BOSTON — He was an accidental mayor, not even aspiring to the job. Plenty of people thought he was not up to it. But after almost 20 years in City Hall, Thomas M. Menino is the longest-serving mayor in Boston history and fits this city like an old shoe.
There may be no greater testimony to his hold on the office than this: Mr. Menino, who turns 70 later this month, has been hospitalized since Oct. 26 with multiple ailments and yet no politician has called for him to step aside. Some in the news media have suggested, gently, that he should quit while he is ahead, but no potential challenger has made a peep about running for mayor next year, whether or not Mr. Menino seeks an unprecedented sixth term.
“My attitude is this,” Mr. Menino said in an interview the other day at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital after pedaling for several minutes on a stationary recumbent bicycle. “I’ve run for mayor five times now and I’ve won all five times.”
“Overwhelmingly,” interjected his press secretary, Dot Joyce.
“Overwhelmingly,” the mayor added. “How I explain this is, people have to have faith in you. That’s the key to this whole thing. That was Mitt Romney’s problem — people didn’t believe in him.”
Can Mr. Menino make voters believe in him again after his long hospitalization?
“Watch me!” he declared.
Mr. Menino has only hinted that he might run again. And if he does, several political analysts agree, he will win.
“Politically, he’s still Babe Ruth and Ted Williams rolled into one,” said Rob Gray, a Republican strategist.
There is plenty of political jockeying here right now with the possibility of Senator John Kerry’s seat opening up, if Mr. Kerry is appointed to the Obama administration, and a governor’s race in 2014. But Mr. Menino’s grip on City Hall appears secure.
“Others have tried and failed to take him down,” Mr. Gray said. “And because of his political operation and because of his ability to raise money, nobody wants to take him on. They think it’s political suicide.”
The difference this time is that Mr. Menino, a hands-on mayor who likes to amble all over town, has not been seen in public since Oct. 14, when he and his wife, Angela, left for Italy to celebrate their 46th wedding anniversary. While there, he came down with a viral infection and returned to Boston, entering Brigham and Women’s Hospital on Oct. 26.
