Alive and, well . . .

Boston politics is showing unexpected signs of life this year. But what does it all mean?

by Ben Geman

CITY HALL

The obituaries written for city politics in 1999 may have been premature.

Far from being the electoral dud that some political junkies were predicting, the coming city-council campaign may see several tight races. District councilors Maura Hennigan and Gareth Saunders, for instance, face serious challenges. And in the at-large race, a new heir to a local political dynasty is in the hunt for a seat.

It wasn't supposed to shake out like this. A strong economy (for some people, anyway) and a city council unwilling or unable to seriously check mayor Thomas Menino's colossal power were supposed to suck the life from city elections before they began. "What's happening," says Lou DiNatale, senior fellow at the McCormack Institute of Public Affairs at UMass, "is that instead of it being a snoozer, there may be a couple of embers burning."

Not only will those smoldering campaigns make life more interesting for political junkies, but there's an upside for the city as well. The city council may not be the world's most powerful legislative body, but at a time when development plans from the Seaport to Roxbury to the Fenway are sparking discussions of what Boston should look like in the next century, council campaigns provide an important forum in which to hash out the issues.

A busy election season, in short, could be just what the city needs.

---

In 1999, Menino's consolidated power has made him a bigger political force than ever. But this year the council has been feisty. Many councilors have been using the bully pulpit -- one of their few powers -- to whack Massport's Logan runway plans. A few are threatening to create headaches for the Red Sox by trying to block the taking of public land for a new park. With a little life thus breathed into the chamber, election season is bound to be more energized.

The most wide-open race is in District Eight, which covers the Fenway, Back Bay, Mission Hill, and Beacon Hill. Sitting councilor Tom Keane said last month that he won't seek another term, and his retirement unleashed a contest in a Fenway neighborhood where development pressures are particularly acute (see "Fenway Spark," News, April 2). "There's this underlying tension in the neighborhood," says one former City Hall insider. "Who's with the developers and who's with the neighborhood? The electorate will push those questions."

It's not yet clear who will step up to provide the answers, but the group may include former city councilor David Scondras. The left-wing stalwart, who served four years, lost to Keane in 1993 and later was beaten badly by a teenager he allegedly made a pass at in a movie theater. After that, the political career of the city's only openly gay councilor was considered dead. Now, in a race certain to include some lesser-known candidates, his name recognition could prove an asset.

A second race worth watching has the potential to create an interesting power couple. Community activist Julio Henriquez is challenging third-term city councilor Gareth Saunders, who represents Roxbury and parts of Dorchester and the South End. Henriquez is married to Sandra Henriquez, executive director of the Boston Housing Authority. Julio is heavily active in the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, an organization that's involved in affordable housing, business development, and other community activism in Roxbury.

Saunders, first elected in 1993, has displayed a refreshing willingness to challenge the status quo. He has waged high-profile battles on the council floor against Dapper O'Neil's reactionary tirades and Jimmy Kelly's iron grip on the council presidency. He's also been stepping up his visibility on some constituent issues in recent weeks, advocating for his neighborhood against the scourge of airplane noise.

But critics say efforts like that are few and far between -- they allege that Saunders has favored high-profile battles at the expense of immersing himself in the nuts and bolts of development and planning in his district. Julio Henriquez, for one, accuses Saunders of being out of the loop when it comes to pushing good development. "A lot of private citizens are doing the councilor's job," says Henriquez. "I count myself among them."

Henriquez says one of his priorities would be to work with the district's community-development corporations and other organizations -- an infrastructure he says Saunders is out of touch with. And Henriquez pledges to work with Menino and others to ensure that city capital planning rewards his district -- an insider strategy he says Saunders is unwilling or unable to adopt.

---

Although those two races may well turn on issues, name recognition is also important -- especially if media coverage is scant and turnout is low. That could be a boon to one of the at-large challengers, Greg Timilty. If the name sounds familiar, that's because Timilty is the son of former city councilor and state senator Joseph Timilty, who repeatedly ran against then-incumbent mayor Kevin White in the 1970s. Timilty, an investment banker in his mid-20s who lives in West Roxbury, has political links well beyond his father: his sister Kelly is on the Governor's Council, his cousin Walter is a state representative from Milton, and his brother James nearly won a seat in the state senate last year, with campaign-management help from Greg.

