Mayor Marty Walsh Says He’ll Seek Second Term in 2017
Photo via AP
Mayor Marty Walsh says he will seek a second term in 2017, just 20 eventful months into his first. Walsh made the announcement in a sit-down interview with Boston Globe political reporter Joshua Miller at Suffolk University Wednesday night.
“I’m running for reelection. I announced it here. I haven’t said it before,” Walsh said. “Let me just get through the next 24 months.”
The odds are in Walsh’s favor for reelection, with incumbents, historically, all but guaranteed a win. The last sitting mayor to come up short at the polls was J.M. Curley in 1949.
Curley, returning to office from his second prison term, remarked to reporters, “I have accomplished more in one day than has been done in the five months of my absence.” This upset city clerk and acting mayor John Hynes, who effectively ran the city in Curley’s absence. In the 1949 election, Hynes served Curley a heaping helping of crow.
The closest Walsh’s predecessor, the late Tom Menino, came to being unseated during his unprecedented 20-year reign was in 2009, when he coasted past City Councilor Michael Flaherty in 15-point victory. In 1997, Menino ran unopposed and won 71 percent of the vote.
Though no clear opponent for Walsh has emerged yet, things could change in the next two years. The Boston 2024 debacle seemed to embolden City Councilor Tito Jackson, who became the most vociferous voice of opposition at City Hall to the Walsh-backed Olympic bid. Jackson secured two-thirds of the votes in the District 7 primary earlier this week.
