Linehan's Goose Fry-ed?

I just saw something -- a small something, a mere $100 line-item -- that should have Boston City Councilor Bill Linehan a little nervous.

It's a contribution, reported yesterday by Linehan challenger Suzanne Lee, from Shanti Fry of Cambridge. It's Fry's first donation to Lee, and comes just days after Lee finished first in the District 2 preliminary election.

Fry, for those who don't know, is a central figure in a cabal of Boston-area women who work to get more women elected to public office -- and who have the deep pockets to back up their talk.

Prior to the Tuesday preliminary, they had taken little interest in Lee. That could be because they are deeply interested in re-electing at-large Councilor Ayanna Pressley. One of Pressley's storylines has been that, with Maureen Feeney leaving, Pressley's defeat would likely leave the council without a single woman. Lee's surprising success kind of knocks a hole in that pitch.

But the Pressley people aren't upset about it; a high-profile, competitive Lee-Linehan campaign figures to pull out minorities, progressives, and women in the district, who are presumably also Pressley voters.

So the question, after the Tuesday results came in, was whether the Vast Women-In-Politics Conspiracy would turn its attention -- and finances -- to the Lee campaign. A little c-note from Shanti Fry doesn't, in itself, answer that question, but it certainly indicates that Lee is on the radar. If I was Bill Linehan, I'd be a little more nervous today because of that.