Someone Is Thinking About Running for Mayor in 2013


One of the least pleasing noises in my household is the phone call in the midst of dinner. But there it was last week—the telltale ring. On the other end was a pollster, apparently working off a roll of registered voters.

She first asked an open-ended question (no prompts) about the biggest issue facing the city of Boston. Then she asked a question about points of view on Mayor Menino’s health (in the context of it being a potential obstacle to reelection). Then, she ran through a series of positive and negative statements about Menino, asking for the respondent to rate the validity of each.

After that, the pollster read biographies of three people—Greg Selkoe, Ayanna Pressley, and John Connolly. This was followed by a question about a four-way race between Menino and those three. Next, she asked about head-to-head match-ups between the mayor and each one.

The poll closed with some standard questions about likelihood of voting, religion, ethnic group, number of children and ideology (liberal versus conservative).

Given the specificity of the questions and selection of opponents, it’s highly likely that it was commissioned by Menino, Selkoe, Pressley, or Connolly. It looks like someone is thinking—very hard—about running in 2013.