Familiar face, different view
By Adrian Walker | April 24, 2009
Meet Thomas M. Menino, the candidate of change.
His campaign blitz began with a series of announcements Wednesday and continued with an ad that begins airing today.
In the ad, he is seen tossing a football around with a group of kids, as the text tells us he is "moving Boston forward."
In his announcement speech he spoke boldly of "urban innovation" and referred to his longevity almost dismissively. "A record may be something to run on, but it's not something to run for."
Voters will decide whether they buy a 66-year-old who has yet to embrace voicemail as a force for change. Certainly, his credentials as an innovator are open to question. But give him credit for recognizing that voters are looking for more than mere stability.
Any longtime incumbent would be foolish to think that tenure is an unmixed blessing. In the past two elections, Bostonians have embraced Deval Patrick and Barack Obama, candidates who promised a break from the politics of the past. Here, as elsewhere, voters have shown an eagerness to turn the page.
Menino is part of the political establishment that voters rejected in those races. He was, in fact, on the losing side in both campaigns - he supported Tom Reilly and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
It is already clear that Menino views this race far differently than its predecessors. Menino had never even bothered to announce that he was running for office before. He has never run an ad in April before. He once would have considered that a reckless waste of money, but the day of treating his opponents like mere annoyances is clearly past. Even if he still doesn't like to mention them by name.
Menino has barely broken a sweat in the past three campaigns. But whatever one makes of Michael Flaherty and Sam Yoon, they are undeniably more serious opponents - especially collectively - than their predecessors.
Looking ahead a bit, this field seems certain to draw more voters to the polls than recent elections. Appealing to the elderly and to nervous city workers will not be a winning formula this time; Menino will need new supporters. And he will need to hold his traditionally strong showing among voters of color, whose numbers have grown dramatically since Menino last appeared on a ballot.
So there will be debates this time around. Ed Fouhy, a retired CBS News executive, has been drafted to work out debates with opponents. Menino hates the idea of debates as much as ever, and continues to maintain, strenuously, that voters don't care whether candidates debate. But debating is a lesser evil than explaining why he won't debate.
Arguably, Menino enters this campaign in a stronger position than in 2005. Then, he was running after the weakest of his four terms.
This time, he is in the midst of a lousy economy, but one that voters are unlikely to blame him for. City Hall is still not exactly a breeding ground for fresh thinking, but it seems less gripped by malaise than four years ago.
By the end of this year, Menino will have been mayor longer than anyone in Boston history. That fact always sounds strange - for good reason. We aren't used to thinking of him in the terms reserved for larger-than-life figures like James Michael Curley or Kevin White. Menino has been decidedly life-sized. But he has never cared about image.
His singular gift has been his ability to sense the political winds - a trait enhanced, no doubt, by the countless hours he has spent meeting half of the city's 600,000 residents.
Most people in politics tend to assume the next election will be a replay of the last election. Menino is more nimble than that.
Selling himself as the face of Boston's future might not be an easy task for someone who has held an office with the city since 1984. But one of the longest-serving mayors in Boston history wants you to believe he is just getting started.
