Flaherty announces council bid


David Taber

McCrea considering run

Former At-Large City Councilor and 2009 mayoral challenger Michael Flaherty last week announced that he plans to try to get his old job back in this year’s city election.

Another former mayoral candidate, Kevin McCrea, applied for nomination papers for a citywide at-large council seat late last month. McCrea told the Gazette this week that he has not decided if he wants to run.

“I am still contemplating it. It is too early to say anything yet,” McCrea told the Gazette.

Flaherty struck a defiant tone in a press release announcing his candidacy, critiquing both the current City Council and Mayor Thomas Menino.

“The fact is that members of the council are routinely marginalized by the mayor, kept in line by a carrot-and-stick approach that is counterproductive to spirited and thoughtful political debate…[T]his situation is unhealthy for the city, its finances and its future,” he said.

Flaherty said he had participated in that system “during my early council career.” He previously served as an At-Large City Councilor from 2000 to 2010

Mayor Menino easily beat Flaherty in the 2009 election, taking 57 percent of the vote to Flaherty’s 42 percent.

Flaherty was one of three challengers to Menino that year, including McCrea and former At-Large City councilor Sam Yoon, both of whom were defeated in a preliminary election that whittled the field down to two candidates. McCrea took 4 percent of the vote.

Yoon now lives in Washington, D.C.

Other new potential at-large challengers, as of April 29, include Will Dorcena of Hyde Park and Deshon Porter of Boston, according to the Boston Election Department.

Incumbents Felix Arroyo of Jamaica Plain, John Connolly, Steve Murphy and Ayanna Pressley are all seeking reelection.

Potential challengers also include William Feegbeh, Robert Frasca and Kenneth Jervis.

District 7 City Councilor Tito Jackson has also picked up a new potential challenger. Boston resident Sheneal Parker has joined a list of potential challengers that includes Althea Garrison, Roy Owens and David Wyatt.

No one has signaled interest in opposing District 6 City Councilor Matt O’Malley.

The preliminary election is Sept. 27 and the final election is Nov. 8.

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