David Bernstein reports that Yoon surpassed his must-raise-100k-by-New-Year's goal and so will now run for mayor. Maybe. Pete Stidman at the Dorchester Reporter wonders if Yoon didn't already have the cash in hand when he sent out his pre-Christmas plea - he notes Yoon's wife knows a bit about fundraising techniques.

Down amidst the news about Tom Menino spending roughly $400,000 a year campaigning for the past three years against, oh, nobody in particular is Hizzonah's assertion that he's not yet sure if he'll be running next year.

Meanwhile, Yoon recently sent out a fundraising e-mail that went something like: I need to raise $100,000 by the end of the year to run for mayor in 2009 or I'll be called home.

If the Boston City Council wants to publish its minutes online, it's going to have to get permission from the state Legislature first, according to the city legal department.

You may recall how Councilor Sam Yoon proposed requiring all city boards use the city Web site to post meeting schedules and minutes. Seems a good, sensible thing in the Age of the Tubes, right? And, in fact, the council today unanimously approved his proposal to do just that for every city board.

Except the city council itself.

Seems that back in 1947, the state Legislature passed legislation - which Gov. Robert Bradford then signed - barring the publication of "the substance of debates by and among members of the [Boston] city council."

The law is still on the books, and the office of Corporation Counsel William Sinnott says it doesn't conflict with the more modern public-records and open-meeting laws, so Yoon said today he will seek a home-rule petition to the Legislature to repeal it. It's unclear if the 1947 law would also apply to the videos of city council meetings and hearings.

The law doesn't state reasons for the ban, but it was passed while Curley was both mayor and a federal inmate (pesky mail-fraud charges) and the acting mayor, then city clerk John Hynes, basically shut down City Hall so Curley could deal with things when he got out. So maybe the anti-Curley legislature thought it was giving the council a way to circumvent that. Any historians out there know for sure? And as long as we're on Curley, did anybody ever find his desk?

David Bernstein reports on how Sam Yoon, who is not a member of the council's aviation committee (of course the Boston City Council has an aviation committee), is trying to bar some Chinese airline from flying out of Logan, not because of any grand geopolitical concerns (which in any case are Chuck Turner's province), but because it owes money to some companies in some other state. Um, what?

But first: Over at the Phoenix, Adam Reilly gets a press release from Sam Yoon about opening up city government and all he can think is "Don Saklad must be thrilled." Until he realizes the press release doesn't mention stenographic recordings.

In any case, Yoon is proposing that:

... All city commissions and boards would be required to post their members' names, meeting schedules, agendas and minutes on the Internet. ...

Councilor Yoon begins mayoral bid 3,000 miles from city he wants to lead (although a Yoon spokesman says the effort there is "unauthorized").

Silicon Valley blogger thinks that would just be marvy.

What? You didn't get an invitation to the kickoff event?

Yoon's 2008 contributions to date - more from out of state than from Massachusetts residents (Excel spreadsheet from data compiled by the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance).

Three cheers for at-large Councilor Sam Yoon, whose office tells Kevin McCrea he not only opposes a proposal to ask the state legislature to exempt the council from the state Open Meeting Law, he will file a proposed ordinance that council minutes actually be written in English instead of indecipherable shorthand.

At the time, it was like "oh, that's interesting," in an "I will forget this in 30 seconds" sort of way. But as Michael Pahre notes, the fact that Sam Yoon (yes, our Sam Yoon) was named to the Democratic National Committee's Rule Committee in January now has some national implications: His committee has to decide what to do about Florida and Michigan.

Winner:

Loser:

Big winner:

Winner:

Guy whose picture I didn't happen to take at the Roslindale Day Parade:
John Connolly

Steve Murphy proved tonight he's the Model T of elected officials: He can get elected to anything as long as it's an at-large seat on the Boston city council. He came in second tonight, giving him one of the four at-large seats on the city council.

Felix Arroyo, meanwhile, proved that, on a rainy day, when not even 14% of registered voters show up, organization DOES matter, as in: If you don't have much of one, you're going to wonder what the hell happened.

And what the hell happened tonight was that John Connolly, who had an incredibly organized get-out-the-vote effort, especially in his home base of Roslindale and West Roxbury, simply got more votes than Arroyo (who came in second two years ago, which led to a brief Arroyo-for-mayor boomlet). If the flap over Connolly's anonymous anti-Murphy mailings had an impact, in the end, it didn't matter (except to possibly give Steve Murphy some sympathy votes).

Of course, above everybody else sits, again, Michael Flaherty. Not really a surprise there, and you know he already has people thinking what colors to use on the "Flaherty for Mayor" signs. The only question is whether he dares to take on Tom Menino in two years or waits until 2013 - when, who knows, maybe he'll be facing Sam Yoon, who also got re-elected tonight.

Of course, the big question is what this all means for actual policy making in Boston. Granted, we have a "weak" city council, which makes it hard for them to actually get anything done, but they do have the power to hold hearings and get to vote on the mayor's budget, so it'll be interesting to read in the GateHouse and college papers what happens (since we obviously can forget about the Globe and Herald writing much of anything about the council).

In other races:

Mark Ciommo beat Gregory Glennon to win the Allston/Brighton district council race by a roughly 60/40 margin (props to Michael Pahre for calling that margin). He takes over for Jerry McDermott, who moved out of town.

In Dorchester, Maureen Feeney easily maintained her position as the only woman on the council, swamping Michael Cote.

Charles Yancey did even better against J.R. Rucker in his Dorchester/Mattapan district.

It was Chuck Turner over Carlos Henriquez in Roxbury in another trouncing.

All other district races were uncontested.

Vote numbers from the city elections department.

John Keith explains why Yoon's proposal to have the city buy foreclosed condos - and to then put deed restrictions on them - is the worst idea EVAR.