Felix Arroyo — a Puerto Rican immigrant and community activist who is running for an at-large seat on the Boston City Council — opened his new campaign headquarters in Mission Hill last Wednesday with a prayer. The Reverend Eldin Villafane, a noted scholar of Pentecostalism who has taught at Harvard Divinity School, gave an invocation urging Arroyo on to greater service ( " We thank you for Felix Arroyo, his journey through life, his knowledge ... " ). Religion is the last thing you’d find at most campaign events, but it comes naturally to Arroyo, whose Subaru sports a bumper sticker with a quote from Catholic Worker Movement activist Dorothy Day: love is the only solution. He believes the invocation is the least his campaign could do, given that God — as Arroyo gleefully related — provided him with the wood for yard signs. (Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, located across the street from headquarters, was throwing out timber from old pews, which campaign manager Rose Arruda snagged from the trash heap.)

That sense of mission is prompting the 53-year-old Arroyo, who currently serves as the deputy director of the Hispanic Office of Planning and Evaluation, to run for public office. It isn’t his first electoral try. Arroyo, who moved to the city in 1976, made unsuccessful bids for the Boston School Committee in 1981 and 1983, back when its members were still elected by voters rather than appointed by the mayor. He eventually made it on to the committee nine years later as an appointee of Mayor Ray Flynn. Reappointed once by Mayor Tom Menino, Arroyo was denied a third term in 1999, after frequently opposing the mayor’s positions (for instance, Arroyo was against the decision to adopt a race-neutral school-assignment policy).

At the time, Menino told the Boston Globe he didn’t reappoint Arroyo because he was looking for " new blood or new ideas. " For his part, Arroyo insists, " I never was told why I wasn’t reappointed, and I never asked. " Menino seems to be staying out of Arroyo’s way during this race, however. Unlike Councilor Maura Hennigan of Jamaica Plain, who is running at-large this year and has vocally criticized Menino’s policies on city development, Arroyo easily won the endorsement of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Political Alliance — which is packed with Menino supporters.

Arroyo, who would be the first Latino elected to the council, plans to bring along his outspoken approach. " I’m going to do everything the same as I did as an activist for 26 years, " he says. " You’ll see the same Felix, just a different place to do the same thing. " His main goal is to increase understanding among different groups in Boston. " Everybody needs to have respect, " he says. " For them, their family, their neighborhood, ethnic group, beliefs, gender, you name it. " He is equally vehement about making sure all Bostonians have a chance at success, which he hopes to facilitate through such policies as increasing aid to homebuyers and hosting forums across the city so citizens can make suggestions about budgetary priorities.

But winning a council seat won’t be easy. Arroyo’s base of support — people of color and progressives — has an abysmal voting record in municipal elections. For instance, Ward 14 in Dorchester/Mattapan, where Arroyo is expected to be popular, had the lowest turnout in 1999, with less than 14 percent of registered voters casting ballots, compared to 24 percent citywide. Ward Four (Back Bay/Fenway), whose Democratic committee endorsed Arroyo, was scarcely better, with a 15 percent turnout. Notes former city councilor Mike McCormack, " Felix will do well in those areas that don’t vote, which is part of Felix’s problem. "

His strategists are all too familiar with the situation. Says former at-large city-council candidate Frank Jones, who signed on last week as Arroyo’s campaign chair: " What we found in the last two [municipal] races is that while people care about your issues and that you articulate their vision, on Election Day, progressives don’t [vote] in the way non-progressives do. " He thinks his own heartbreaking loss in 1997 — when he won 43 percent of the city’s precincts but didn’t win a seat on the council because the turnout in those precincts was so low — has shown Arroyo’s likely allies what will happen if they don’t make it to the polls. " I think Latinos and blacks and women and gays and lesbians recognize there is a possibility here, " Jones says. " I like to think my campaign began to sensitize the community to the importance of getting out the vote, and Felix can take advantage of that. "

But in the likely event that progressives — yet again — don’t show up, Arroyo’s political consultant Jim Spencer has a plan. " The real strategy is frequent voters, " he says. " Frankly, we know not to count on the progressives.... We’re beyond our base now. We’re having conversations with Italians in East Boston and the North End, the Irish in Charlestown. " Indeed, Arroyo has had success winning over some unlikely allies, such as State Representatives Marty Walsh of Dorchester and Kevin Fitzgerald of Jamaica Plain, both followers of conservative House Speaker Tom Finneran.

It’s not clear whether his appeal will trickle down to voters in more traditional, high-turnout neighborhoods like South Boston and West Roxbury, which are usually considered essential to a candidate’s success. But with Frank Jones guiding him, Arroyo is hoping his campaign can avoid Jones’s near-miss fate. And with Villafane’s prayer, he’s not taking any chances.

Issue Date: August 30 - September 6, 2001