Maura's in for the long run vs. mayor

19 November 2004

Maura Hennigan, age 53 and candidate for mayor in 2005, understands the risks.

The third generation of her family in politics, she risks a proud and well-known name in a fight many regard as hopeless. Now in her 23rd year as a city councilor, she risks her job. And up against a well-funded and well-oiled political machine, she risks humiliation, perhaps even risks being driven out of the city, as was Peggy Davis Mullen, the last person to take on incumbent Thomas Menino.

"That will never happen," she interjects. She may lose, but she won't be intimidated.

James, her grandfather, was a state representative and senator. James Jr., her father, was not only a state rep and state senator but also served on the school committee and as Suffolk registrar of probate. Jim, her brother and two years her junior, was supposed to be the next. After all, politics was a man's game and he was the holder of the familiar name.

True, while other kids were hanging out, Maura would be on street corners collecting signatures for her dad. Yet, armed with a degree in nutrition from UMass/Amherst, she began her working life as a Boston teacher.

The lure of the family business proved too strong. In 1980, she ran for the Democratic State Committee. Back then - and very much unlike today - every political job was hotly contested. She entered as an underdog, worked aggressively and, after standing in the snow all election day, found herself in mid-March the winner in every precinct but one. "There is nothing more exciting than your first win," she says.

Politics, always in her blood, was now uppermost in her mind. It almost didn't matter when, after seven years, Prop 2 1/2 cutbacks eliminated her teaching job. She was already planning her run for City Council.

Just 29, she was elected councilor and has been one since. Married once - for five years in the 1980s - she lives in a house perched atop Moss Hill in Jamaica Plain. She held an insurance broker's license, but has long since let it lapse. Politics is her life. There are no distractions. That can be a rare luxury for pols, one that allows them to fix on developing relationships and allies. It's a luxury Hennigan has exploited. In 2001, she abandoned her safe district seat and ran at-large. The race forced her to develop name recognition among constituencies that hardly knew her. She almost lost, both then and in 2003. But her success catapulted her into the role she now occupies: that of Menino's chief critic. It is the rare issue that doesn't find Hennigan involved, vocal and vociferous.

Her announcement won't come until the new year, but she leaves no doubt. "The decisions we're making today will make or break the city," she says. "I know the issues; I know the city. I feel an obligation to run."

Menino is popular and powerful; Boston in general is well off. Hennigan knows the obstacles, but also sees opportunities. Residential property taxes, projected to leap upward, could become a flashpoint in a campaign. Development seems driven more by the wants of those closest to the mayor rather than what is best for Boston. City services have become lax, a point she has stressed with her focus on potholes. And, more broadly, she sees an administration that after 11 years has become tired and bereft of ideas.

"It's the same-old, same-old," she says. "Even people who like him," she adds with what may be a wishful hope, "think it's time for him to move on."