Thomas Menino served as mayor of Boston, Massachusetts from 1993 through 2014. He is the longest serving mayor in the city's history. Menino first became acting mayor in July 1993, after Raymond Flynn resigned as mayor to assume the post of United States ambassador to the Holy See (Menino's then-position as Boston City Council president meant that he automatically assumed the post of "acting mayor" upon the vacancy created by Flynn's resignation). Menino was elected mayor in the subsequent 1993 Boston mayoral election, and was reelected to additional terms in the four subsequent elections, making for an unprecedented Retrieved on July 29, 2013 and unsurpassed twenty year tenure. On March 28, 2013, Menino announced that he would not seek a sixth term.
After Menino's October 2014 death, Katherine Q. Seelye of The New York Times wrote that Menino "presided over one of the most successful urban renaissances in modern American history" as mayor. Dubbed an "urban mechanic", Menino had a reputation for focusing on "nuts and bolts" issues and enjoyed very high public approval ratings as mayor. During his tenure, Boston saw a significant amount of new development, including the Seaport District, the redevelopment of Dudley Square (today known as "Nubian Square"), and the redevelopment of the area surrounding Fenway Park. Alongside this development, gentrification priced some longtime residents out of neighborhoods. Allegations were made of favoritism by Menino towards certain developers. During his tenure as mayor, crime in Boston fell to unprecedented lows, and the city came to rank among the safest large cities in the United States. Menino also undertook a number of environmentally-focused actions. In the last year of Menino's tenure, the city faced the Boston Marathon bombing, an incident of domestic terrorism.
Menino was a liberal member of the Democratic Party. Menino led a powerful political machine in Boston and also played roles in national politics, such as serving as president of the United States Conference of Mayors from 2002 to 2003, bringing the 2004 Democratic National Convention to Boston, and co-founding the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns alongside New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Politics
Menino was a liberal and a Democrat.
Menino was the first Italian American to lead the city of Boston. Menino was the city's first non-Irish American mayor since the Great Depression.
Menino led a powerful political machine in Boston. In 2009, the Boston Globe wrote that "Menino has assembled the most extensive political operation in modern Boston history over his 16 years in office, rivaling that of legendary mayor James Michael Curley. He's done it the old-fashioned way, by blurring the lines between politics and policy, between city work and campaign work, delivering services to everyday residents and warnings to his rare foes—many of them intended to strengthen his electoral standing."
Acting mayoralty (July–November 1993)
In March 1993, President Clinton nominated Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn to be the United States Ambassador to the Holy See. Mayor Flynn accepted the nomination, effectively making Menino, who was president of the Boston City Council at the time, the presumptive future acting mayor.
Menino had had a longtime friendship with outgoing mayor Flynn. However, their relationship was noted to have become somewhat terser during the period in which Flynn was preparing to hand over the office to Menino. One cause for their rift was that, after Menino had promised he would appoint 100 new police officers when he took office, Flynn beat him to the chase and did so himself, which angered Menino.
Upon Flynn's resignation on July 12, 1993, Menino became acting mayor of Boston until the upcoming November 1993 election.
Some initially saw Menino as likely to be a sort of "caretaker" of the office, with Brian McGrory of The Boston Globe writing at the start of Menino's acting mayoralty, that to some, "Menino is believed to be a caretaker, a known quantity, a moderate compromise builder who is unlikely to bring great change or wreak serious harm on the city." McGregory also reported that some of Menino's City Council colleagues believed that Menino had an undistinguished legislative record as a city councilor.
A number of actions that he took immediately after taking office were characterized by analysts as shoring up Menino's image for a mayoral run. In early August 1993, Menino signed a grant agreement with the state which advanced $3.7 million in state funds to be allotted for the construction of a materials recycling facility in the city. Menino put a freeze on water utility rates in place in the city, which were at rising due to the need to pay off the expenses of a court-ordered cleanup of Boston Harbor. Menino's freeze was popular with the city's residents, though there were questions as to whether an acting mayor actually held the authority to take such action.
Ahead of becoming acting mayor, Menino recruited John P. White to create a plan for Menino's handling of the city's business sector. White was the Director of Harvard University's Center for Business and Government, a former Eastman Kodak executive, and had written the economic plan of the 1992 presidential campaign of Ross Perot.
During his acting mayoralty, Menino temporarily appointed Alfreda Harristo to fill a vacancy on the Boston School Committee. After Harristo cast the decisive vote in the Boston School Committee's rejecting of a teacher contract proposal, the Boston Teachers Union sued, questioning Menino's powers as acting mayor to make such an appointment. A judge dismissed the lawsuit for lack of standing.
