A coalition of Dorchester-based groups is putting together a mayoral forum to be held inside the First Parish Church on Meetinghouse Hill on Thurs. Aug. 22, at 6 p.m. Teens with the Cape Verdean Community (CVC) UNIDO’s Youth Leadership Academy are planning the event, which will focus on bilingual education and youth jobs as topics and feature questions from other neighborhood groups.

The other organizations involved, according to the CVC’s Peter Roby, include the Bowdoin Geneva Alliance, the Bowdoin Street Health Center, College Bound Dorchester, the Family Nurturing Center, the Friends of Ronan Park, the Richfield Street Association, the Ridgewood Street Association, the Ward 15 Democratic Committee, and the Meetinghouse Hill Civic Association.

Twelve candidates are running to succeed Mayor Thomas Menino, and jockeying for the two final slots in the Sept. 24 preliminary.

In between fundraising calls and voter meet-and-greets, the contenders have been rushing to one forum after another. Nine candidates showed up at an environmentally focused event at Suffolk Law School on Tuesday and four were scheduled to appear this morning at the Palm restaurant. The four candidates at today’s forum, which was put together by CommonWealth magazine and the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, among others, include former state Rep. Charlotte Golar Richie, City Councillor At-Large Felix Arroyo, Codman Square Health Center co-founder Bill Walczak, and Roxbury resident David James Wyatt.

Drawing to determine ballot position
Who will get pole position on September’s preliminary municipal ballot? The city’s Elections Department will answer that question this morning at 11 in the City Council chambers when it determines the ballot order for municipal candidates scrambling to grab open seats or hold onto their current ones. In all, 59 candidates are seeking either the office of mayor, or the four at-large seats, or the nine district seats. (One candidate, District 4 Councillor Charles Yancey, is seeking both the mayor’s job and reelection to his Dorchester and Mattapan House seat.)

Ballot set in 12th Suffolk race;endorsements keep on coming
The ballot appears set in the race to replace Linda Dorcena Forry, who left the 12th Suffolk House seat vacant when she was sworn into the state Senate last month. The ballot includes four Democrats – Dan Cullinane, former City Hall aide; Stephanie Everett, former aide to state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz; Mary Tuitt, aide to state Rep. Gloria Fox; and Hyde Park resident Carlotta Williams – and two independents – Milton resident Edmond Romulus and Mattapan resident Lincoln Larmond.

On the campaign front, Everett is holding her campaign kick-off at Tavolo tonight at 6 p.m. while Cullinane is touting several endorsements, including one from a former boss, former District 3 Councillor Maureen Feeney, who served in that seat from 1993 to 2011.

“He exemplifies the model of a good citizen-commitment, caring, and deep involvement in all aspects of his community,” Feeney, who currently serves as city clerk, said in a statement. “Dan will make a great representative and his constituents will be fortunate to have him at the State House.”

Cullinane also announced endorsements from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2222, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators & Allied Workers Local 6, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 127, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Boston Mailers’ Local 1, United Steel Workers Local 5696, and United Steel Workers District 4 Sub-District 3.

Mayoral campaigns on hiring spree
Several of the mayoral campaigns are staffing up as the Sept. 24 preliminary draws closer. State Rep. Marty Walsh’s campaign tapped two people who worked on US Rep. Ed Markey’s Senate campaign: Joe Rull and Megan Costello. Rull, who served as a neighborhood liaison to Mayor Menino in South Boston and worked on US Rep. Stephen Lynch’s Senate campaign, will be the field director; Costello will serve as deputy campaign manager.

Ed Deveau, former chief of staff to state Sen. Anthony Petruccelli, has been hired as deputy campaign manager of Rob Consalvo’s mayoral bid. Marcus Ferrell, who has worked on state Senate campaigns in Florida, is serving as campaign manager.

Petruccelli, an East Boston Democrat who is backing Consalvo, emceed Consalvo’s recent kick-off where he called Deveau “one of my closest advisors” in a statement released by the Consalvo campaign.
“With our political base stronger than ever, Ed Deveau’s grassroots organizing and political skills are just what we need to organize block-by-block, street by street in East Boston, the North End, Bay Village, South Boston, and Dorchester, and across the entire city,” Consalvo, the District 5 councillor for Hyde Park and Mattapan, said in his own statement.

Consalvo’s campaign also brought on Kevin Franck, a one-time spokesman for the Massachusetts Democratic Party, as its communications director. A former high school teacher with a master’s degree in education, Franck briefly was a communications director for the state’s Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. He has also served as a spokesman for the Louisiana Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, Bill Walczak’s mayoral campaign has hired its own communications director: Dee Dee Edmondson. A Kentucky native, she has been a state Senate aide on Beacon Hill, has worked with Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications and MassEquality, has consulted for Elizabeth Warren’s US Senate campaign, and has worked on Lynch’s Senate bid.

Two campaigns also announced senior advisers joining their rosters: Golar Richie’s camp said Charles Ogletree, the Harvard Law professor, is supporting her run for mayor, while City Councillor At-Large John Connolly’s campaign said that Ian Bowles, former energy and environmental affairs secretary under Gov. Deval Patrick, is backing him. Bowles, a Jamaica Plain resident, currently works as managing director of Windsail Capital Group LLC.

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