By Gintautas Dumcius
Reporter Correspondent

A former Nantucket selectman is hoping to snag a seat on the Boston City Council next year. Doug Bennett, a case specialist in Suffolk County's criminal trial court, announced this week he will be running for one of the four at-large seats on the 13-member council.

Stating that he wanted to bring "fresh blood" onto the council, Bennett said of the current members, "They want to stay in forever. They don't believe in term limits."

Bennett said he would push for the creation of a court specifically geared towards domestic violence, cleaner streets, and a focus on "green jobs."

"Boston should be the Silicon Valley of the Northeast," Bennett said. A graduate of Pennsylvania State University, Bennett moved to Nantucket, where he worked as a carpenter and was eventually elected to one term on the board of selectman and served as a county commissioner. He also unsuccessfully ran for the state Senate in 2006. He moved back to Boston, where he lives with his wife, in April 2007.

Bennett says he has deep roots in Boston thanks to his grandfather and uncle, and he moved to Boston in 2002, when he worked at the Union Oyster House as a bartender. Longtime local Republican operative John Sears has signed on as the 32-year-old's campaign chairman. A recent filing with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance shows Bennett has $1,050 in his campaign account.

Bennett is the second individual in recent weeks to jump into the race for at-large seats. Haitian-American community activist Jean Claude Sanon has also announced intentions to run for one of the seats currently filled by councillors Stephen Murphy, John Connolly, Sam Yoon and Michael Flaherty.