The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • A11

The Boston Globe The Region All THE MAYOR AND HIS CITY Kevin Cullen Some possible candidates FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2013 Just a Boston guy through and through Sonia Chang-Diaz State senator Felix Arroyo City councilor Daniel Conley District attorney John Connolly City councilor Rob Consalvo City councilor Tito Jackson City councilor urn Li! Stephen Murphy Council president James Rooney Michael Ross Convention Ctr. Authority City councilor Jeffrey Sanchez Martin Walsh Charles Yancey State representative State representative City councilor A possibly crowded BillWalczakis jk a Dorchester guy, which r-i Tj. makes him 10 times smarter than me right off the bat. He co-founded and 1 1 ran the Codman Square Health Center for years, but he only lasted 14 months at the Carney Hospital because he had the temerity to suggest to the bean-counters there that they needed to actually sink some money into the Carney to make it better. Now he works for a construction company and he's on the board at WBUR, the public radio station.

And so last month we were standing around, shooting the breeze, at this function for the radio station in a very nice space in Cambridge when he goes, out of the blue, "Tommy's not running." I asked him how he knew. He said he knew because when he had tried to set up a fundraiser for the mayor, he was told by the mayor's people not to bother. I love Tommy Menino but our mayor walks away from fund-raisers about as often as he walks away from an argument when he thinks he's right. So Billy Walczak knew. He just knew.

And now we all know. When the mayor stood there in Faneuil Hall Thursday afternoon he was standing among history, among the ghosts. Samuel Adams spoke there. So did Daniel Webster. So did Oliver Wendell Holmes.

I'm guessing Tommy Menino 's farewell address won't be compared to the speeches of Adams, Webster, and Holmes, but so what? Sam Adams didn't get a supermarket built in Grove Hall. Daniel Webster never walked the length of Bowdoin Street the one in Dorchester, not the one on Beacon Hill and banter with the Cape Ver-dean ladies who hug Tommy like he's a merengue singer. And I'm pretty sure Oliver Wendell Holmes never walked into Mike's Pastry on Hanover Street in the North End and shouted, "Hey, I knew your mother!" Tommy Menino was our mayor for so long it's hard to imagine a time when he won't be. But that's another nine months away, as the mayah was wont to point out. There was a certain melancholy, watching him there in Faneuil Hall, because he still looks frail.

It is a political truth that you can't run when you can't walk so great. He spoke slowly and poignantly. For those who make fun of his mal-apropisms, get a life. I'd rather have a guy who talks like my Uncle Bozo than some silver-tongued phony. Still, I didn't believe everything he said.

"I have no plans to pick the person to fill this seat," he said. "I just ask that you choose someone who loves this city as much as I have." That's a great line, and maybe if you want to get technical about it, he won't pick the next mayor. But anyone who believes Tommy Menino won't have a say, at least behind the scenes, on who gets to be the next mayor is either dead or stupid. He talked about how he's met half the people who live in Boston. That's a great line, too, but it is misleading if you're trying to figure out Tom Menino's ability to hang onto a job for 20 years in a tough, unforgiving game.

He may have met half the people who live in the city, but he's met all the people who vote. I would pay money to listen to him and Arthur Donovan wax poetic on the difference between Dorchester and Hyde Park. But I'd make Tommy pay me money to listen to him explain, in arcane detail, the difference between Readville and Fairmount. Mother o' gawd. But he's a good guy and he was a good mayor and we can't miss him because he'll never go away.

About 10 years ago, the mayor walked into a seminar at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He searched for familiar faces, and he settled on mine and we laughed at the odds of a couple of knuckle-heads like us being in the same room at Hahvahd. An earnest young graduate student sheepishly interrupted our conversation and asked the mayor to explain his political success. "I'm a Boston guy," Tommy Menino told the kid, shrugging. "I'm just a Boston guy." Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist.

He can be reached at Follow him on Twitter GlobeCullen. On Thursday, political observers called the race wide open. Menino's relatively late announcement squeezes the election's timeline. The preliminary election is scheduled for Sept. 24, when the larger field will be whittled down to two candidates, who would then meet in a Nov.

