Lynn City Council President Tim Phelan and his lovely wife Stacy are shown on New Year’s Eve preparing to enter the Blue Ox on Oxford Street in downtown Lynn. They make for a very nice looking Lynn couple.
When first word was received recently that Council President Tim Phelan’s presidency might be challenged by a colleague chomping at the bit for more power, it turned my attention to the mayor’s position.
But before I go there, it appears that Phelan’s position is safe.
What younger, brasher, more ambitious Lynn politicians always need to understand is that you have to have the votes or as near to having them as possible before you act on your intentions.
Otherwise, you appear a bit foolish.
Phelan, it appears, has the presidency locked.
His time will one day come but right now, he’s too strong a power at the hall and throughout the city to take a step down.
Nothing is a guarantee in this world or in the world of Lynn politics.
What this small bump in the road for Phelan revealed, however, is that when the next time comes around, Mayor Judith Flanagan-Kennedy is likely to have a small flock of contenders all hoping to run her out of office.
After all, nearly every person calling themselves a Lynn politician has at one time or another in their lives wanted to be the mayor of the city.
It goes with the territory that if you are a Lynn pol, then you naturally want to be the mayor so you can be at the top of the totem poll.
Her most likely opponent when the time comes will be Phelan.
He won’t admit to that but everyone in city hall knows Phelan would like to be the city’s next mayor.
Phelan, I believe, won’t hesitate to run against Flanagan-Kennedy.
But he may not be alone.
Steve Walsh, our representative, is another Lynn power with real time political ambitions who, I assume, as many others do, would one-day like to see himself seated inside the mayor’s office directing the city’s considerable business.
Walsh won’t admit to this but he probably grew up wanting to be the mayor.
Phelan and Walsh represent Flanagan-Kennedy’s greatest threats as she meanders through her first term, everyday coming closer to the need to run for the second.
Think about the political divisions and earthquakes that would be caused by a Phelan-Walsh run for mayor next time around.
Long time loyalties would be broken.
Allegiances would be put under pressure.
And then would come the cruelest of all – the assessment of who has the best chances of winning, or in this case, of beating the incumbent mayor.
The possibilities are manifold.
The mayor won’t admit to it, but she, too, is aware of all forms of posturing and all forms of political deceit.
The time will shortly be here when she is preparing for a second run.
It will be a lot tougher for her the second time around.
There is no dount about that.
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