BOSTON â€" Mayor Thomas Menino, the longest-serving mayor in Boston history, has decided not to seek re-election this year, according to media reports.
Mr. Menino, 70, who has been mayor for the last two decades, is planning to announce his decision Thursday afternoon at Faneuil Hall, an historic site reserved for important ceremonial occasions but not the place where Mr. Menino had announced his re-election bids for his previous five terms.
Mr. Menino was hospitalized for several weeks late last year with a variety of ailments, including diabetes. But he put up a feisty front when questioned about his plans to run again. The uncertainty surrounding his intentions had frozen many political egos in this highly political city; challenging the mayor has long been perceived as a career-ending move, given the strength of his political organization and his ability to raise money.
A Boston Globe poll earlier this week showed he remained immensely popular and that he would trounce the only major candidate, City Councilor John Connolly, who had announced his candidacy regardless of the mayor’s decision. The poll affirmed the finding of previous polls â€" that more than half of the city’s constituents had met the mayor personally, an astounding feat for the chief executive of a major American city.
But the poll also showed that voters were concerned about his health and ambivalent about returning him to office for an unprecedented sixth term. Only 43 percent said they wanted him to run again, and 36 percent said they did not.
He leaves office with Boston on the upswing of the economic recovery. Commercial and residential building is booming across town, more people are moving in to Boston than are moving out and the city is riding high as the home of an innovative economy, particularly attractive to technology startups.
The longevity of Mr. Menino’s tenure and his bowing out on a high note are already earning him comparisons to Ted Williams, the legendary Red Sox “Splendid Splinter,†who left at the top of his game.
“It will mark the end of an era, a watershed moment in Boston akin to Ted Williams’ retirement after his two-decade run at Fenway Park,†wrote Andrew Ryan in The Boston Globe.
In Boston, there could be no higher accolade.
A suddenly open mayoral seat is likely to unleash a flood of pent-up ambition among politicians who have been stifled for nearly a generation. And a competitive mayoral race could easily eclipse the current special election to fill the Senate seat of John Kerry, who left to become President Obama’s Secretary of State. Indeed, as news of Mr. Menino’s decision broke Wednesday night, first on Twitter by David Bernstein of the defunct Boston Phoenix, it distracted many of those attending a debate with the Senate candidates in Needham.
The Senate race â€" the third since 2010 â€" had only seemed to highlight a sense of voter fatigue, with vast segments of the public undecided and analysts predicting a low voter turnout in the Senate primaries on April 30. But a rough-and-tumble mayor’s race could get the adrenaline flowing again.
Mr. Menino had until May to announce whether he was seeking re-election, and all indications were that he might wait until the last minute. But his announcement now suggests he was listening to those who implored him to make his intentions known sooner rather than later to allow his potential successors to have as fulsome a debate as possible.
The Boston Herald reported Thursday that Mr. Menino had conducted his own poll at the end of February to help him decide whether to run again.
“The disclosure that Menino was conducting a poll, even while insisting he was worrying only about getting better, paints a behind-the-scenes picture of the 70-year-old mayor agonizing over whether his popularity might be slipping because of his health battles,†the Herald said.
The paper quoted Paul Maslin, the mayor’s pollster, as saying that Mr. Menino had told him: “I just want to know after the last three or four months where do I really stand before I have to make a decision.â€
The poll showed that 80 percent of voters had a favorable opinion of him, but it also said that 51 percent said he had been a good mayor but it was time for new leadership.
