Jencunas: Elorza’s Challenges and His Best Chance at Success
Thursday, January 08, 2015
Providence citizens better hope Jorge Elorza is a fast learner.
Elorza needs to quickly learn the politics of being mayor if he wants his ambitious agenda to become reality. Mayor is first and foremost a political job.
Mayors don’t dream up a vision for a perfect city like a professor writing an urban planning textbook. Instead, a successful mayor needs to navigate different political factions, broker compromises with groups who want radically different things, and stay popular with the voters. A mayor who fails at these political tasks won’t succeed no matter what their policy proposals.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe politics of being mayor won’t be easy for Elorza. Most new mayors have political capital because they earn votes through their platform and come into office popular. That popularity helps them get other interests to go along with their ideas. Though he won the election, Elorza didn’t accumulate that kind of political capital because his campaign focused mainly on being the anti-Buddy Cianci candidate.
That was a good campaign strategy, getting Elorza prominent endorsements and high turnout on the vote-rich East Side. As a governing strategy, it will haunt him because even his supporters aren’t committed to his specific ideas for the city.
Additionally, Elorza was opposed by the teachers, police, and fire unions during the campaign. Hostile labor unions can derail a mayor with stalled contract negotiations, work stoppages, and public criticism.
None of these problems would be as harmful if Elorza was the mayor of a city like Boston, where the mayor has the final say on almost every issue. In Providence, Elorza will have to contend with a city council that views itself as the mayor’s equal and wields plenty of influence over the budget and many aspects of city policy. Elorza has no experience in that kind of political infighting – his only government experience was as a judge, where his word was literally law – while Council President Luis Aponte has seen mayors come and go.
If Elorza isn’t careful, he’ll end up like Washington D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty, whose high-minded reforms collided with the reality of city politics and was defeated for reelection after only one term.
Beyond the political challenges, Elorza will face serious policy problems when he’s sworn in as mayor. Providence suffers from budget deficits; schools the school department admits are neither warm, safe, nor dry; high taxes; and zoning rules that make it hard to attract businesses.
Against this backdrop, it’s impossible for Elorza to implement the wide array of expensive policies he promised during the campaign. Instead, he’ll need to identify the two or three ideas that are the most cost-effective and focus entirely on those. If they’re successful, and the city’s fiscal situation improves, then Elorza can start his loftier plans.
The new mayor’s biggest political advantage is his relationships with Rhode Island’s Senators and Governor Raimondo. Federal and state money would help him immeasurably. It eases the deficits; funds ambitious projects; and can be given to council members favored causes to win their support.
If Elorza can use his political relationships, and forge new partnerships with civic leaders like Angus Davis, Leah Metts, and former mayor Joe Paolino, he’ll have valuable allies who can help with his political and policy challenges.
Inexperienced mayors have been successful before. Denver’s John Hickenlooper, now Colorado’s governor, was a local brewpub owner turned mayor who eliminated the city’s $70 million deficit without major service cuts.
Unfortunately, Hickenlooper is the exception, not the rule. Inexperienced mayors usually struggle in their first term, especially in cities that face serious challenges like Providence does. But Jorge Elorza has done difficult things before, and for Providence’s sake, I hope he can do so again.
Brian Jencunas works as a communications and media consultant. During the 2014 Providence mayoral election, he worked with the Cianci campaign, focusing on messaging and polling analysis.
Related Slideshow: Inauguration 2015: Ten Issues Elorza Can’t Hide From
Inauguration activities are underway for the new Mayor of Providence, Jorge Elorza.
While the pomp, circumstance, and celebration take place of the next several days, here are the issues the new Mayor will have no choice but to soon have to deal with.
Related Articles
- Buddy Cianci Returns to Radio - Will Elorza be His First Guest?
- Elorza Beats Cianci in Providence Mayoral Race
- Next Steps for Mayor-Elect Elorza in Providence
- 10 Questions Elorza Has to Answer as Mayor
- NEW: Elorza Announces Transition Team
- GoLocal’s Kate Nagle Tracks Down Jorge Elorza
- NEW: GOP Candidate Harrop Says He Will Vote For Democrat Elorza
- Cianci Polling Shows 14+ Point Lead Over Elorza
- Elorza Unveils Economic Plan
- The Scoop: Smith Blasts Paiva-Weed on False Allegations, Elorza Questions Cianci’s Apology, and More
- NEW: Council President-Elect Aponte Learns of Elorza Transition Team from GoLocal
- Will Esserman Return to Head Public Safety Under Elorza?
- NEW: Mayor-Elect Elorza Announces Appointments to Senior Leadership Team
- Jorge Elorza: 14 Who Made a Difference in RI in 2014
- Jorge Elorza: Ten Issues He Can’t Hide From
- NEW: Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza’s Inauguration Speech
- NEW: Mayor-Elect Elorza Retains Public Safety Commissioner and Chief of Police
- NEW: Morales, Kwan and Narducci on Elorza Transition Team
- Mayor-elect Elorza Announces ‘One Providence’ Listening Forums
- Battle Lines Being Drawn Between Labor and Elorza
- NEW: Mayor-elect Elorza Holds Final “One Providence” Listening Forum
- Dr. Downtown, David Brussat: Free Advice for Elorza
- Leaders React to Elorza’s Vision for “New Providence”
