I'll be offering my take on this afternoon's mayoral forum--which takes place at Boston University--in a few hours. In the meantime, if you haven't already, take a look at the forum WGBH sponsored two weeks ago. Maura Hennigan won that one decisively; you can
watch it here.
If things go badly for incumbent Tom Menino again today, we'll have a real race on our hands. In fact, we may have one already. The conventional wisdom has always been that Menino is headed for a lopsided win. But Hennigan's performance on September 28 convinced plenty of skeptics that she deserves to be taken seriously.
It also gave her some great PR fodder heading into the campaign stretch drive. Last night, at a "Women for Maura" even in Jamaica Plain, the Hennigan camp debuted a new mailing that should reach Boston voters this week. It's a pretty slick piece. The front features a solid portrait of the candidate looking serious and, well, mayoral. The back, meanwhile, includes excerpts from the
Globe and
Herald's assessments of the last forum, with the key text highlighted for emphasis (e.g., "...Maura Hennigan succeeded in making the Menino administration look time-worn last night..." and "Maura Hennigan eviscerate[d] Mayor Tom Menino with cutting, well articulated criticism...," respectively).
All the pressure's on Tom Menino this afternoon. Let's see how he responds.