He may also get help from Menino, since the mayor himself was once an aide to Joseph Timilty. Menino has other reasons to get behind Timilty: he's running against at-large councilor Peggy Davis-Mullen, a constant critic the mayor would love to see gone. (For her latest insult, Davis-Mullen has come out on the wrong side of the Menino machine in a spirited special election in East Boston. Davis-Mullen is backing Richard Lynds for state representative, while Menino wants Anthony Petruccelli, his former aide, to win.)

Timilty's candidacy will appeal to the same electorate that's delivered the fairly mainstream bunch of at-large councilors we have now: Davis-Mullen, Stephen Murphy, Mickey Roache, and, to a lesser degree, Dapper O'Neil. Indeed, Timilty stresses education as his biggest issue, pointing out that the best way to strengthen neighborhoods and prevent middle-class flight is to improve the city's schools, and fast -- an idea championed by Menino and most every other local pol. But even if a Timilty candidacy doesn't offer voters a chance to shake up the council's ideological mix, he is young and articulate -- and, observers say, he's piecing together a solid campaign machine that will force his opponents to address the issues more directly.

---

There may be other interesting races as well. John Tobin is again taking on Jamaica Plain councilor Maura Hennigan, and former councilor Diane Modica, who lost her Charlestown/East Boston/North End seat to city councilor Paul Scapicchio in 1997, is rumored to be mulling a rematch (she could not be reached for comment by press time).

It's tempting to look for a reason behind the unexpected activity, and there may well be one. "It's probably less of a trend and more of a contagion," says liberal activist Jim Braude. "Democracy is infectious, just as the lack of it is. Would-be candidates tend to lay back and overanalyze their chances, but when a similarly situated soul takes a leap, the angst level across the board drops."

Whatever the cause, the activity probably won't change the fact that Menino remains the only game in town. Davis-Mullen is a frequent critic, but if there's a larger mass of organized anti-Menino sentiment, it's currently well below the radar. Barring a Menino meltdown, that probably won't change soon. And if Henriquez and Timilty were to win, the council would probably move -- if anything -- collectively closer to Menino, especially if Timilty were to displace Murphy (who has a rocky relationship with the mayor) or Davis-Mullen.

There is a decent chance that just one new face, Keane's replacement, will be on the council when all is said and done. But the important thing is the challenge: the more serious the campaign is, the more public the discussion will be of development and housing and other issues relevant to far more people than the smattering expected to show up at the polls. That counts for something, doesn't it?

---

If you read Tuesday's Boston Globe, you probably saw the upbeat feature on the long hours put in by Mayor Menino, reporting that he begins the day at 5 a.m. with a walk around Hyde Park and stays on the job until well into the night.

But somehow he still hasn't found the time to replace departed chief of staff David Passafaro, who left the post last October (see "City Hollow," News, January 8). City officials still don't know or won't say when the slot will be filled. And that's not all Menino has left dangling in recent months. A couple of his administration's good ideas remain, for the time being, just ideas.

For one, the city has long been preparing to file a lawsuit against gun manufacturers, seeking to find them negligent in Boston gun-related fatalities. City officials had reportedly intended to file the suit in March, but it hasn't happened yet. The project's shepherd, policy and planning chief Peter Welsh, didn't offer the Phoenix a new date. Through a spokeswoman, Welsh said only that the city is "in negotiations to find a major law firm to do pro bono work with the city."

In February, Menino announced his plan to create a board of economic advisers to help the city steer development in several industries. To date, no board. Administration officials say to expect some sort of announcement within the next month or two. According to one top Menino adviser, the goal is to be thorough, not quick. "If it takes longer to get a quality person or quality group of people, we are going to do that," says Howard Leibowitz, Menino's director of intergovernmental relations. "We could throw together a list of the usual suspects, but we would not have found new people who can add something different."

Menino has finally filled some other positions. The Inspectional Services department is no longer rudderless with the appointment of Kevin Joyce. Nor is the cultural-affairs post vacated by Bruce Rossley, which has been filled by Esther Kaplan. Still, there's no doubt that some of the mayor's more ambitious plans are on a less-than-ambitious schedule. Says one long-time City Hall employee: "Menino time . . . is different than the rest of the world's."

Ben Geman can be reached at bgeman[a]phx.com.