Bill Linehan

District 2 (South Boston, South End, downtown, Chinatown), incumbent City Councilor Bill Linehan is shocked almost beyond belief about a mailing from opponent Suzanne Lee, which includes a snippet from a column in which the Globe's Yvonne Abraham called him a dinosaur.

The Walsh campaign has announced an 11;45 a.m. endorsement at the Moakley Courthouse by state Sen. Therese Murray.

CommonWealth reports that the vast majority of outside money pouring into Boston is pouring into Walsh's coffers:

The Globe does the blow by blow. The Herald focuses on schools and unions.

David Bernstein explains why Walsh's sudden demand that Connolly release a list of every law client he ever had was kind of stupid.

Good news, everyone! State Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry and City Councilor Bill Linehan issued a statement tonight agreeing that she will host the St. Patrick's Day breakfast and that they will now get back to the task of dealing with public safety, substance abuse and neighborhood development.

In the statement, Forry says:

Bill Linehan, whose district is at the heart of the city's heroin epidemic, is seeking an ordinance that would raise the cost of a marijuana citation from $100 to $300, at least for people caught smoking in public parks, Boston Magazine reports.

The council considers Linehan's proposal at its regular meeting tomorrow at City Hall. His proposed order reads, in part:

City councilors Steve Murphy (at large) and Bill Linehan (South Boston, South End) today will propose setting a limit on how much a homeowner's property taxes can rise from one year to the next.

The two argue that residents in areas undergoing gentrification are being unduly burdened by the fact that as foreclosed and distressed properties get renovated, their property values - and so their property taxes - are going up too fast. In a request for a hearing on a "circuit breaker" provision, they add:

The City Council voted today to consider measures that would regulate so-called sober homes for recovering drug addicts and require pawn shops and other businesses that sell second-hand goods to tie into a Boston Police database of stolen property.

South End Patch reports Suzanne Lee will formally ask the city elections department to recount votes in District 2, where officials said she lost to incumbent Councilor Bill Linehan by just 87 votes.

(Originally appeared at www.bostonbastard.com. This post reflects the opinion of the Boston Bastard and not that of UHub and Adam G.)

In September, Suzanne Lee had one thing that Bill Linehan didn’t – the element of surprise. No one expected a first-time candidate from Chinatown to give much trouble to an incumbent South Bostonian in “South Boston’s District.”

That all changed when Lee smacked Linehan across the face in the polls, Sept. 27, taking the top spot in the preliminary election.

All of a sudden, what was not expected to be a difficult battle for Linehan, has turned into one of two hotly-contested district races this year.

It remains to be seen how much support Linehan was able to drum up since coming in second, but it’s clear the race would not be a cake walk.

As far as campaign financing goes, both Linehan and Lee reported roughly the same amount of total campaign donations for the year at the time of the election, September 27. But on the Friday following the election, Linehan’s campaign deposited $23,630 in donations.

Linehan didn’t actually report any receipts in the first two weeks of October, but in that time, he did sink $ 17,936.18 into his campaign, predominately in local media advertising.

Incumbent Bill Linehan will share a room with challengers Suzanne Lee and Bob Ferrara on Sept. 13 in a forum sponsored by the Blackstone/Franklin Square Neighborhood Association