Though the end of Michael Flaherty and Sam Yoon’s terms as city councilors-at-large is fast approaching, there’s no end in sight for the former mayoral candidates involvement in civic affairs, representatives said.
Initially rivals in the preliminary mayoral race, Flaherty and Yoon joined forces as running mates against incumbent Mayor Thomas Menino after Yoon lost the Sept. 22 primary. Menino, already the longest-serving mayor in Boston history, was elected to an unprecedented fifth term in the general election Nov. 3, besting the ‘Floon’ team by a 15 percent margin.
But campaign representatives said Flaherty and Yoon, who will give up their council seats in January, hope to continue the discussions they began in the race on issues such as education and diversity in city departments.
‘There are all kinds of ways to win,’ Flaherty spokeswoman Natasha Perez said. ‘[Flaherty] was able to bring up some critical issues during this election. An election is a great opportunity to bring up issues, and it takes outside pressure to bring them forward.’
Yoon spokesman Jordan Newman said Yoon plans to use the remainder of his term on the city council to work on the issues he brought up during the campaign.
‘We raised a lot of issues in this campaign about what works, what doesn’t, what has to change to in Boston,’ Newman said. ‘That’s a conversation that’s going to have to continue.’
Yoon has the capacity on the city council to move forward on some of the measures the ‘Floon’ team promised to enact if elected, such as abolishing the Boston Redevelopment Authority and establishing mayoral term limits, Newman said.
Though Yoon’s plans after his term ends are less certain, Newman said, but he will remain involved in Boston through nonprofits or government work.
‘He is committed to staying in Boston and staying involved in the public conversation,’ Newman said.
Perez said Flaherty, who works as a counsel at the Providence law firm Adler Pollock & Sheehan, will continue to practice law while also searching for opportunities to serve the community.
‘Michael is a person who believes deeply in public service . . . and he believes that it can be a vehicle for change,’ she said. ‘For him, it’s about finding the right vehicle both for his talents and the message he wants to get across.’
The former candidates have not ruled out the possibility of running for office again in the future, representatives said.
Perez said Flaherty would be closely watching the January special election to fill the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat. State Attorney General Martha Coakley is a front-running candidate in that race, and Perez said if she wins the election, Flaherty may consider running for her current position.
‘I think there’s going to be a lot of opportunity in the next year for him to decide where he wants to be,’ she said, adding that Flaherty was ‘not ruling anything out’ in terms of running for Senate or another political office.
U.S. Rep. Mike Capuano, D-Mass., is among Coakley’s main competitors in the Senate race, and if he wins, Perez suggested Yoon would be a good fit to fill Capuano’s vacated 8th Congressional District seat, as he lives in that district.
Newman, however, said Yoon has no interest in running for Congress at this time.
‘That would mean moving to Washington [D.C.],’ Newman said. ‘Sam is looking to stay in Boston and stay involved in civic life in Boston.”
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