincing electoral majorities with centrist political moves.
Healey bucked the left wing of her own party to make tax breaks a key part of her campaign for governor.
Scott Van Voorhis
For his part, Baker took a traditionally Democratic issue – state support for affordable housing programs – and outdid the state’s legislative leaders, all Dems, in pushing for an even bigger increase in outlays.
If Harris is going to have a shot at winning this race, she’s going to have to tack towards the middle.
It’s unlikely Harris will pick Walsh as her vice president and running mate, though stranger things have happened.
The Irish Echo recently reported that “prominent Irish-American politicians” have been urging Harris to pick the long-time Boston pol and labor leader.
But Harris could do a lot worse than to reach out to Walsh and his fellow Bay State political notables for some timely advice.
Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist and publisher of the Contrarian Boston newsletter; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.
