It's not necessarily news when a Democrat wins an election in a big city, but on November 2, three nice mayoral "firsts" stand out: Michelle Wu in Boston, the city's first Asian-American and first woman mayor, Ed Gainey in Pittsburgh, the city's first black mayor, and Aftab Pureval of Cincinnati, the city's first Asian-American (Indian/Tibetan) mayor. All three stood on progressive platforms, and benefitted from a healthy turnout of young voters. All three are youngish (Gainey is the oldest at 51, Wu the youngest at 36), and will likely be in the ring for future statewide and perhaps Federal elections. As much as the national Democratic Party needs accomplishments to run on, they need vigorous younger candidates with broad appeal and the ability to put progressive policies to work.
There will continue to be pundit post-mortems on the Dems' narrow losses in Virginia, and the squeaker win in New Jersey, but three rising progressive stars are owed a look at for the future they represent.
(photo: Mayor-elect Wu at post-election celebration. CNN)
