Climbing Above the Culture Clash

The Man Who Would Be Mayor:
Michael Flaherty’s (’94) Bid to Lead the City of Boston
Running against an incumbent is
always difficult. Challenging Boston’s
longest-serving mayor is an even more
formidable task. But Boston City
Councilor-at-Large Michael Flaherty
(’94) decided to take the challenge and
try to derail Mayor Thomas Menino’s
bid for a record fifth term in office.
Flaherty, whose father, Michael
Flaherty Sr., was a 12-term state
representative for South Boston, inhaled
local politics as a child, holding signs
for his dad, passing out campaign
pamphlets, attending political events
and fielding telephone calls from
constituents. But it was his experience
as an assistant district attorney, with
its street-level view of the fallout from
underperforming schools, substandard
housing and inadequate social services,
that became a major driver behind
his decision to run for public office.
Flaherty served from 1996 to 1998 as
an assistant district attorney for the
Suffolk County District Attorney’s
office, trying cases in East Boston,
Charlestown and Roxbury district courts.
As a prosecutor, Flaherty recalled, “You
see a lot, some of it very taxing, very
disturbing.” On assignment to Roxbury
District Court, with its many repeat
offenders, he assessed the system and
concluded: “When it comes to public
safety, especially youth violent crime,
we’re not going to be able to arrest and
prosecute our way out of the problem.”
So he decided to approach this problem
from a different angle. He left the DA’s
office to join J. Albert Johnson (later
Johnson, Hassett & Hanley). In 1999,
Flaherty won a seat on the Boston City
Council and has been continuously reelected
since then, serving as council
president from 2002 to 2006. He has
been the top vote-getter in the last three
Fall 2009 | The Record | 7