Most elected officials who have been in office as long as Boston’s longest-serving mayor have dealt with a few bumps and bruises that can hurt you with voters. But not Tom Menino. His bruises always managed to fade away right up until the end.
One of the last polls conducted that included Menino gave him results that most politicians can only dream of. A Suffolk University/Boston Herald poll last September showed Menino with a staggering 79 percent favorability rating, while just 15 percent of voters viewed him unfavorably. Those numbers just don’t exist in today’s politics.
To put it into perspective, Gov. Deval Patrick is still polling very well, despite the scandals and setbacks of his last year in office. This week’s Suffolk/Herald poll has his favorables at 51 percent and unfavorables at 40 percent.
Now you can understand why having unfavorables at 15 percent after two decades in office is something that makes Menino a legend — among pollsters and politicians alike.
These poll numbers underpinned the “Menino Machine.” Decades of service generated far more people who loved him than hated him.
He was rarely seen as inflicting collateral damage to a candidate he was stumping for. Just the opposite. There was no downside to having Menino endorse you. In fact, it was hard to get elected statewide without having Menino behind you.
Just ask Scott Harshbarger. Menino gave him a lukewarm nod, and watched as Republican Paul Cellucci beat the former attorney general in the 1998 governor’s race.
True, the Menino touch wasn’t always golden. He endorsed then-Attorney General Tom Reilly in the 2006 Democratic gubernatorial primary, only to see him go down in flames to newcomer Deval Patrick. Two years later, Menino backed Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, only to see her eventually lose to Barack Obama.
Still there was one enduring truth about Tom Menino. Through thick and thicker, the voters loved him. And that made all the difference.
Copyright © 2024 Jaclyn Cashman.
