Boston Mayoral Race

In September 2013, the Boston mayoral race included about a dozen candidates once Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced he would not seek a sixth term.  An article in the New York Times describes how Cara and Michael McGrath, a Boston couple, struggled to differentiate between the candidates.  Ultimately, education was their top priority because of their children.  Mr. Connolly, a former public school teacher and candidate for the mayoral office, stood out from the pack for the McGrath’s because of his stance on education.  However, many other voters had difficulty deciding which candidate they wanted to support.

Massachusetts is a deep blue state whose candidates have overlapping platforms and shared constituents.  For example, so many of the candidates are supporters of gay rights. The reason for the similarities in candidate platforms can be described by the median voter theorem.  It predicts that the candidate who gets the vote of the median voter will win because there are just as many voters politically to the left of that voter as there are to the right.  This gives the candidate an incentive to move closer to the opponent’s platform in a two party system in order to gain more votes.  The result is that candidates both attempt to appeal to the median voter; this makes their platforms look very similar.  When this occurs, it is difficult for voters to distinguish between candidates.