"Black women candidates are not interchangeable": Andrea Campbell In The Eye Of The Storm

Talking Politics Podcast

It’s been a busy — and high-stress — stretch for Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell. A supporter of Acting Mayor Kim Janey emailed Campbell supporters suggesting that she drop out of the race to clear a path for Janey’s election citywide, prompting Campbell, who’s been running since September 2020, to retort, “Black women candidates for public office are not interchangeable.” And the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association sparred with Campbell on Twitter, implying without evidence that she’d been complicit in the criminal activity of her brother Alvin — who’s accused of raping nine women while impersonating a rideshare driver — and/or of her deceased twin brother Andre, who died while being held by the state in pretrial detention. (The BPPA was irate that Campbell is holding up police grant money in the city council, and that she called out the union’s advocacy for accused child rapist and former BPPA head Patrick Rose.)

In this episode of the Scrum, Peter Kadzis and Adam Reilly size up Campbell’s week from hell with their GBH News colleagues Saraya Wintersmith and Phillip Martin — and conclude that, unpleasant though it may have been for Campbell to weather, it may actually redound to her benefit when all is said and done.