1993 mayoral campaign
Menino went from "acting mayor" to "mayor" after winning the 1993 Boston mayoral election.
Menino initially ran a low-profile campaign, having informally indicated his intentions ahead of taking office as acting mayor for months. Before becoming acting mayor, Menino quietly raised significant amounts in contributions for his campaign. After taking office as acting mayor, Menino ran a sort of "Rose Garden campaign" that played up his acting incumbency and used the perks of the office. He formally declared himself as a candidate for mayor on August 16, 1993, after many other candidates had already formally entered the race.
When running for mayor, Menino pledged to serve "only two terms, and that's it for me." However, his tenure ultimately exceeded this in length. Menino ran for a third term in 2001 and quipped, "I promised I'd serve two terms–in every century."
Reelection campaigns
In 1997, Menino was re-elected, running formally unopposed after no challenger managed to collect enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.
In the 2001 mayoral general election, Menino faced Peggy Davis-Mullen, with a third opponent Althea Garrison having been eliminated in the nonpartisan primary. Menino was heavily favored to win, with an approval rating near 85%. Davis-Mullen lacked in name recognition and additionally faced a slew of stories in The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald during her campaign with negative allegations that hurt her public image. Menino won 73.37% of the vote in the primary election and 76.06% of the vote in the general election.
In 2005, Menino won 67.52% of the vote against Maura Hennigan. Menino faced a negative campaign from Henigan, who blamed Menino for the city's high cost of living and a recent rise in its crime rate. However, Menino had stayed above the fray, largely not responding to her attacks.
In the 2009 general election, Menino faced Michael F. Flaherty after Sam Yoon and Kevin McCrea were eliminated in the nonpartisan primary. Menino won 50.52% of the vote in the primary and 57.27% of the vote in the general election. In the general election, Flaherty teamed up with eliminated candidate Sam Yoon, making Yoon his unofficial running mate by promising to appoint Yoon to a recreated "deputy mayor" position if elected. During the 2009 campaign, The Boston Globe printed an article alleging dirty tricks against political opponents and their supporters in Menino's mayoral campaign that year. The article reported several instances of questionable behavior, including cases of Menino's associates monitoring mayoral opponent Michael F. Flaherty's Facebook affiliations. According to the article, the Menino campaign sent out a campaign memo containing the name of at least one small-business owner who supported Flaherty. In 2011, Flaherty alleged that his former running mate Sam Yoon had to leave Boston after running against Menino because the mayor's allies made it difficult for Yoon to find a job locally.Michael Flaherty incident , digboston.com, May 2011; accessed October 30, 2014.
National politics In May 2002, Menino was elected president of the United States Conference of Mayors. He held this role for thirteen months.
In 2003, Menino served on the selection committee for the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence.
Menino brought the Democratic National Convention to Boston in 2004. The convention was controversial due to fundraising difficulties, security concerns, protests by unions, and inconvenience to residents. But Menino estimated that the convention generated $150 million in business for the city; meanwhile, other estimates suggest that the convention generated $14.8 million for the city.
On April 25, 2006, Menino and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg hosted a summit at Gracie Mansion in New York City, during which the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition was formed. The coalition stated its goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets"—Menino remained co-chair there until he left the office. The initial group consisted of 15 mayors; the 15 drafted and signed a statement of principles Retrieved on June 18, 2007 and set a goal to expand their membership to 50 mayors by the end of 2006. That goal was met six months ahead of schedule and led to its current membership of more than 900 mayors, with members from both major political parties and 40 states. Retrieved on June 18, 2007
Menino supported the 2008 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, sending his own campaign workers to New Hampshire to work for her candidacy ahead of the 2008 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary. After Barack Obama secured the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Menino opposed the nomination, Menino publicly opposed the prospect of Clinton being selected as his vice presidential running mate, believing that her husband, former president Bill Clinton, would pose a problem by being an overshadowing presence as second gentleman of the United States if Hillary Clinton were to serve as vice president, which he believed would be to the detriment of Obama.
Menino spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. His speech criticized Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who had formerly served as governor of Massachusetts during part of Menino's mayoralty. In September 2012, he endorsed Democratic nominee Elizabeth Warren in the 2012 United States Senate election in Massachusetts.
Fiscal matters Throughout Menino's tenure, the city of Boston had an operating surplus. This led Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's to boost the city's bond rating a combined nine times over the course of Menino's mayoralty.
Social issues Menino was a cofounder of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
Menino supported abortion rights. He also supported public funding of abortions.
Gay rights By the time he was elected mayor in 1993, Menino had already taken the public position of supporting that gay and lesbian couples be allowed to act as foster parents.