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Mumbles, Don't go breaking my heart
By: Howie Carr

Say it ain’t so, Mumbles.

Say you’re not quitting, please. OK, we noticed how bad you looked on City Hall Plaza with the circus, we heard about the meeting with your doctors Tuesday.

But this decision not to run really fries my nose, as you’d say. It’s already an Alcatraz around my neck. Who will warn us about “suspicious bombs,” information you glean from the BPD’s “intelligent unit”?

Let’s look at who might be the next mayor. The new front-runner appears to be Suffolk district attorney Dan Conley. He’s from Hyde Park, he’s half-Italian, he’s run citywide three times, he has something like $850,000 in his campaign war chest. And I repeat, he’s Suffolk’s chief prosecutor.

We’re looking at a lame-duck feeding frenzy that will make the California gold rush look like a Girl Scout bake sale. Every developer with a postage-stamp-sized lot downtown will want a permit for a skyscraper. Mumbles will be handing out liquor licenses in Readville as mementos of his five terms, suitable for framing or more likely instant transfer to Brighton or Quincy Market. The last time City Hall went through one of these lame-duck land rushes, Mayor Kevin White was grabbing lots by eminent domain and handing them off to developers.

Then there’s the candidate already in the fight, John Connolly. They call him “Lumpy” in West Roxbury. He has almost 400 large. He won’t make waves. He also won’t make the runoff.

Rep. Marty Walsh of Dorchester now fills the seat Jim Brett had when he ran against Menino in 1993. Brett’s base wasn’t big enough then, and now Walsh has had to annex a Chinese precinct in Quincy across Marina Bay. He already makes close to $250,000, including his second job with the Boston Building Trades. He’s the chairman of the House Ethics Committee, where scandals go to die. What exactly do you like in that CV?

City Councilor Ayana Pressley is black, she topped the ticket in 2011 and she’s not from here. That’s the good news. The bad news, she has maybe $20,000 in her campaign account. Good luck with that. Then there’s Tito Jackson. He’s got, what, $31,000.

City Council President Steve Murphy, with $100,000, has only ever won a council seat. Rob Consalvo, aka Mini-Me, has more dough but no chance. Felix Arroyo is running for lieutenant governor.

You can describe this field with Mumbles’ own words — “a few knuckleheads.”

Mumbles, don’t leave us!

2009 flashback: The Boston Phoenix endorsed the "team" of Flaherty and Yoon

(2009)>>Flaherty’s designation of onetime mayoral opponent City Councilor Sam Yoon (who received this paper’s endorsement in the primary) as his would-be deputy mayor was a creative move. It was certainly politically savvy to tap into Yoon’s troops of Obama-style grassroots voters.

>>Flaherty has adopted Yoon’s idea to place an eight-year term limit on the mayoralty, thus tapping into the sense of many that no one should be able to be considered mayor for life. Menino had said in the past that he would serve only two terms. Things have obviously changed. If there is a fifth, will there be a sixth? (Come on, Mr. Mayor, this is Boston, not the Vatican.)

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(Menino won 57 to 42 per cent)