Mayoral Un-Campaign

Published Feb 15 2008, 03:04 PM by David S. Bernstein

In today's Globe, Stephanie Ebbert looks at the stealth efforts of Michael Flaherty, Ralph Martin, and John Tobin in preparation for a potential run for mayor next year. Those three, in that order, held my top spots on my list of 20 top contenders for the office in this article back in November.

Ebbert mentions several others -- all from my list -- as "among those considered mayoral material." She names Peter Meade (#6), Stephen Lynch (#5), Joseph Kennedy (#12), Maureen Feeney (#20, but surely moving up since her recent maneuvering), Sam Yoon (#7), Mike Ross (#19), and Rob Consalvo (#8). She also notes that Paul Grogan (#10) told the Globe that he will not run.

The only members of my top 10 left out are Chris Gabrieli and Charlotte Golar-Ritchie, neither of whom I would discount as possibilities. I would also keep my eye on either Steven Tolman (#11) and Martin Walsh (#14) jumping in to claim the labor vote, if Menino doesn't choose to run again.

Ebbert reports that Martin ran a poll, which I had previously heard but couldn't confirm. Neither Martin or his supporter serving as Ebbert's source would reveal anything about the poll's results -- which probably means that they were not good.

Update: My colleague Adam Reilly reports that Meade vociferously denies that he might run.