1959 Boston mayoral election

1959 Boston mayoral election

November 3, 1959

Candidate John F. Collins John E. Powers Party Nonpartisan Nonpartisan Popular vote 114,210 90,142 Percentage 55.89% 44.11%

Results by ward

Mayor before election John B. Hynes Elected mayor John F. Collins

The 1959 Boston mayoral election was held on November 3, 1959, to elect the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts. Incumbent mayor John B. Hynes did not run for another term. The election was formally nonpartisan, and both major runoff candidates, Suffolk County register of probate John F. Collins and Massachusetts Senate president John E. Powers, were Democrats.

Powers finished first in the nonpartisan preliminary election on September 22, while Collins narrowly won the second runoff place ahead of city councilor Gabriel F. Piemonte. Collins then defeated Powers in the general election by 114,210 votes to 90,142, receiving 55.89 percent of the vote. His victory was widely described as an upset over a better-known and better-connected opponent, and the campaign became known for Collins's slogan, "Stop power politics".

Background

The election took place as Boston faced a shrinking tax base, a high property tax rate, and continuing debates over urban renewal and municipal finance. Historian Jim Vrabel wrote that by 1950 Boston had lost a quarter of its tax base over the preceding twenty-five years, had the highest tax rate of any major American city, and had one of the lowest bond ratings among major cities. Boston also lost more than 100,000 residents between 1950 and 1960, while Hynes's administration attempted to attract business investment and connect city policy to the federal urban renewal program.

A contemporary account in The Harvard Crimson described the city's central fiscal problem as its unusually small tax base and heavy reliance on real estate taxation. The article noted that the city's tax rate had reached $101.20 per $1,000 of assessed value and that tax-exempt institutions added to the burden on taxable property. In a Globe questionnaire during the campaign, Collins argued that Boston needed new revenue and proposed several possible approaches, including a larger share of existing state taxes, a limited sales tax, authority for Boston to levy a wage tax, and revision of the formulas by which Boston contributed to metropolitan services.

Under Boston's municipal system, the mayor had substantial administrative and fiscal powers. A pre-election Globe feature described the mayor as responsible for initiating and overseeing city appropriations and expenditures, appointing department heads and board members, initiating loan orders and ordinances, declaring the tax rate, and approving most city contracts.

Candidates

Advanced to general election

John F. Collins was the Suffolk County register of probate. He had previously served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the Massachusetts Senate, and the Boston City Council. Collins was a World War II veteran who had served in Army counterintelligence and was discharged as a captain. During the 1955 city council campaign, he and three of his children contracted polio; his children recovered, but Collins was left with paralysis in both legs and campaigned in 1959 from a wheelchair.

John E. Powers was president of the Massachusetts Senate. A South Boston politician, he had served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1939 to 1946 and in the Massachusetts Senate from 1947 onward. He had been the runner-up in the 1955 Boston mayoral election against Hynes and entered the 1959 race as the best-known candidate in the field.

Eliminated in preliminary election

The candidates eliminated in the preliminary election were city councilor Gabriel F. Piemonte, state senator James W. Hennigan Jr., and school committee member John P. McMorrow. In the Globe questionnaire, the five candidates were asked why the mayor's office interested them and how Boston should obtain additional revenue.

Preliminary election

The nonpartisan preliminary election was held on September 22, 1959. Powers led the field, while Collins finished second and advanced to the general election. Collins's second-place finish changed the perceived shape of the race, as Piemonte had also been regarded as a serious contender. After the preliminary, Collins's supporters gathered at his campaign headquarters at 690 Centre Street in Jamaica Plain. Collins thanked voters and called the result a victory for "the worker" and against "power politics".

Primary election results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Nonpartisan	John E. Powers	44,079	33.84
	Nonpartisan	John F. Collins	28,489	21.87
	Nonpartisan	Gabriel F. Piemonte	25,850	19.85
	Nonpartisan	James W. Hennigan, Jr.	19,742	15.16
	Nonpartisan	John P. McMorrow	12,100	9.29
Total votes			130,260	100

General election

Collins campaigned as an anti-machine candidate and repeatedly used the slogan "Stop power politics", a pun on Powers's surname. The Harvard Crimson reported that the slogan appeared on billboards and posters and was repeated in radio and television advertising. Political scientist Murray B. Levin later treated the race as a study of an alienated urban electorate, and Levin and Murray Eden used the Powers–Collins contest in a later article on campaign strategy toward disaffected voters.

Powers had the support of many leading political figures. Contemporary Associated Press coverage stated that his supporters included U.S. senator John F. Kennedy, U.S. House majority leader John W. McCormack, and forty of Boston's forty-four members of the Massachusetts Legislature. Collins used that imbalance in endorsements to present himself as independent of the city's political establishment. After the election, he said Powers had "the endorsements" but that his campaign "had the people".

The candidates differed sharply on the proposed state sales tax backed by Governor Foster Furcolo. Collins supported a limited state sales tax as a way to reduce Boston's property tax burden, while Powers opposed the proposal. After his victory, Collins said he would support to the "limit of my ability" any sales tax proposal made by Furcolo during the 1960 legislative session, though the mayor of Boston would not have a direct vote on the measure.

The campaign also emphasized Collins's personal style and physical stamina. A Boston Evening Globe feature followed Collins through a long campaign day, describing his early-morning calls, neighborhood visits, school stops, meetings, and evening appearances, as well as the role of his wife Mary and their children in the campaign. Later biographical accounts also described Collins as an underdog who used television to project a clean and nonpolitical image.

A federal raid on an East Boston gambling location became a late campaign issue. Contemporary reporting stated that Collins used the raid, and the presence of a large Powers campaign sign at the building, as an example of the "power politics" he had denounced during the campaign. A later account by James Aloisi similarly described the raid on Sal Bartolo's Ringside Café in Maverick Square as a last-minute issue that strengthened Collins's attack on Powers.

Campaign spending also drew attention. In October, The Boston Globe reported that Powers had publicly stated that his supporters had spent about $150,000 in the preliminary campaign, while Collins said his supporters had spent about $40,000. The article also noted that candidates were personally limited to $5,000 in spending, while campaign committees could spend without a similar ceiling but were required to file statements after the election. In December, Collins's campaign committee reported spending $164,546 and receiving $136,180 in contributions for the municipal election.

General election results

General election results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Nonpartisan	John F. Collins	114,210	55.89
	Nonpartisan	John E. Powers	90,142	44.11
Total votes			204,352	100

Aftermath and analysis

Collins took office on January 4, 1960. Immediately after the election, he described his victory as a mandate from property owners and renters who were tired of the city's rising tax rate, and said he planned to confer with Furcolo, Hynes, and Boston's forty-four state legislators to map out a program for the city.

During the transition, Collins also raised the possibility of federal involvement in maintaining Boston's historic sites. While visiting Philadelphia, he said he hoped the federal government and the National Park Service would take over and maintain sites such as Faneuil Hall, Old North Church, and the Paul Revere House as national shrines.

Later accounts treated the election as a turning point in postwar Boston politics. Aloisi wrote that Powers appeared to be the candidate to beat but that Collins successfully made Powers's experience and establishment support into liabilities. Levin's study of the election connected Collins's victory to voter alienation and distrust of political elites, themes that were also developed in subsequent political science literature on the race.

Further reading

• Nolan, Martin F. (October 16, 2009). "Power couplings and mayoral elections". The Boston Globe. p. A.15. Retrieved March 9, 2018 – via pqarchiver.com. John B. Hynes, after serving as mayor 10 years, longer than anyone in the city's history, said he would not run again; the battle to become Boston's 44th mayor began.