By Jim O'Sullivan
News Editor

Dorchester's two district city councillors likely will both face opposition in the fall, further crowding a City Council ballot that includes 14 contenders for at-large seats.

District 4 Councillor Charles Yancey will face Franklin Field's Jaha M. Hughes, a first-time candidate and landscaper, and J.R. Rucker, a six-time opponent from Fields Corner. District 3 Councillor Maureen Feeney is joined on the ballot by Michael Cote, a Fields Corner activist in his first bid for public office.

Candidates picked up their nomination papers Tuesday, Hughes having already announced his intentions, and both Rucker and Cote newcomers to the campaign trail. Feeney has never faced a stiff re-election challenge, and Yancey was tested strongly only in 2003 by Ego Ezedi.

Cote, a frequent critic of city zoning practices, said he plans to knock the incumbent's handling of zoning and development affairs. He said he'd been weighing a run for the past two years.

"I feel as though there are so many issues going on with the community being torn apart at every single turn, there has to be some discussion about how the community is going to operate with the way things are being handled," Cote said Wednesday in a phone interview.

He acknowledged he faces an uphill climb against a councillor running for her seventh term.

"I think it's going to be extremely difficult for me to win, but I think it's important that the debate take place," Cote said.

Rucker did not respond to a voicemail Wednesday.

Rucker took four percent of the vote against Yancey in 1999, two percent in 1997, three percent in 1995, all of them September preliminary showings that did not grant him entrée into the November general election. In 1993, he reached the final ballot and captured 13 percent, to Yancey's 87 share. In the 1991 final, he took 11 percent; in 1989, 12 percent.

In February, Pope's Hill Neighborhood Association president Phil Carver floated the idea of running against Feeney, but said Wednesday that he will not.

Tuesday was the first day for council candidates to pick up their nomination papers, and a teeming field has emerged. Three incumbents are up for re-election: council president Michael Flaherty, Felix Arroyo, and Stephen Murphy.

Dorchester has proffered two at-large candidates, housing activist Sam Yoon of Fields Corner, and frequent candidate Althea Garrison, of Dudley Street.

Also in the race are South Boston's Edward Flynn, son of the former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, and West Roxbury's Patricia White, daughter of Flynn predecessor Kevin White. John Connolly, of West Roxbury and son of former Massachusetts Secretary of State Michael J., rounds out the field of legacy candidates.

Roslindale's Matt O'Malley is running again, after slotting fifth in the 2003 elections. Other holdovers from the last cycle include Roy Owens of Roxbury and Laura Garza of East Boston.

Both Joseph Ready of the Back Bay and Kevin McCrea of the South End also are launching bids.