Jimbo makes the case. Potential mayoral candidate Michael Flaherty is involved. I'd link to the paper's initial story and the column that has Jimbo upset, but the East Boston Times has kind of a pitiful Web site that is perpetually out of date.

Tom Menino sure pulled a good one on him, slipping $2 million into the city budget to study moving City Hall to South Boston, which Flaherty managed to vote for even though he opposes the move, because, well, it was on page 342 of the budget:

In an interview after the hearing, he said that he did not realize he had already voted to approve the funding for the studies.

As a reporter, I once covered a similar issue in Natick - when one selectman realized he'd been similarly, if not quite so back-of-the-bookishly, bamboozled, he said "If I'd realized what I was voting for, I would have voted against myself."

No offense to Natick, but shouldn't we expect more from Boston councilors, who, after all, get paid full-time wages? Surely a man who would be mayor of Boston would realize he has to be on guard when it comes to the man who is mayor of Boston - even if he does have a point about spending $2 million on a study like that in times like these.

There once was a man from Nantucket
Floppy-haired selectman who stuck it
But to Boston he flew
City council he knew
Alas, voters told him, oh, f**k it

Oh, I'm sure you can do better, so have at it.

The Globe (well, technically, a University of New Hampshire survey group hired by the Globe) is surveying Boston residents to try to discern who might put up a good fight against Tom Menino next year.

The list of potential challengers, as seen by Globe survey takers: City Councilor at Large Michael Flaherty, West Roxbury/JP City Councilor John Tobin, Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral, Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley, successful businessman and unsuccessful candidate Chris Gabrieli and, of course, 1-800 Joe 4 Oil Kennedy, who, by law, has to be included in every single poll taken in Suffolk County.

Among the basic questions are how satisfied residents are with everything from education and crime fighting to street cleanliness and the state of public transportation and taxi service in their neighborhoods (taxi service as a big issue next year?).

Michael Pahre reports on e-mail from the councilor criticizing "the administration" for its failure to get a constituent-complaint tracking system running:

... I believe we have just heard the opening salvo of the 2009 Mayoral campaign. ...

Former DA Ralph Martin declines to run for mayor, citing ambivalence over how he wants to spend the next 10 years.

David Bernstein at the Phoenix: Will nobody step in with a serious campaign to enliven the tedium of the suffering political journalists?

Michael Pahre takes note of newbie at-large city councilor John Connolly (best known in West Roxbury and Roslindale) and his quick learning of the BC expansion issue and wonders if it might already be time to add him to the list of possible candidates for mayor next year:

We'll watch those fund-raising numbers carefully over the next six months to see how well he replenishes his warchest.

Decisions, decisions. Does the West Roxbury city councilor (who also reps JP) roll the dice for 2009 and get ready to run for mayor next year (assuming Tom Menino decides he's had enough) or does he roll the dice for this fall and get ready to run for state senate (assuming Marian Walsh gets named a judge)?

In either case, he could face opposition from fellow councilors - in the mayor's race, from Michael Flaherty, who's been salivating after the mayor's office for awhile now (and who ended 2007 with $428,414.52 in the bank, according to the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance); in the senate race, from Rob Consalvo, whom I doubt anybody outside of Hyde Park and Roslindale has ever heard of, unless you remember his campaign to ban the sale of mini-bikes.

Why, hello there, Mr. Flaherty! Come on in, Mr. Martin! At the Herald, Jessica Van Sack declares: Obama reveals weaker Menino.

I dunno. When I went to vote on Tuesday (for Obama, for what it's worth), I wasn't trying to send Tom Menino a message. I wasn't thinking about the state of Boston public schools, the recent violence in my neighborhood or my property taxes. I was thinking national and international issues (especially the war, which is what tipped me to Obama).

So I'm not ready to consign Menino to the dustbin of history just yet - especially if you look at where Clinton (and thus by proxy, I suppose, Menino) did well in Boston (see Chris Lovett's analysis): West Roxbury, South Boston, Readville - the sorts of places that always vote in much higher numbers in municipal elections than such Obama redoubts as Allston/Brighton and the Back Bay. Next year could be an interesting election for mayor, if we get a well funded or well organized opponent (who knows, we might even get the Globe to cover the election this time!). But it'll be focused entirely on local issues, not what happened Tuesday.

On today's ballot how do you folks select who you vote for
a. for state committee man?...
b. state committee woman?...
c. ward committee?...

d. How are the electoral college people actually selected?...

see also
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elecoll/collidx.htm