By John Ruch January 28, 2010

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City Councilor John Tobin will not run for the West Roxbury-area state Senate seat that Marian Walsh will leave after this term, Tobin told the Gazette.

“As intriguing as the position is and as much as I’d love being there…right now is not the right time for me personally or professionally,” Tobin said.

Tobin has considered running for the seat four previous times when Walsh made indications that she was leaving. He even pulled nomination papers in 2008, when Walsh missed out on a judgeship and decided to run again for her seat. This week, Walsh announced via an e-mail that she will not run again this year.

Tobin noted that he now has a family and is in a busy phase of his Boston City Council career, where he was just named head of a new committee reviewing the city charter.

“I think we could win the race,” Tobin said, adding that his focus is simply on his current work.

Tobin previously told the Gazette he intends to run for mayor of Boston in 2013.