Former Mayoral candidate and City Councilor Michael F. Flaherty plans to run for City Councilor at Large. Beacon Hill lawmakers are reviewing the state's tax codes this week. Remember to follow Bostonist on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
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Dog bites a Red Sox spouse and is sentenced to death. [Hingham Journal]
A Stoughton dogcatcher gave an expensive "lost dog" to a friend. [Patriot Ledger]
McFloon! Kevin McCrea endorsed Michael Flaherty for mayor today. [South End News]
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Results tagged “michaelflaherty”
Tito Jackson was sworn-in as a member of the Boston City Council on Saturday. Jackson was elected on March 15 to replace current inmate Chuck Turner. The first woman to run for vice president, Geraldine Ferraro, died yesterday at Massachusetts General Hospital from complications from a form of blood cancer called multiple myeloma. Ferraro, 75, actually contracted pneumonia at MGH and died shortly after that. Remember to follow Bostonist on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
Tonight, Mayor Thomas Menino was reelected to a historic fifth term, which, if served, will make him the longest serving mayor in Boston history. He beat Michael Flaherty by a wide margin of 57 percent of the vote to 42 percent, according to unofficial results. Incumbent City Councilors at large John Connolly and Stephen Murphy also retained their seats by hefty margins. Felix Arroyo and Ayanna Pressley will join city council with 16 and 15 percent of the vote, respectively. Pressley will be the first African American woman to serve on city council in Boston's history. In District 7, Chuck Turner blew away his competition despite a cloud of legal troubles, and Sal Lamattina, Michael Ross, and Mark Ciommo each held off challenges in their respective districts. [City of Boston]
On Sunday, WCVB's month-old On The Record (OTR) political talk show reported on the high-profile Mayoral and Senate elections facing voters in Boston and Massachusetts this fall.
- Boston votes on Tuesday. Today, the Boston Herald provides two potential campaign issues for voters. Michael Flaherty blames Mayor Thomas M. Menino for the lack of Verizon FiOS service in Boston while Menino blames Verizon. Flaherty blames Mayor Menino for a lack of available financing needed to complete work at the unfinished Filene’s site at Downtown Crossing.
Scott Lehigh at the Globe penned a wonderful summary of Boston voter Zeitgeist, "Diary of an undecided voter" that describes the "whiplash" of watching a mayoral contest that doesn't have any immediately appealing candidate. "Good, better? Hmm. Bad, worse, maybe," he quips. If you're like him—and us—your last chance to check in on Menino and Flaherty will be this afternoon at 1 p.m. on Radio Boston. It will be live at 1 p.m. on 90.9 F.M. or a trusty webstream.
The Phoenix has raised a bit of a flap over a Globe poll that suggests overall satisfaction with Mayor Tom Menino's performance and a greater affection for Menino than for mayoral election rival Michael Flaherty. 52% are likely to vote for Menino; 32% for Flaherty.
Mayor Menino may have been busy ribbon-cutting, but Michael Flaherty and Sam Yoon have been recruiting "senior advisers" for their joint campaign. Former mayor Ray Flynn (Mumbles' predecessor) and social activist Mel King (a vocal BRA opponent), who once ran against each other for mayor, will announce their support of the Flaherty-Yoon ticket tomorrow morning at City Hall. Flynn and King ("Fling"?) join a campaign that embraces "new solutions to our city's old problems," emphasizes education and city planning, and provides for "Boston residents of every race and gender" according to the announcement. It's an interesting move that aligns some longstanding Boston figures with the promise of change.
So, StoneTurn, the Boston-based computer forensics, has had a pass at Michael Kineavy's second computer, and the results, which were posted on the city of Boston's website were less than revealing. Approximately 740 new e-mails were made public, but most of them were essentially blank, retaining only the e-mail header. The newest release of e-mails reportedly did not contain e-mails submitted to federal investigators in connection with the Dianne Wilkerson corruption investigation.
Remember when the Secretary of State ordered Menino aide Michael Kineavy's computer seized so that a computer forensic expert could pore over his hard drive and recover his supposedly deleted emails? And then the city released 5018 "lost" emails and claimed that it couldn't provide any emails Kineavy sent to people outside of City Hall because recovering them would be too expensive?
- Both candidates appeared on WCVB last night. Tom Menino called the Flaherty/Yoon "ticket" as “jobs for votes," and Flaherty didn't like it. [Boston Herald]
- More budget cuts are looming as Governor Deval Patrick announced that September revenues were $243 million short of expectations. [Boston Globe]
Don't miss tonight's mayoral debate between Thomas Menino and Michael Flaherty. It starts at 7 p.m. on WCVB-TV (Channel 5), and it will be the first debate between the two candidates since the primary. The next debate will take place on October 19.
Unless you've been living under a rock, or in Somerville, you've probably heard about the new Flaherty-Yoon alliance. A "marriage," according to the Globe's Scott Lehigh, which weirdly echos something we overheard at Fenway Park yesterday. "You know, Flaherty-Yoon; it's like gay marriage, but for politics."
After the jump: Tell us how the "Floon" ticket changes things.
