Coloring ‘new Boston’ with ‘shades of gray’

In another time, another Boston, Andrew Kenneally would have run for the Boston City Council with both feet firmly planted in the predictable confines of his West Roxbury roots.

But this is a different Boston, a “new Boston.” Four years before he ever thought of running for an at-large council seat, Kenneally migrated across town - leaving Westie to settle in the vibrant ethnic stew that is East Boston.

In the old Boston, a white, Irish kid who cut his teeth in Washington working for the likes of Joe Moakley and Harry Reid, would not opt out of the game to spend two years studying conflict resolution in places such as Belfast and Johannesburg.

But Kenneally, who is 34, was an infant when busing roared across the city and sent many scurrying for the presumed shelter of the ’burbs. He never subscribed to the tribal divisions that defined that Boston.

So, it is ironic that today Andrew Kenneally finds himself laboring under a stereotype that is a new twist on an old theme.

With two white, Irish-Catholic guys - John Connolly and Steve Murphy - presumed to have a lock on two of the four at-large council seats, Kenneally has had to confront a question that seems to apply only to him: Does Boston really need another white Irish guy on the council?

“It’s disheartening,” Kenneally was saying yesterday between campaign stops in Roxbury and Chinatown. “I’ve always believed labels are for jars, not people. I have a great deal of respect for the other people in this race. I know them and I’ve worked with them.”

He was Michael Flaherty’s policy director for three years and Maura Hennigan’s chief of staff for two years before that. So, Kenneally’s path crossed those of Ayanna Pressley, Felix Arroyo Jr. and Tito Jackson. His actual experience in the trench work of constituent service exceeds that of rookie incumbent John Connolly, who topped the primary field.

“The notion of diversity that I’ve always subscribed to,” Kenneally said, “takes in a whole spectrum, not black or white or brown, but more toward those infinite shades of gray.”

Because he has many friends in both mayoral camps, Kenneally has chosen to remain neutral in that race. But it did not diminish the sting of having his former boss, Michael Flaherty, ignore him on a list of at-large endorsements.

“I understand,” Kenneally said. “It was a ‘new Boston’ gesture. Well, I’m a part of that new Boston. And I’ll just go out and work harder.”

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