E-Mail This Article to a Friend DISTRICT SIX Tobin wins easily BY DEIRDRE FULTON, WITH SUSAN RYAN-VOLLMAR

John Tobin, campaigning at his alma mater, the Holy Name School in West Roxbury, sums up political campaigning this way: "There’s no rocket science about it. If you don’t knock on their doors — I mean, that’s the major part. Raising money is a big part of it, but it’s about hard work too. You could raise a million dollars, and if you don’t go out and knock doors, forget about it."

This is even more true for city councilors, who, Tobin says, are "closest to the people." Indeed, voters "expect to see you at the ball fields, visiting the schools, shopping in the districts. They expect to see you. And if they don’t see you, they let you know about it in a hurry."

Tobin first won election two years ago to the city council’s open District Six seat, when then-district-councilor Maura Hennigan stepped down to run citywide. He knocked off another West Roxbury denizen, Mike Rush — who is now a state representative — and has been doing exactly what he’s just described ever since.

It comes easily to him. "I love being a city councilor, but I always wish I could go back in time and run sometime in the ’50s, ’60s, or ’70s when people were just — everyone was into it. I remember the ’79 campaign like it was yesterday — I remember on the last Saturday before the final election, you could not stand on Centre Street unless you had a sign in your hand. It was White-Timilty, White-Timilty all up and down the street. I’m talking 500 people."

Things were decidedly different in this week’s preliminary election, which saw dismally low turnout. But it worked for Tobin, who easily cruised to victory with 5463 votes over challengers Francesca Fordiani, who won 1594, and Wayne Sallale, who won just 206.

But Tobin’s not resting on his laurels. Wednesday morning, he says, he plans to appear at the Jamaica Plain rotary at 7:30 a.m. "I don’t care if we get 50, 60, 80 percent of the vote — we’ll campaign just as hard. You know, every day is an election."