Politics
Politics
Tommy’s going out ‘His Way’
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Mayor Tom Menino announces he will not run: Flanked by wife Angela, left, and daughter Susan. Photo by Don Harney/Mayor's OfficeTom Menino’s emotional announcement in Faneuil Hall last week brought even the most battle-scarred ward and precinct captains to tears. After a 20-year run— most of it stellar— the Readville resident will step out of the ring later this year.
It’s the right decision. Slowed by a flurry of health issues, the mayor has aged demonstrably in the last several months. His mental vigor and political acumen seem unfazed— but his capacity to keep to a Menino clock is undermined by a healing, but still-frail frame.
It’s a bittersweet end to a mayoral tenure that some viewed as improbable from the start. But it’s softened by the awareness that Menino will remain in office through the end of the year— with a free hand to finalize policies and plan his own, productive future. Citizen Menino has the potential to be as influential in retirement as he currently is in “power”— buoyed by the conventional wisdom, shared here, that he would not have been defeated in this fall’s balloting had he sought a sixth term. Read more
Conley wades into race for mayor
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Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley is in: His campaign put out a statement below on Wednesday afternoon.
Boston is a great city, and with the right leadership and vision, its best days are still ahead. So today I am officially declaring that I am a candidate for Mayor of Boston.
Field of mayoral candidates takes shape, slowly
Apr. 3, 2013
Boston Mayoral Field Expands from Chris Lovett on Vimeo.
As the songs played on and the crowd thinned out, the Suffolk County district attorney and two city councillors stuck around. The television cameras, with reporters in tow, had arrived late at Villa Victoria on Tuesday night to them as they appeared at a fundraiser and kick-off for Michelle Wu’s City Council At-Large bid.
Daniel Conley, the district attorney and a former city councillor, said he planned to make his mayoral bid “official in the next day” or two, adding, “it’s a wonderful opportunity to continue my service to the public.” Read more
Mayor Menino makes it official in emotion-packed Faneuil Hall speech
Mar. 28, 2013
Mayor Menino Announces Decision Not to Run from Chris Lovett on Vimeo.
Thomas Menino made it official on Thursday: At a Faneuil Hall speech, filled with local elected officials, Menino administration officials and neighborhood activists, the mayor said he will not be running for a sixth term.
“I’m back to a mayor schedule, but not a Menino schedule,” Menino said, in a reference to his recovery from a list of ailments that cut short a vacation with his wife last year and put him in the hospital for two months at the end of last year. “And I miss that.”
He wistfully recalled past visits Bowdoin Geneva every Christmas Eve, promising and delivering on a supermarket and shopping mall in Grove Hall, and reading to children in new libraries in Mattapan and Brighton.
Menino, who has served as mayor since 1993, said he had “no plans” to pick a successor. “I just ask that you choose someone who loves this city as much as I have,” he said. Read more
Reporter News Editor discusses Mayor Menino's decision not to run
Mar. 28, 2013
Mayor Menino will not seek re-election
Mar. 27, 2013
Mayor Tom Menino: Will not seek re-election this year. Photo by Bill Forry Mayor Thomas Menino will announce tomorrow he is not running for a sixth term, sources told the Reporter on Wednesday night.
The move ends a 20-year hold on the only job he has said he’s ever wanted, sets up an epic rumble for the first open mayoral seat in 30 years, and comes after a prolonged bout of speculation about whether he’d make another bid.
Menino’s expected announcement was first reported by David Bernstein, the former political reporter for the Boston Phoenix, an alternative weekly that folded earlier this month. Menino will make the announcement at 4 p.m. in Faneuil Hall.
Multiple calls to Dot Joyce, Menino’s press secretary, were not returned on Wednesday night. Read more
Markey camp goes up with ads on Channel 5 after Lynch said he'd refrain
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Rep. Ed Markey’s U.S. Senate campaign has started to air ads on Channel 5, a station fellow Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch has declined advertise with due to an apparent union contract dispute. The Markey campaign’s ads started this weekend. Read more
At downtown rally, Connolly broadens City Hall critique beyond schools
Mar. 21, 2013
Attendees of a Wednesday night rally for City Councillor At-Large John Connolly’s mayoral bid were served a blistering critique of the Menino administration with a side of Bad Rabbits. About 400 people, some of them spilling out into the Omni Parker House Hotel’s second floor hallway, crowded the small Press Room for the rally and a performance put on by the Boston-based band. Read more
School Committee signs off on new student assignment plan
Mar. 14, 2013
In a 6 to 1 vote, the School Committee on Wednesday night signed off on a sweeping overhaul of the Boston school system’s assignment process. Current students in the system of 57,000, along with their siblings, are grandfathered under the existing 3-zone plan, which has been in place for 24 years. Read more
Morrissey: More closures ahead without fix-it plan
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In the mid-1990s, a group of community activists began a three-year effort— in conjunction with the state’s Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) — to re-imagine Morrissey Boulevard. The result of their work was a 1998 report that proposed an ambitious, $35 million rehabilitation project that would have transformed the 2.75 mile-long boulevard into its original “parkway character.” Read more
