2009 Boston mayoral election
The 2009 Boston mayoral election occurred on Tuesday, November 3, 2009, between incumbent Mayor of Boston Thomas Menino, and Michael F. Flaherty, member of the Boston City Council and former Council president. Menino was re-elected to a fifth term, the first mayor to do so in Boston history. A nonpartisan municipal preliminary election was held on September 22, 2009, where Flaherty and Menino advanced to the general election.
31% of registered voters turned out to vote in the election.
Campaign
Menino considered support from black voters as crucial to securing his re-election. Despite occasionally being at political odds with black elected officials on the Boston City Council and in the state legislature, Menino had enjoyed strong support from black voters in all of his mayoral races. In recognition of this, Menino held his campaign launch event at Hibernian Hall in the Dudley Square area of Roxbury and featured a number of prominent black public political figured at the launch.After the preliminary election, Flaherty and fellow-Councillor Sam Yoon, who had finished third, declared they had formed a ticket. If Flaherty were victorious, he vowed to appoint Yoon deputy mayor, a position that had not existed in Boston since the administration of Kevin White, who left office in 1984. Kevin McRea also announced that he would endorse Flaherty. Details of the position, including salary, were never finalized.
Following the preliminary election, Flaherty immediately began an aggressive campaign, attacking Menino as ineffectual.