Michael F. Flaherty is a former at-large member of the
Boston City CouncilThe Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. Councilors are elected to two-year terms and there is no limit on the number of terms an individual can serve...
. He is a member of the United States Democratic Party. He was elected to Boston City Council Vice President in 2001 and Boston City Council President from 2002 to 2006.
Biography
Flaherty is from South Boston. His father,
Michael F. Flaherty, Sr.Michael F. Flaherty, Sr. is a former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and former associate justice of the Boston Municipal Court. A South Boston Democrat, he represented the 4th Suffolk district from 1967 to 1991. He was appointed to the Boston Municipal Court by Governor Jane...
, is a former associate justice on the Boston, Massachusetts Municipal Court and a former state representative. He is a graduate of
Boston College High SchoolFounded in 1863, Boston College High School is an all-male Jesuit Roman Catholic college preparatory secondary school with historical ties to Boston College. It has an enrollment in grades 7-12 of approximately 1,500 students and is located on a campus on Morrissey Boulevard in the Dorchester...
and
Boston CollegeBoston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
, and earned his law degree at
Boston UniversityBoston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
. Prior to being elected to the Council in 1999, he was an assistant district attorney in the
Suffolk CountySuffolk County has no land border with Plymouth County to its southeast, but the two counties share a water boundary in the middle of Massachusetts Bay.-National protected areas:*Boston African American National Historic Site...
District Attorney's Office.
City Council
He was re-elected in 1608, 2003, 2005, and 2007. He was the top vote-getter in the city council at-large race in 2003, 2005, and 2007. His margin of victory in 2005 over first runner-up City Councilor
Felix D. ArroyoFelix D. Arroyo was a city councilor in Boston, Massachusetts, United States from January 2003 to January 2008.Arroyo completed his undergraduate studies and received a Masters in Secondary Education at the University of Puerto Rico...
was 5,671 votes, the widest margin since the Council was restructured in 1983.
Boston Mayoral Campaign
Flaherty announced on January 26, 2009 that he is running for mayor of Boston. He has raised more than $600,000 for his campaign. According to the Boston Globe only 9% of Flaherty's contributions have come from out-of-state (compared to his opponent
Sam YoonSam Yoon is a former at-large member of the Boston City Council. He currently serves as the executive director for the National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations in Washington, DC. He was the first Asian American to hold elected office in Boston...
's 58%)
Flaherty was defeated by incumbent
Thomas MeninoThomas Michael "Tom" Menino is the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, United States and the city's first Italian-American mayor...
in the
electionThe Boston mayoral election of 2009 occurred on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 between current mayor, Thomas Menino, and Michael Flaherty, current City Councilor and former City Council President...
on November 3, 2009. Flaherty came closer than anyone has ever did even when Menino was first elected in 1993.
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