Comings and Goings

Published May 22 2007, 09:22 PM by David S. Bernstein

--First off, State House News Service reports that Jarrett Barrios will leave his state senate seat to head the grant-giving Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation. Congrats to Jarrett, etc. etc.... START YOUR ENGINES, CAMBRIDGE!

--Today is deadline day for submitting signatures to run for Boston city council, and Susan Passoni announced that she will not run again for district 2, after losing to Bill Linehan in the recent special-election runoff. But Ed Flynn will; the city elections office confirms that Flynn submitted enough signatures to qualify. Veeeeery interesting!!! I think Flynn, who finished a close third in the special, would have beaten Linehan in a one-on-one final -- but I'm not sure if he can beat Linehan as an incumbent.

--Nine potential candidates have submitted signatures for at-large, including the four incumbents. The elections office has not gotten to all of them yet, so we don't know yet if they'll all qualify, but the challengers to incumbents Felix Arroyo, Michael Flaherty, Steve Murphy, and Sam Yoon are John Connolly of West Roxbury (repeat candidate); William Estrada of East Boston; Matthew Geary of Dorchester; Martin Hogan of Dorchester (by way of Southie); and David James Wyatt of Roxbury.

--Nine candidates took out papers for the District 9 (Allston/Brighton) seat to replace Jerry McDermott, who is not seeking re-election. Eight had submitted signatures as of late this afternoon.