Kevin McCrea has not been getting much love and attention lately in his mayoral quest (including from this scribe), so it's kind of nice to see him win a little somethin' -- top spot on the ballot.

Today was the random drawing for the order names will appear on the Sept. 22 preliminary-election ballot. McCrae will appear first, followed by Yoon, Flaherty, and Menino.

Dick Lehr has an eye-catching piece in today's Boston Globe, in which police commissioner Ed Davis claims to be on the verge of announcing a one-strike policy against lying. “If our own internal process determines that an officer has been untruthful, the punishment will be termination,’’ Davis is quoted.

Before I continue, I want to make a quick plea for everyone to read Lehr's new book, "The Fence," about the Mike Cox affair.

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I note that Boston political insiders are scaling back their expectations for high turnout in this year's municipal elections.

Early on, there was a lot of talk that the competitive mayoral race, combined with the residual effect of the Obama and Patrick elections, would generate very high voter numbers, both for the September preliminary, and the November general.

Just a few random things....

--Today, the Globe's front page is a winner for Gov. Patrick, even though (or, because) he's not mentioned at all. The big headline is about how the state's economy seems to have turned a corner, and seems to indicate that we're better positioned than other states for the recovery. Elsewhere on the page, current Patrick arse-pain Dan Grabauskas gets a smack-down, and the collapsing state pension investments get written up as a potential political problem for Tim Cahill.

Michael Flaherty's campaign is a little hot and bothered about a change in poll locations in South Boston. Here's what's going on.

One of the biggest polling places in the city is at St. Brigid Parish in South Boston -- in fact, given the Michael Flaherty mayoral candidacy, it likely would have been number one in votes cast in the upcoming September preliminary election.

Jim Bunning, it seems, has finally given in and will not run for re-election to the US Senate. He is the 6th Republican Senator to opt out for 2010, which is an awfully big percentage of the class -- and indeed of the entire GOP caucus.

In fact, it's pretty amazing to look back at the 55 Republicans who held US Senate seats in 2005, and see just how few will remain one full cycle (ie, six years) later.

In case you haven't seen it yet, this morning's Boston Globe features a new poll of Massachusetts residents, who appear to disapprove of their current governor an awful lot, considering that he has not been indicted, been caught having an affair, quit in mid-term, or been seen personally euthanizing animals.

Patrick's net job approval is a stunning -21 (35% approve, 56% disapprove), and his favorables are in the same ballpark (36/52).

The NRCC (National Republican Congressional Committee) has just sent out a press release to media in each Massachusetts district, demanding the local Democratic Congressman's position on Barack Obama taking a position on the Skip Gates arrest.

The release is headlined (with the local congressman replacing Capuano as appropriate): "Does Michael Capuano Think Cambridge Cops 'Acted Stupidly?' -- Obama Passed Judgment Without 'All the Facts;' Will Capuano Follow Suit?"

"Birthers" -- those who suspect that Barack Obama was not really born in the United States and is thus Constitutionally barred from serving as President -- have forced themselves into the limelight these past few days. In case you haven't seen it, there's a video making the rounds of GOP US Rep Mike Castle getting heckled on the issue, That video prompted gape-jawed coverage on the blogs and cable news shows (especially MSNBC).

Club For Growth threw up its hands and gave its prized "Comrade of the Month" award for June to all 219 members of the US House of Representatives who voted in favor of the Waxman-Markey energy bill. That's a lot of commies. This was after giving Waxman and Markey the award in May, so I guess that makes our own Ed Markey a back-to-back winner.

Ayanna Pressley pulled in another $10k in the first half of July, and has more fundraisers coming up -- plus a starring role in this feature article coming in Sunday's Globe. Yeah, and some nice endorsements. Some Hub politicos have begun privately referring to her as Elvis. (Get it, 'cause her name is Pressley, and she's a superstar.

Deval Patrick's got a cute new puppy. Don't mess with that, folks, it is political gold. (It's not his first. The family has one, and had a second that died last year.)

The AP immediately placed this in the context of the recent zoo episode. C'mon, would a guy with a cute black lab pup euthanize giraffes? I think not.

This morning I suggested on this blog that Deval Patrick's charter-school plan could be an opening for Sam Yoon. A few hours later, Yoon's campaign put out a press release touting Patrick's plan and urging quick passage. So, Dot Reporter Lit Drop maven Gin Dumcius has credited me for prompting the Yoon camp to act -- and rightly so; my influence is nearly limitless.

Looks like the Patrick folks want to push education out as the Big Issue for discussion now that the budget's essentially done, and got Arne Duncan up from DC to help draw attention to it. They'll be doing a press conference this morning for the Guv's ed bills, which got top-of-page-one treatment in today's Globe.

This could be an opportunity for Sam Yoon; it looks to me like Patrick's charter-school proposal is very similar to Yoon's, while the Globe makes the point that Menino's late entry into chartermania looks like an attempt to run interference.