Attorney running for District 4 City Council seat

Attorney Andrea Campbell announces her candidacy for the District 4 City Council seat.

When Boston native Andrea Campbell declared in December that she was running against longtime incumbent Charles Yancey for the District 4 City Council seat, her jump-start on public exposure and fund-raising signaled that she meant business.

Four months and $46,000 later, Campbell appears poised to give Yancey the strongest challenge he’s faced in a long time.

“I think she has the best chance of anyone I’ve seen in recent years,” political analyst Kelly Bates of WGBH told the Banner by phone, adding that she included within that list Ego Ezedi, Yancey’s last serious contender from 2003.

Campbell held her official campaign launch April 8 at the Montserrat Aspirers Community Center, attracting a room full of supporters, volunteers and a few former classmates from her alma maters, Boston Latin School and Princeton.

She will be one of at least three challengers, along with Mattapan attorney Jovan Lacet and Dorchester community activist Terrance Williams. Her campaign war chest — substantially more than the $10,500 Yancey currently has on hand — and the 100-or-so supporters at her kickoff indicate that Campbell is a serious contender.

She used her remarks last week to share her personal story, which she said would likely resonate with many in the 4th District.

Within the first decade of her life, Campbell had already lost her mother to a tragic car accident, spent time both in foster care and in the home of a grandmother struggling with alcoholism, and then readjusted to life with a father who was newly released from prison. As an adult, tragedy struck again when her brother who had scleroderma passed away in prison without having received proper medical care.

Through it all, Campbell managed to graduate from Princeton University in 2004 and the UCLA School of Law in 2009. She went on to work as a deputy legal counsel in the administration of former Gov. Deval Patrick.

“My story is our story, and this is why I think I was called to do this work,” she said of her tough life experiences.

Yancey’s legacy

Campbell has her work cut out for her.

Mary-dith Tuitt, a former Yancey staffer, underscored Yancey’s community ties in a phone conversation with the Banner. She mentioned projects including the library on Blue Hill Ave, the conversion of the old Mattapan library to a Boys & Girls Club, and the creation of an early education center on Babson Street among the successes Yancey has delivered for the district.

“These things are there because Councilor Yancey has been there in the background getting things done,” Tuitt says.

Kelly Bates added, however, that she did not predict the election would be a referendum on Yancey’s tenure. Rather, she said the deciding factor would be more what Campbell brings to the table.

“[Campbell] is a very competent, viable woman — voters might say, ‘I like this fresh, new person,’” Bates said.

Bates and Tuitt both agreed that a deciding factor will be outreach. “It’s important to go to voters. “They have to door knock. They can’t take the people of the district for granted,” Tuitt said.

Campbell is not the first serious challenge Yancey has faced. In 2003, he beat back a challenge from Egobudike Ezedi, a former congressional staffer who was endorsed by several white city councilors and backed by the political organization run by former Mayor Thomas Menino. Yancey won handily, 3,679 votes to Ezedi’s 2,990.

First steps

In conversations with the Banner before the event started, many who were there said they were especially concerned about education and youth issues, as well as a general desire for a fresh face in town.

Along those lines, one of Campbell’s central themes that night was the need to improve education and mentoring opportunities for young people — something she described as a “foundation from which to thrive.”

Campbell also called for a concerted effort to improve communication and engagement between local government and residents. “I need to listen and to show up — not only at election time,” she said to audience applause. To that end, she pledged initiatives such as holding quarterly meetings with community stakeholders and compiling a centralized resource bank to make such information more accessible.

In some ways, Campbell framed her call for greater connection between residents and government as a two-way street. As she pledged her commitment to making herself available, she also made a broader appeal for engagement from community members. “We need to increase our level of civic engagement,” she said. “What do I need to win this election? A few thousand votes. I’m not okay with that.”

When asked by the Banner how she compared to Yancey, Campbell replied, “It’s not about the incumbent, and it’s not about me, it’s about the 4th District.”

“A sacred obligation”

In a brief phone conversation with the Banner, Councilor Yancey also declined to comment on his opponents, but said he intended “to continue to be one of Boston’s strongest advocates for the residents of Boston, in the areas of education, housing, economic development and public safety.”

When asked for policy specifics, he said he would work on issues of police accountability, noting two bills he recently filed to create a civilian review board and to require police to wear bullet proof vests and body cameras. He also mentioned his years-long fight for a high school in Mattapan.

“I’m very honored to have received support from my constituents over the past 32 years,” Yancey said. “I take it as a sacred obligation to continue to advocate for the people of District 4 and actually, all of Boston.”

Additional hopefuls

Despite the general consensus that the race will mainly be between Yancey and Campbell, it has piqued the interest of at least two other candidates.

Jovan Lacet, a Mattapan-based lawyer, told the Banner that he is “definitely running.” He said he wants to focus on “Boston jobs for Boston residents,” including increasing the residency requirements for some city jobs to four or five years prior to employment. He is also passionate about his plan to create an insurance bond for Boston drivers, which he says is a matter of “dollar and cents” for drivers who are tired of paying high rates in low-income neighborhoods. Third, he hopes to bring back the school bus service for middle-schoolers that was recently cut. Lacet said he will file his papers in the coming weeks.

Another candidate, Terrance Williams, announced on Facebook in February that he planned to run, saying he hoped to “bring a fresh perspective and progressive solutions for positive transformation” to Boston. He also ran against Yancey in 2013, nabbing roughly 31 percent of the vote.

On your mark, get set…

So far, the Yancey and Campbell camps have vastly different coffers. Yancey’s campaign has just under $10,500, while Campbell’s has raised roughly $46,000 since mid-November, according to the latest records from the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance. However, Yancey told the Banner that he had not begun fundraising yet, as he had been occupied with City Council matters and would not officially launch his campaign until the end of the month.

Katie Prisco-Buxbaum, Campbell’s campaign manager, said that Campbell does not yet have any official endorsements or donations from organizations, as the race still is in its early stages. Campbell’s launch event did, however, include speeches from both Wilnelia Rivera, former director of external affairs for Governor Deval Patrick and Andrea Cabral, former Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety and Suffolk County Sheriff.