Hennigan's move shakes up election

19 January 2001

Maura Hennigan, 20-year veteran of the Boston City Council, is about to take a leap into the unknown. Her jump may make for this year's most interesting race.

Hennigan is a district city councilor. But, instead of running for re-election, she has just announced that she will be running for one of the city's four at-large council seats.

"What is she thinking?" one incredulous councilor asks.

It is in many respects a puzzling move. Although Hennigan has faced tough battles for re-election within her district, she has always won them. She probably would win this time as well.

There's no such certainty with a citywide race. If all four at- large incumbents run again, Hennigan wins only if one loses. In addition, although she has some name recognition throughout the city, Hennigan doesn't have the citywide campaign organization that each of the incumbents has.

And even if she wins, goes the thinking, Hennigan hasn't gained much. The nine district councilors are elected from districts that number about 70,000 residents. Once on the council, however, there is technically no difference between them and their at-large colleagues. Councilors are paid the same and have the same budgets no matter how they were elected. Each has one vote.

So what gives?

Hennigan comes from a family with deep political roots in Boston. Her grandfather, James, was a state representative and state senator. Her father, James Jr., also held those jobs. In addition, he ran for mayor in the 1950s and served on the Boston School Committee and as register of probate for Suffolk County.

One suspects that as a kid Hennigan spent more time holding campaign signs than playing with Barbie dolls.

Thus there was little surprise when, at the tender age of 29, Maura Hennigan in 1981 ran for and won a seat on the council. There was also little surprise when she went on to run for state auditor in 1986 and state senator in 1999.

She lost both races. Year after year, she has remained a district councilor.

The common take on Hennigan was that, in the same job for the equivalent of a generation, she was becoming fatigued. District city councilors need to pay a lot of attention to their constituents, attending several community meetings each evening, focusing on countless local concerns like potholes, street lights and liquor licenses. It can be wearisome work.

Yet over the last year Hennigan has become dramatically re- energized. She got herself deeply involved in the battle over a new Logan Airport runway. It wasn't a bad fight to take on, except that East Boston is miles from her district.

Next she inserted herself into the controversy over the construction of a new Fenway Park - a matter of great concern to Fenway residents, but of less import to Hennigan's constituents in West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain.

Finally, she led the charge on development plans relating to South Boston's Fan Pier project - also a worthy issue, but well beyond her district's boundaries.

Hennigan's perspective, it is clear, is changing. It's a perspective that emphasizes neighborhood involvement in development issues, and it's a perspective that encompasses the entire city. To continue to push that agenda, Hennigan now believes she needs the credibility of a citywide constituency.

There's more to it than that, however. Hennigan is taking a gamble, one that depends in many respects on the future of Mayor Thomas Menino.

Even now it is uncertain whether Menino, up for his third term, will face any challenger this year. Two at-large councilors - Francis "Mickey" Roache and Peggy Davis-Mullen - continue to mull it over. (One possible consequence of Hennigan's decision to run at-large is that Davis-Mullen, the incumbent most at risk of being unseated by Hennigan, may as a consequence be more likely to jump into the mayor's race.)

In many respects, it is Hennigan who is emerging as the mayor's most forceful and successful critic. Nevertheless, she eschews a direct challenge to Menino. Her thinking - and she's probably right - is that Menino, with more than $1 million in his campaign account, is unbeatable.

Still, unbeatable is not the same as invulnerable.

Hennigan, a center-left politician, believes she can tap into widespread unease amongst city residents over a host of concerns such as development, housing and education. By focusing on issues such as these, Hennigan can turn her race into a referendum on Menino's mayoralty.

All of which leads to the following scenario: Menino and Hennigan both win. Menino retains his title as the city's most powerful politician. Hennigan, personifying principled opposition to the mayor, becomes Boston's second most powerful.

Sure, running at large is risky. But this time it may end up giving Hennigan the kind of influence that two decades as a district councilor has never been able to deliver.