Cabral win brings power of minority vote to forefront
The hip-hop quieted, as did the crowd by the buffet tables after the man at the head of the room with a microphone, Ron Bell, asked Andrea Cabral, Boston's first black female sheriff, how she felt about her recent victory.
Then Bell answered his own question: ''I feel great."
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Last night, as Cabral gathered in Dorchester to thank supporters, the 300 minority voters assembled were not too proud to boast. Or shout. Or call out ''Amen!" as they celebrated what they called their newfound political might.
''They always say we don't vote, so our vote doesn't matter," said the Rev. Bobbie Thomas, a black pastor in Dorchester. ''We showed them we matter."
That pride echoed inside Freedom House every time DJ ACT-1 lowered the volume. And though the town meeting-style event was called to grill Cabral about her agenda, minority voters spent as much time cheering the win they said they made possible.
Cabral beat expectations in largely white neighborhoods such as West Roxbury and Hyde Park in her surprise defeat of longtime City Councilor Stephen J. Murphy. But she credited minority turnout for delivering victory. Statewide turnout for the Sept. 14 primary was 10 percent. In Suffolk County, the sheriff's race drew 18 percent of registered voters, Cabral said.
''The turnout in the community of color made up the difference," Cabral said, bringing cheers from people sitting in 17 rows of folding chairs and a growing crowd in the doorway and on the sidewalk.
Before Cabral strolled past the balloons and the buffet, voters were already speaking of a new Boston. That Murphy was a veteran politician, they said, made the election that much sweeter.
Karen Payne, 53, said electing a politician with little law enforcement experience would have set back Boston 20 years.
''I don't go for a job just because I think I'm one of the guys," she said. ''This city has changed."
Many speakers, including some black state representatives, were already looking toward future elections. Boston Police Superintendent Bobbie Johnson, 56, said Cabral's win had emboldened potential minority candidates.
Already, community leaders were using the win to push a new voter registration drive. Bell said his organization, Dunk the Vote, had registered 7,500 minority voters in July, using basketball tournaments and town meeting-style forums with a rap soundtrack.
Seeing a black face in a top county job, he said, will make his job far easier.
''It gives our community hope to see a black woman beat a white Irish man," he said. ''They see someone who looks like them."
Cabral pledged to increase job training for inmates and lobby the Legislature to restrict access that employers have to former inmate's criminal records. If that fails, she said, she promised to start an entrepreneurial course to help offenders start their own businesses.
She also said she would increase diagnosis and treatment for inmates with substance abuse problems, mental illness, and childhood trauma to reduce return trips to the county jail.
''We fooled them again," said Representative Gloria L. Fox. ''They thought it couldn't happen, but there's a new sheriff in town."
Benjamin Gedan can be reached at gedan@globe.com 