Boston's mayoral candidates made their cases to business leaders yesterday, emphasizing their strengths and plans for the city, but hitting on many of the same points — even touting the same accomplishment.
Speaking in back-to-back addresses and question-and-answer sessions to the Alliance for Business Leadership's annual CEO Summit, state Rep. Martin J. Walsh and City Councilor John R. Connolly laid out their views of what the city needs for business to prosper, with plenty of overlap:
• Both candidates stressed the importance of education. Both said students should have two paths after graduation: higher education or a vocation that can lead to a high-paying job, including in manufacturing. "The Boston public schools have to matter for everyone, especially the business community," Connolly said.
• Walsh and Connolly both said any benefits to business and the economy must be tied to middle class housing improvements, specifically changes in height and density restrictions. "We can't be afraid of going up," Walsh said.
• Both said they support raising the minimum wage, and creating a regional economy with surrounding communities.
• Each emphasized his part in bringing drugmaker Vertex Pharmaceuticals to the Seaport from Cambridge. Vertex founder and former CEO Joshua Boger, in the audience, said both had legitimate claims to the accomplishment, calling it a "consensus" move.
For business leaders, those similarities may not be a bad thing.
"Most all of us were very impressed by both," Alliance president James Boyle said. "They both seemed to be very bright and had obviously spent years reflecting how they could best contribute."
Still, there were some small but noticeable differences.
Asked what he could offer the business community that his opponent could not, Walsh spoke about his plan to fold economic agencies including the BRA, tourism bureau and the EDIC into one office.
"I have a vision to grow business in Boston," he said. "I've looked at the different aspects of it as far as creating new opportunities and retention of older businesses."
Responding to the same question, Natasha Perez, a spokeswoman for Connolly, said in a statement he "will not be obligated to a narrow set of interests. He will be a strong, independent mayor who will always put the city's interests first."
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