By Taylor Rapalyea
Staff Writer

For those of you who did not tune in to the results of the Boston Mayoral Primaries last week, candidates John Connolly and Marty Walsh made it through, making Boston yet again the most Irish city in America.
But who are these candidates, and what will they do for the city of Boston?
Martin Walsh’s campaign ads paint him as your classic Bostonian: Irish immigrant parents, Dorchester upbringing, recovering alcoholic, you get the picture. Walsh’s main cause is for the unions. He comes from a union family and has been a leader in Laborers Local 223 in the past.
In terms of government exerience, Walsh was previously elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, representing the 13th Suffolk District. He is a proponent of charter schools and strong public school funding.
His win in the preliminaries was mostly due to his clout in his hometown of Dorchester.
John Connolly, perhaps better known as the education candidate for his previous teaching career, took nearly every district, barring Walsh’s own Dorchester. It’s for this reason that I predict he will be the next mayor of Boston. That’s not to say that I back either hopeful, but I’d put my money on Connolly on Nov. 4.
Connolly’s background is in teaching and law. He attended Harvard as an undergrad and later went on to law school. After graduation, Connolly represented several groups pro-bono, including a South End-based gay rights group. It should be noted that Walsh is also in favor of equal rights.
Connolly’s government experience is as the Boston City Councilor At-Large. His main platform is education, and he is specifically dedicated to lowering the dropout rate and bringing high-level schools to every community.
Both these candidates are barely distinguishable from each other, aside from Walsh’s decidedly pro-union stance and Connolly’s potentially opposing one. While unions are an important issue, I’m not particularly impressed by either of them, and from what I can tell, they haven’t addressed the looming issue of racism in Boston whatsoever.
I can’t help but be disappointed that one of the underdogs like Mike Ross, John Barros, or Charlotte Richie didn’t pull through and make it past the preliminaries. It’s hard to move on from the past, especially when you don’t have a candidate to be excited about in the future.
What will Walsh or Connolly do about the lack of diversity in Boston’s Police Department if elected? Does either have an actual plan for improving public transportation in Boston, or are they just telling the public they do because to not do so would be political suicide? Will Mayor Menino back either candidate?
In the coming weeks, I can only hope that these candidates manage to distinguish themselves further than two Boston Mayoral hopefuls who look like every mayor Boston has ever had.
Furthermore, I’d like to know what the candidates think of the government shutdown that is currently plaguing our country. Do they blame a particular party, or do they think partisanship has gone too far in this country?
If you go to school in Boston, you can register to vote here. The deadline for registration is Oct. 16. You can register by visiting www.cityofboston.gov/elections/voter_reg.asp.

Tune in to Simmons College Radio to hear further discussion of Boston’s mayoral race. Questions and comments can be sent to voice@simmons.edu