From the city of Boston, where there's occasionally a question as to whether baseball or politics is the favorite sport of its citizens, we're now reading breaking news that its longest-serving mayor, Thomas Menino, will announce (based upon anonymous sources within his administration) this coming morning that he won't seek re-election this year, "amid ongoing health problems."
In 1993, then-City Council President Menino stepped into the Mayor's office (per the City's succession laws) after Ray Flynn was appointed Ambassador to the Vatican by Bill Clinton.
While Menino was considered a virtual shoo-in for re-election in November, City Council member John Connolly was his only declared challenger. He had announced his candidacy last month.
Ailing Boston Mayor Menino Won't Seek Re-election
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 27, 2013 at 11:32 PM ET
BOSTON (AP) —
...The 70-year-old Democrat was re-elected to a fifth four-year term in 2009. He has recently faced a series of health problems but has remained popular with voters.
Menino was hospitalized for eight weeks in the fall after a respiratory infection and a blood clot that was complicated by a spinal fracture and diabetes.
He told reporters in November that he had no plans to retire but deflected questions about whether he would seek another term.
Menino's decision is expected to trigger a political scramble to replace him as a new generation of political figures eye the mayor's office...
Here's
another link to the story on Reuters via HuffPo.
From Mayor Menino’s Wiki page:
…Menino served nine years on Boston's city council when Ray Flynn left the mayor's seat to become United States Ambassador to the Holy See. Menino, the council president at the time, became acting mayor for four months. He was elected to his first term in November 1993, defeating State Representative James Brett 64% to 36%. He became the city's first non-Irish-American mayor since 1930. After running unopposed for a second term in 1997, Menino defeated Boston City Councilor Peggy Davis-Mullen in 2001 for a third term with 76% of the vote[2] and in 2005 garnered 67% of the vote in beating Maura Hennigan, another councilor.[3] On July 13, 2009, Menino became the longest-serving mayor in Boston history. On November 3, 2009 Menino garnered 57% of the vote, defeating Boston City Councilor Michael F. Flaherty and securing an unprecedented fifth term…
(Disclosure: I had the privilege of working with Tommy Menino for a couple of years at the very beginning of my career, before he served on the Boston City Council. While I was always somewhat to the left of him, politically, on a personal level I really like the guy.)