mayor

Your guy won/lost this past Tuesday. You can take the sign down now.

The preliminary precinct breakdowns from the city show that Michael Flaherty actually carried Ward 5 (Back Bay, Beacon Hill and part of Fenway), although barely (2,544 to 2,472). In the September preliminary, that was Menino country.

Floon also carried the day in Ward 16 in Dorchester, another area Menino took in September. Obviously, though, that and the Flaherty strongholds of Charlestown, South Boston and neighboring Ward 7 in Dorchester were not enough to overcome Menino romps in areas such as Hyde Park, Roslindale and Roxbury.

Matt O'Malley, who has much better eyes, dives into the numbers in much greater depth. On Blue Mass. Group, Bob has still more analysis of the numbers.

Right here - get your reading glasses on.

Via Harry Mattison.

The Globe declares Menino A leader in touch, in gear. The Herald looks ahead to 2013 and wonders if Menino will really stick around that long.

John Carroll predicts Menino will regret running for that fifth term. David Bernstein hopes Menino uses some of his political capital to deal with "some very difficult things that need doing." Scot Lehigh starts with the nagging. Peter Gelzinis talks to some voters, provides a sort of O. Henry ending.

Call him Hizzonah again.

Boston today gave Tom Menino a record fifth term today, re-electing him by a 57-43 margin over challenger Michael Flaherty.

"Let's be clear: We haven't made history with this election, but we will in what we create of it," Menino told supporters. History will not record the win until we make "a new Boston Miracle for our kids," he said. "Complacency is the highest hurdle we face. Let's fend off the temptation to rest on past accomplishments."

At-large candidate Tito Jackson lets a voter have cake at Holy Name School in West Roxbury this morning.

What are you seeing out there?

Only instead of kids at the door, it's politicians on the phone. John Kerry robo-called in support of his good friend Ayanna Pressley. Not one minute after I sat back down on the couch, Ayanna her-robo-self called. I hope we don't run out of candy - or my wife's patience.

Kevin McCrea explains why he's voting for Flaherty tomorrow - and how he almost endorsed Menino instead, he and his wife even went to dinner with the Meninos at Hammersley's Bistro in the South End. In the end, he writes it came down to a single issue:

WBUR declares Chuck Turner kind of a cult leader, says that helps explain why the Innocent Until Proven Guilty Councilor will win tomorrow.

The Globe compares Menino and Flaherty on education and crime.

Scot Lehigh reports on a visit by King Thomas the Eternal to the Globe, did not come away impressed.

David Kravitz, a Flaherty backer at Blue Mass. Group, dissects the Globe's endorsement of Menino, doesn't find much meat there.

The Globe endorses Menino.

The Herald reports Flaherty is going after the party-hardy vote and details the Kenneally-mobile.

John Carroll gets his crank on, describing Menino as "his usual incoherent self" at a WBUR forum yesterday and calling Flaherty a "Boston mayoral footnote."

Tom Menino and Michael Flaherty will both be on Radio Boston today, at 1 p.m. - 90.9 FM or streaming on the Web.

The South End News gets the scoop.

Floon journeys to Downtown Crossing today to use The Hole as a backdrop for their call to force developers to put up performance bonds before they start digging.

Seems the majority owner of the Hole is sitting on $2.8 billion in cash and is looking for good investments, which apparently Boston isn't.

Globe: Menino, Flaherty present opposing views of Boston in heated debate.
Herald: Michael Flaherty, Tom Menino take last licks.

The four Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate seat debate tonight starting at 7 p.m. on a local channel near you.

The last mayoral debate is Tuesday, starting at 6:30 p.m. at Faneuil Hall. You need to register for tickets; this one won't be on TV.

There's a forum for district 9 council candidates in Brighton on Tuesday at the Jackson-Mann School, starting at 6 p.m. More.

There's a forum for at-large and district 1 candidates on Wednesday at the Nazarro Center in the North End, starting at 7 p.m. More.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette highlights this week's debate among at-large council candidates on park and open-space issues in the city. Somebody asked Felix Arroyo what "Asian Longhorned Beetles" meant to him; he replied he had no idea, but figured anything with horns was probably bad. The tree-felling beetles have yet to hit Boston, although people are starting to look for them, just in case.

Geeky Mama reports from an education session Flaherty had in Roslindale last night - which started off with some BPS parents worrying that Flaherty's doom and gloom approach might wind up frightening away parents from the good schools the city does have. She reports Flaherty wants to ditch the current school assignment zones and said he would use the city's current good bond rating to get money for capital improvements at schools - and to build new ones.

The Herald endorses Menino for one more term, saying his pluses outweigh his prickly minuses.

The Phoenix explains why it wants to see Arroyo, Pressley, Connolly and Murphy as at-large councilors. Murphy? Yes, Murphy. Guy's grown in the job, the Phoenix says.

Mike Ball counters with his list: Kenneally, Connolly, Arroyo and Murphy.

The Globe reports Secretary of State Bill Galvin has ruled Michael Kineavy "inappropriately" deleted e-mail messages that should have been preserved as public records. He's referred the case to Attorney General Martha Coakley, who is no doubt relieved she won't have to decide what to do until after Nov. 3.

Challenger Michael Flaherty took the Ward 11 Democratic Committee vote last night 11-10, while incumbent Tom Menino got a 14-12 vote in Ward 19, which also includes part of Roslindale. Neither, however, won a formal endorsement because rules require a two-thirds vote for that.

Ed. note: I took down an earlier blog post on the votes because it had a couple of serious inaccuracies.

John Carrol found the whole thing muddled:

... So a debate that should have provided some answers for Boston voters mostly left them with questions.

For example, which of these makes for a better bumper sticker – ”Tom Menino: We haven't been charged with anything" or "Under a Flaherty administration, we'll have FiOS"? ...

Notes from tonight's debate:

Menino and Flaherty have at it again in a debate that starts tonight at 7 p.m. on Channel 2, NECN and WBUR.

Over in Brighton, Ciommo and Selvig have at it again in a debate tomorrow in a debate that starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Brighton Elks, 326 Washington St.

At-large council candidate Ayanna Pressley's campaign reports endorsements by City Council President Mike Ross, councilors John Tobin and Charles Yancey, State Senators Steven Tolman and Sonia Chang-Diaz and State Representatives Kevin Honan, Liz Malia and Martin Walsh.

Press conference at 10:30 a.m. today with Floon and 40 or so "community leaders and pastors," in front of the Boston Public School headquarters on School Street to "underscore Mayor Menino's poor performance on improving public schools and his failure to provide a quality education to Boston's children," the campaign says.

Among those scheduled to appear: Overseer Thomas Cross of the Church of God of Christ, Bishop Edward Hoffman of Calvary Church International, Pastor Sybil Dunwoody of the Greater Zion Church of God in Christ, Rev. Nicolas Homicil of the Voice of the Gospel Tabernacle, Linda Barros of Self Help, Inc. and Reynelda "Chickie" Rivera of Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion.