The new year has dawned, and with it comes the start of a big year of politics for our city.

The year twenty-oh-four could see the most intense campaign season in this town since 1960- the year that Jack Kennedy came to the old Boston Garden on election eve for one last rally, just 30-odd hours before he was elected President.

Kennedy's brilliance on the campaign trail proved to be a magnet for a generation of then-fledgling politicians. Many lifelong political activists caught the bug during that campaign year, and went on to spend a lifetime in the business of politics.

But that generation is now long in the tooth. The body politic is in need of a renaissance, another source of inspiration to introduce the excitement of campaign politics to young people. And there's always the chance this new year could produce just that.

It is after all a leap year- an extra day this year, a 29th in February- and it is again a presidential year. Democrats recall with woe that their guy actually won the popular vote four years ago, but Al Gore could not win the electoral votes where he needed them, in Florida, or New Hampshire, or even his home state of Tennessee. And so the country loaned the White House to George W. Bush.

Now, almost four years later, a group of nine Democrats struggle for attention, with one of them likely to arrive in Boston in late July to receive the party nomination right here at the FleetCenter.

Mayor Tom Menino was successful in bringing the party convention to our city, and for the first time since JFK's remarkable winning turn four and a half decades ago, Boston will again be the hub of the nation's political world.

The new year will have several other elections as well: The presidential primary will be a late winter draw, and candidates for Congress, state senate and state rep will be on the ballot come the fall. In Suffolk County, there will be two compelling contests: New District Attorney Dan Conley will seek his first full term, while Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral will appear on the ballot for the first time. Both county officeholders were appointed to their posts and each can expect a vigorous challenge. Add to that the final election in November, which will feature the presidential candidates, it should be a lively campaign season.

It would be even better if the country's electorate - the voters - become engaged in the process. Political scientists lament the high level of disenchantment with politics that has infected the country. Note that fewer than one in five registered voters took the trouble to cast a ballot just two months ago in the election for City Council. The fundamental right of this republic, the act of choosing the people who govern us, has become lost in a sweeping malaise of incivility and inaction.

The new year just could bring on the scene someone to engage and inspire us, as happened in John Kennedy's election. But that was another time, and another generation. Let's hope that the magic that happened then will happen again.

-Ed Forry