By Brandy Bailey, Contributor ElectWomen Magazine

The race for Boston City Council has gotten off to an exciting start.  One of the most interesting candidates is Ayanna Presley the current political director for Senator John Kerry.  Pressley recently announced that she is running for one of four at-large council seats.  If elected Pressley will be the first African American woman to hold any seat on the council.

In her current position Pressley serves as the main liaison between municipal, state and federal elected officials, and constituency leaders on behalf of Senator Kerry.  Prior to that she spent four years as a District Representative for Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II.  She has also worked on numerous local, state, and national political campaigns.

In addition to her work Pressley is a involved in numerous non-profit organizations.  She serves on the Board of Directors for the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, Emerge Massachusetts, Diploma Plus, and the Young Professionals Preventing Child Abuse/Children’s Trust Fund.  She is a mentor with the Young Black Women’s Society, Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, and the Massachusetts Democratic Party’s Diversity Internship Program. 

One of Pressley’s main goals that she works daily at achieving is improving political access and power to disenfranchised constituencies by recruiting and training more women and persons of color in the essential disciplines.  Through these works her ultimate objective is increasing diversity within the political pipeline.

Two of the four at-large seats came open when councilmen Sam Yoon and Michael F. Flaherty Jr. announced they would not be seeking re-election and instead would be running for mayor.

Even with Yoon and Flaherty battling it out in a different election the field of council contenders is currently very crowded with approximately 20 candidates vying for the at-large seats.  However, the field will be narrowed on September 22^nd in a nonpartisan preliminary election. After that, district candidates and eight at-large contenders will face off in the November 3rd general election.

To learn more about Ayanna Pressley or to contribute to her campaign, visit her website at http://www.ayannapressley.com.