5 final. "I think it's a jump ball as to who gets it, and I think the interesting thing is that anybody can get it," said Larry DiCara, a Boston lawyer and former council president. "If, hypothetically, there are four Irish guys it could be that none of them are in the final." Regardless of who jumps into the race, candidates will encounter a vastly changed electorate than the one that first elected Menino in 1993. That year, Menino had a leg up when Mayor Ray Flynn was appointed US ambassador to the Vatican, allowing the Hyde Park district councilor and council president to take the acting mayor's post. That November, after an eight-candidate field narrowed to two in the preliminary, Menino beat state Representative James Brett to win the position outright.

Since then, the city's Latino population has increased by 74 percent, and its Asian population has grown by 85 percent, according to the city's Office of New Bostonians. At the same time, the white population has dropped from 59 percent to 47 percent. A better comparison to the current race might be the 1983 race, when four-term mayor Kevin White opted against seeking reelection. Boston, after years of racial strife, picked Flynn, an Irish-American, and activist Mel King, an African-American, for the final. MAYOR Continued from Page Al potential candidates, many of whom attended his announcement at Faneuil Hall, into a politically awkward corner between the desire to establish early footholds of support and the potential penalties associated with appearing insufficiently reverent toward Menino.

"I think what's happening is there is going to be a tremendous amount of jockeying for the next four or five, six days, and then I think it'll settle down into a thoughtful field," said John Fish, chairman of Suffolk Construction, who declared he had no interest in running. "And then I think it'll become fast-paced." One candidate, Councilor at Large John Connolly of West Roxbury, had previously announced his intention to run, regardless of Menino's plans. State Representative Martin Walsh, a Dorchester Democrat with close labor ties, said last week that he would seek the seat if Menino did not. But there are more than a dozen other names traveling in political circles. Several elected officials said that Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F.

Conley of West Roxbury has made calls to sound out support. Conley reported more than $868,000 in his campaign account at the end of 2012. Councilor Michael P. Ross of Mission Hill, Councilor at Large Felix Arroyo Jr. of Jamaica Plain, Councilor Tito Jackson of Grove Hall, Councilor Rob Consalvo of Hyde Park, Councilor Charles Yancey of Dorchester, and Council President Stephen Murphy of Hyde Park all are the subject of speculation.

As he ducked into a City Hall elevator, Yancey told a reporter, "I'm looking at it." field The same year, Menino won election to his Hyde Park council seat. Many of the prospective contenders professed a sense of disorientation as the city's most enduring avuncular presence moved toward the door. "It has caught me as off-guard as anybody else," Conley said. Arroyo, who said he was considering a run, said: "He's been the mayor since I was 14 years old. This is very real to me." Two lesser-known candidates have also declared for the seat: Will Dorcena, who won less than 5 percent of the vote when he ran in 2011 for an at-large seat on the City Council, and Charles demons, cofound-er of TOUCH 106.1 FM.

As the pace of the mayoral campaign quickens, some of Boston's most recognizable political figures are occupied elsewhere. US Representative Stephen F. Lynch of South Boston, who attended Menino's speech, is running for US Senate in the Democratic primary against US Representative Edward J. Markey of Maiden, who did not. The three Democratic candidates for an open state Senate post, state Representative Linda Dorcena Forry of Dorchester, South Boston blogger Maureen Dahill and state Representative Nick Collins of South Boston, were also in the hall.

Both the US and state Senate primaries are scheduled for April 30. The application deadline for nomination papers for the mayor's race is May 13. Michael Levenson and Andrew Ryan of the Globe staff contributed. Jim O'Sullivan can be reached at James. OSullivan globe.com.

1990s, Menino helped him land a city job as a parking enforcement officer. When he and his wife planned a trip to Washington for their 50th anniversary, Menino arranged a White House tour and saw to it that Senator John Kerry secured the American flag that had flown over the Capitol on a day shortly before their wedding anniversary. "I am forever grateful for what he did," O'Brien said. Which isn't to say that he was a sycophant. "I used to joke with him when he'd say, 'I'm going to I'd say, 'I wish I had a job like that, riding around the city all day with a On Thursday, when the two old friends were talking by phone shortly before Menino's scheduled address, O'Brien gin-gerly asked, "Are you all through?" "Yes," came the response.

O'Brien reassured his friend, saying, "I feel bad about it, but I understand." Menino responded, "Ah well, It's been 20 years. It's time. We'll talk about it. We'll sit on a park bench and talk about it." And with that, the old friends agreed to reconvene the conversation, when the mayor was at rest. Sarah Schweitzer can be reached at sschweitzer globe.com.

