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Hennigan seeks influx of cash to challenge Menino
Lisa Wangsness and April Simpson, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent
Friday, July 29, 2005
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Mayoral challenger Maura A. Hennigan said yesterday she will borrow
against her home and two other houses she owns to pump at least $100,000
into her campaign.
Hennigan, whose campaign has just over $30,000, needs more money to
seriously challenge Mayor Thomas M. Menino. His campaign has $1.1 million,
and has raised nearly $40,000 in the last two weeks.
''I am prepared to run a viable campaign against the mayor to get my
message out," she said. ''I will do TV, I will do radio, I will do
mailings, I will do what it takes to hopefully win this election."
Hennigan would not say how much she would borrow for the race, adding
she has not consulted with her accountant. But she said $100,000 is the
minimum. Hennigan said she can mount a competitive campaign with
$500,000.
''People can be very, very confident that this will be an adequately
funded campaign," she said.
Menino had no comment last night.
Hennigan owns four properties in the city: her residence on Woodland
Road in Jamaica Plain, with an assessed value of $552,100; a brick
four-family rowhouse on West Cottage Street in Dorchester, with an
assessed value of $249,000 and an attached lot with an assessed value of
$45,600; and a three-family home on Child Street in Hyde Park with an
assessed value of $342,000.
Hennigan said she owes money on all those properties and has no income
outside of her $75,000 council salary, except for a small amount she earns
from rents. She said she hopes the money she borrows is a loan to her
campaign, but she is prepared not to get it back.
''I'm not a wealthy person -- this was supposed to be money I would
count on for my retirement," said Hennigan, 53.
Former mayor Ray Flynn also took out a second mortgage on his house in
his successful dark horse race for mayor in 1983, when he faced much
better-financed competition.
''When you don't have any money and you want to serve the people of the
city, it shows a great deal of commitment and seriousness," he said in an
interview yesterday. ''You have to give her credit for putting it on the
line."
Also yesterday, reporters were led on an unusual Boston tour by
Hennigan. Instead of going by Duck Boat, they rode in a trolley she had
rented. And instead of history, they heard laments about how the city is
being run.
''Today, you are going to see Boston with new eyes," Hennigan said,
departing her Jamaica Plain campaign office.
Hennigan, whose campaign has been searching for an issue that will
seize the public's attention, rattled off complaints as the trolley passed
through neighborhoods from South Boston to the North End. In her
neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, she spied a crosswalk signal that wasn't
working. She said she complained to the Public Works Department two weeks
ago.
''It's an example of how constituents' complaints just get lost," she
said.
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Mayor puts on $queeze: Challenger to fund run with house
Kimberly Atkins
Friday, July 29, 2005
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Backed into a fund-raising corner by what she called heavy-handed campaign tactics
by Mayor Thomas M. Menino, challenger Maura Hennigan said she is betting the
house – literally – on her longshot bid.
``Because
of the chill factor that he has sent out, people who have
contributed to me historically have been called and talked to . . .
to not contribute,'' Hennigan said.
As
a result, the city councilor said she will borrow against her own
three-story Jamaica Plain home to run her uphill campaign against
the powerful incumbent.
``It
will be more (than) $100,000,'' Maura said of the amount she will
pour into her campaign finance account. ``I have more than that in
equity in my personal property.''
By
using mortgaged assets, and by passing on a far easier bid to retain
her at large City Council seat, Hennigan is hoping to convince
voters that backing her would not be a lost cause.
Recent
media reports of her modest campaign balance, which at just under
$27,000 is barely a ding in Menino's hefty war chest of $1.1
million, have made it harder for her to get her message out, she
said.cw0
``I
just want people to know how serious I am,'' Hennigan said. ``I'm
not running for a lark. I'm not running just to put my name on a
ballot.''
Hennigan,
who made the announcement yesterday during a trolley tour of the
city, insists that grassroots support for her campaign outweighs the
size of her campaign chest – partly because people are afraid to be
recorded publicly contributing significant amounts to deny Menino a
fourth four-year term.
``There
are people who are contributing $5, $10 – but that only adds up to
so much,'' she said.
Though
Hennigan said using her personal assets will be more than enough to
run an effective campaign, it still won't keep pace with Menino's
fund raising. He has pulled in more than $300,000 since June alone,
much of it from big-money corporate donors.
Hennigan
also used the three-hour tour to point out issues she is concerned
about in a number of Boston neighborhoods from West Roxbury to the
North End, vowing to make elected neighborhood groups, not appointed
ones, track development.
Back to Top
Hennigan bets the ranch
Boston Herald editorial staff
Saturday, July 30, 2005
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Voters have to admire any politician
willing to put it all on the line - including the roof over her head
- as mayoral contender Maura Hennigan is about to do.
Hennigan
maintains - and we have no reason to doubt her - that the clout of
incumbent Tom Menino is such that potential contributors are afraid
to write a check to her underdog campaign. Such threats, whether
subtle or overt, are the dark underbelly of political campaigns.
So
with the mayor's warchest tipping the scales at $1.1 million,
Hennigan has decided to borrow against her Jamaica Plain home to
give her campaign a little financial jump-start. And that's the kind
of thing voters look for. After all, if a candidate doesn't give
every indication that she believes in herself, who else will?
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