- Should doctors get paid by pharmaceutical corporations like Eli Lilly & Co. for speaking on behlf of drugs they make and doctors prescribe to us? No, but 60 Bay State physicians have done it this year anyway and were paid a total of $500,000 to do it. [Boston Globe]
- For two "change" candidates, Sam Yoon and Michael Flaherty seem to be pretty familiar with brokering purely political deals. [Boston Herald]
Mayor Tom Menino got more votes than all of his opponents combined in Tuesday's preliminary election. That makes his 51% sound like a lot. In the words of Matt O'Malley, "Menino romped, " and if you look at the ward-by-ward breakdown, O'Malley's assessment is accurate. Menino won 19 of 22 wards. The other three wards went to Michael Flaherty.
- The National Transportation Safety Board is concerned that a malfunction in the automated signal system that caused a deadly crash in Washington, DC in June could cause a similar incident in Boston. [WBZ]
- Mayor Tom Menino appears to have a cash and organizational advantage over Michael Flaherty. [Boston Globe]
Update: It pains us to write this, because the whole event seemed so hilarious—another reason to love our Jakes—but, apparently, the fire drill was not the doing of the Boston Fire Department. Our usually more level-headed friends at Universal Hub, where we got the story in the first place, have issued a retraction, and we'll do the same. Apparently, the fire drill was scheduled by the building management, not the BFD. So, sorry, Jakes!
Let's get a completely unscientific idea of who will win Boston's mayoral primary with an internet poll. As you know by now, four candidates are in the running, and only two will survive tomorrow's primary. We've fashioned two questions for you, which you can answer after the jump.
We could see it coming. The Secretary of State has ordered the seizure of city computers due to suspicion that Menino aide Michael Kineavy has been deleting emails in violation of public records law. The state has ordered the city to attempt to recover the emails. The administration was able to locate just 18 e-mails to or from Kineavy in the period from Oct. 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009. Considering we get that many emails an hour, something seems sketchy.
If you saw yesterdays Rush Hour debate, you know the three candidates challenging Mayor Tom Menino brought a much sharper brand of criticism to bear. An intensifying campaign should be no surprise given the current political climate. Harsh rhetoric is one thing, and is actually good if focused on relevant issues in the campaign. That spirited debate has apparently spawned acts of vandalism is certainly an undesireable extension of spirited debates. In one case, there is surveillance video of vandalism on a Michael Flaherty campaign sign.
As we predicted, we didn't make it home in time to watch tonight's Boston mayoral debate on Channel 25, which was helpfully scheduled for rush hour. Luckily for us, Adam Gaffin was available to liveblog it. The highlights? Michael Flaherty doesn't know how much it costs to ride the T. Yoon explained why there are four candidates in the race. The moderator asked Menino if he thought he spoke like an imbecile. McCrea yelled a lot. [Universal Hub]
"Power," "Corruption," "Lies." Throw in "Blue Monday," and the Boston mayoral debate could have been a New Order album. So, you watched the debate on WBZTV, or, at the very least, you read our marginally coherent live blog. What did you think? Who won the debate?
Strap in, Bostonist readers, because we are going to live blog tonight's Boston mayoral debates. Just a warning: We aren't the brightest on the block when it comes to local politics. If you're looking for insightful wonkery, go to BlueMassGroup. If you're looking for jokes about Menino's articulation or Michael Flaherty's tie, stick around here. As always, the most recent update will be on top.
Blogger and Twitter user Aaron Cohen quizzed Boston's mayoral candidates about one of the great unknowns in this year's campaign: their respective tastes in fine dining. The results sound as message-focussed as anything in the campaign. Flaherty likes Eastie Italian joint Rino's because of "the chicken parm and warm neighborhood family feel
." Menino hedges his bets: "I like any restaurant in Boston that serves good food." Yoon likes unpretentious fancy food like what you'll find at Aquitaine or Petit Robert—he also gives a shout-out to "farmers markets, bodegas with produce, and roof gardens." [WhereToEat.in]
Despite the sweet t-shirts, YouTube channels, rock band endorsements, and shiny new presents from the city, the 2009 Boston mayoral race has been kind of a snoozer. Sure, Menino's opponents have dogged his record on development, education, and crime, painting him as a dictatorial autocrat with his hands on every municipal project. But, when you open up the dictionary to "Mayor of Boston," the entry reads "dictatorial autocrat with his hands on every municipal project." Menino's most polemical opponent, the South End developer Kevin McCrea hasn't gotten much traction outside of the Boston wonk corner of the internet.
City Councilor Michael F. Flaherty Jr got the coolest endorsement yet in Boston's 2009 Mayoral race: Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys. Casey sings for Boston's leading local band and, said he hopes Flaherty can "bring people together," which he says is a goal of the band. Casey said Flaherty shares "working-class values" with the Dropkick Murphys. Sounds good so far, right? Well, according to the Globe, Flaherty's campaign got the name of one of the band's signature songs wrong. They referred to "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" as "Ship It Up to Boston," which is a mistake not even a pink-hat wearing Red Sox fan would ever make lest you risk the wrath of Jonathan Papelbon. The Globe's Scott Helman tried to help by suggesting someone "ship some Dropkick Murphys albums" to Flaherty. We know what he meant. He's right. But, in 2009, sending a physical copy of the music is, politely, uncommon. The kids these days download the rock music off of the Internets.
The Sam Yoon campaign knows how young people communicate with each other. Using their t-shirts. The campaign has set up a Cafe Press store hawking several t-shirt designs using Yoon's name in sometimes excruciating puns. Nobody among his competitors in the mayoral race offers anything similar. We couldn't find a single Thomas Menino shirt for sale, provided this one doesn't count, and Michael Flaherty only offers boring white t-shirts with the campaign's logo affixed.