Consalvo sounded a similar note late Thursday, saying, "It's something I'm strongly looking at." He said he hoped to announce a decision next week. Asked if she would run for mayor, Councilor at Large Ayanna Pressley of Dorchester replied, "I'm running for reelection." State Representative Jeffrey Sanchez of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts Convention Center Authority executive director James Rooney, and state Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz of Jamaica Plain were among the state officials most widely mentioned as potential candidates. State Public Safety Secretary Andrea Cabral, the former Suffolk County sheriff frequently mentioned as a potential mayoral candidate, did not return a phone call. There were also a few who cast doubt on speculation about their political aspirations. Marie St.

Fleur, a top City Hall aide and former state representative who was briefly a candidate for lieutenant governor in 2006, told the Globe she did not plan to run this year. Through a spokesman, Boston Foundation president Paul Grogan said he has no plans to run for mayor. An aide to Ralph Martin, the former Suffolk district attorney currently working as Northeastern University's general counsel, told the Globe, "He just has no comment on anything to do with the mayor." At Faneuil Hall, Menino said he had no intention of influencing the outcome. "I have no plans to pick the person to fill this seat," he said. But Menino's considerable political operation spans the city and would be a valuable prize for whichever candidate can salvage portions of it.

dale was soon measurable after he won a City Council seat, O'Brien said. "He did an awful lot for Roslindale. He brought the Main Streets program to Roslindale," So impressed was O'Brien that he went on to work on every Menino campaign there A GRATEFUL BENEFICIARY News sends an old friend reeling, but he understands By Sarah Schweitzer GLOBE STAFF He calls him Tommy. Tommy calls him Mr. O'Brien or, for reasons not entirely known, Grumpy.

It's pretty much been that way since the beginning: When Bill O'Brien was coaching his son in hockey and Tommy was a state senator's staffer. When O'Brien was one of five guys hunkered in Tommy's Hyde Park basement plotting his first run for office. When Tommy was a city councilor and quietly slipped away from Saturday morning games at the George Wright Golf Course to attend a neighborhood meeting and often another at night. When Tommy shouted hello to O'Brien from behind a wall of people wanting a word with the mayor as he breakfasted at the Westbury Restaurant after church on Sundays. "He was a big shot, but he never acted that way," said O'Brien a 76-year-old retired traffic investigator for the city.

O'Brien is among the hundreds, even thousands, of fiercely loyal supporters of Thomas M. Menino, a cadre that has made for an astound-ingly powerful political machine, the sort that could be called up to create record-making wins for Menino or help send Menino's allies into office, most recently, US Sena tor Elizabeth Warren. Yesterday, O'Brien had to breathe deeply before he talked about his friend's decision to step down after two decades as mayor. The news left him reeling, nursing an ache deep down where loss and remembrance reside. "I understand why he's doing it.

I do," he said. "But I feel real sad." Worse, he said, was how he imagined his friend feeling. "I know it's got to be killing him because he loves this job." O'Brien, an Irish immigrant who moved to Boston when he was 17 and settled in Roslin-dale after marrying, met Menino when he was working as a salesman and repairman at a Honeywell plant. From the beginning, O'Brien recalled Menino as a blur of activity. "When he started to run for City Council, but even before that, he never let up.

He was always calling people, organizing things," O'Brien called. "People couldn't believe how he could be in so many places." To wit: In the midst of helping to run state Senator Joseph Timilty's mayoral campaign, Menino was setting up tournaments for Hyde Park Youth Hockey. "Tommy was always around and willing to help out." In 1983, when Menino saw a political opportunity for him 'People couldn't believe how he could be in so many BILL O'BRIEN, longtime supporter of Mayor Menino JIM DAVISGLOBE STAFF after, making signs, holding signs, working the phones. He and his wife have attended every one of Menino's annual neighborhood breakfasts, some 30 by his count. O'Brien, like so many others, was a beneficiary of Menino's.

When he lost his job in the self, O'Brien was quick to sign on. "People used to say, 'What are you doing helping an Italian? You're he said "But I just felt he was a good person, a decent person. A real good guy." Menino's impact on Roslin-.