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Howie’s Wed. column

Winners, losers turn out, even if voters don’t
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, November 7, 2007 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

There is no such thing as bad publicity - just ask Boston City Councilor-elect John Connolly.

After days of being called “liar” and “sneak” and “coward,” the college boy from Harvard ousted Felix “No-Show” Arroyo from the City Council in an election 85 percent of voters took a pass on. The people have spoken all right, and this is what they said:

It’s too wet to go outside.

Connolly got himself into a jam last weekend by sending out anonymous attack pieces on incumbent City Councilor Steve Murphy. Connolly admitted mailing two, and three others with a similar theme - Murphy Sucks! - hit in high-voting white wards.

And the result of all those attacks on Murphy? He had the best night of his career, finishing second to Michael “Baby Flats” Flaherty. Repeat after me: There is no such thing as bad publicity.

“I am so happy people recognized my hard work,” Murphy was saying last night. “I can’t wait to go to work in the morning.”

I asked him if he had any final thoughts on Connolly.

“Nothing,” he said, chuckling. “Not tonight.”

The City Council should be more amusing next year, what with having these two scorpions in a bottle. After Connolly’s dirty-tricks onslaught, these two guys may dislike each other as much as, in the old days, Freddy Langone and Chris Iannella did, except of course they aren’t as articulate as Freddy, or as loaded as Chris.

Another big winner last night has to be Connolly’s dad, Michael, the former secretary of state. This whole ridiculous blast from the past with the anonymous mailings had Mike Connolly written all over it. And if it had destroyed the boy’s career, I think Mike would have had a lot of explainin’ to do to his wife, District Court Chief Justice Lynda M. Connolly. Mike, I’m guessing, would have been dining on hot tongue and cold shoulder long past Thanksgiving.

Because he had to have had at least a hand in those absurd mailings. Remember, Connolly once made a movie basically celebrating the old ways on Boston politics. It was called “Beacon Hill.” You didn’t see it, but I did, because I was in it. The only comment about it on IMDB.com is “I didn’t know it was supposed to be a comedy.”

Fortunately for Boy Connolly, somebody else in the at-large fight was even more determined to commit political suicide - No-Show Arroyo. He was so MIA and generally out to lunch these last two years that even the PC Globe wrote him off.

Which leaves No-Show with only one option. When is the next election for the Caracas City Council?

Getting back to Connolly’s rabid attacks on Murphy for “looking for another job” - isn’t that a rather ironic charge, considering that if anybody in Boston politics has built a career around “looking for another job,” it’s Mike Connolly?

He started out running for the City Council - and losing. He won a seat in the Legislature, just before the size of the House was cut from 240 to 160. He was slated for oblivion, and suddenly a fictitious group sprang up to save him - Roslindale First, it was called, and in its sleazy, bushwhacking anonymity, it resembled last weekend’s collection of Ward 20 phantoms, the Parkway Coalition. (Boy Connolly claims he had nothing to do with that cowardly outfit.)

Anyway, Mike Connolly got himself elected secretary of state four times, but he also managed to run disastrously for the U.S. Senate (twice, in 1978 and 1984) and for the U.S. House (once, in 1992).

After retiring as “secretary of space,” Mike went “shopping for a new job,” and he got it, on the Boston Licensing Board. That didn’t hurt the boy’s showing yesterday, even if the farcical fliers did.

One final winner last night: Dapper O’Neil, over in the nursing home in West Roxbury. It took an absentee ballot, but he gave Steve Murphy a bullet.