Flaherty reaches outside the city

City Council President Michael F. Flaherty, who is widely expected to run for mayor in 2009, largely financed his ticket-topping council campaign this year with donations from out-of-towners, many of them developers, lawyers, and contractors who have business with city government.

Nearly two-thirds of the $310,000 Flaherty raised since Jan. 1 came from individuals who live in suburban communities or out of state, according to campaign finance reports. The vast majority came from Massachusetts donors, and Flaherty, a lawyer, collected from many of the same donors as Mayor Thomas M. Menino, including employees of law firms such as Brown Rudnick, which has a large governmental law practice, and Millennium Partners, which built the new Ritz Hotel on Avery Street, and the One Charles Street luxury condominums.

Flaherty is widely seen as a contender for mayor when Menino presumably steps down after completing his fourth term four years from now. The council president has made no secret of his ambitions for the city's highest office, and many have speculated that his insider's view of City Hall and strong showings in recent citywide elections will make him a favorite.

Flaherty also received contributions from executives and employees of firms including Intercontinental Real Estate, a large development firm that built Nine Zero Hotel and the Strada 234 condos; Pappas Properties, which is developing luxury condo buildings in South Boston; Corcoran Jennison, which owns the Bayside Expo Center; and Comcast, the city's cable television provider.

He collected from executives of Global Petroleum, a company that has an $8.5 million contract to provide petroleum products to the city; Aggregate Industries, which has two contracts to provide asphalt for city streets worth more than $1 million; Standard Electric Supply, which has multiple contracts with the city worth more than $650,000; Titan Roofing, which has contracts worth more than $1 million; and LVI Environmental Services, which has contracts worth $3.9 million. So far, LVI Environmental Services has performed no work under the contract, according to city records.

Many executives who gave live outside of Boston or even out of state. Millennium Partners, for example, is based in New York, and the donors live in New York City. Joseph Corcoran and Gary Jennison live in Milton, and Peter and Paul Palandjian, chief executive and president of Intercontinental Real Estate, live in Belmont. Of 21 Brown Rudnick lawyers who donated, only three live in Boston.

City employees and labor unions also donated heavily to his campaign. At least 70 city employees gave a combined $11,325, while members of several unions, including the Boston Firefighters Union 718, the Boston Teachers Union, carpenters local unions, gas workers, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers donated a total of $13,050. Flaherty was a member of the Teamsters Union while working as a driver for Airborne Express through college and law school.

Former councilor Michael McCormack, a lawyer and lobbyist, said people who do business with the city have a good reason for giving.

''These are people who have an interest in seeing the city economically strong and sound," he said. ''They also want to be in a position to pick up the phone and call someone if they have a problem. Sometimes the operative word is access.

''If you're the head of a significant company that does a significant amount of business in the city you want to know that you can pick up the phone and call the City Council president. Someone will listen and help."

It doesn't hurt that the person you're calling could be the next mayor, he said.

''In any news story mentioning who the mayoral candidates might be, he is certainly there," said McCormack. ''People want to be viewed as early supporters. Anybody can bet on a horse that's already won the race. That's why people in the business of giving money to candidates are always looking for politicians who are viewed as up and comers, and certainly Flaherty is that."

Cheryl Cronin, a Democratic activist who heads Brown Rudnick's government law and strategies practice, said she gave to Flaherty because he's a ''very skilled and talented" politician.

''My husband and I are raising three children in the city, and we're very interested in the leadership of the city," said Cronin, who also served as general counsel to the Democratic National Convention host committee.

''We support Michael Flaherty," she said, ''for the same reason we support the mayor: He cares very much about issues that affect children, like education. He's very interested and involved in public safety issues.

''We certainly have many clients who are interested in the city of Boston and are interested in various issues related to the city of Boston," she said when asked whether the firm is representing clients before city agencies.

Stephen Miller, a lawyer who frequently appears before city boards like the Zoning Board of Appeal and the Licensing Board, gave Flaherty $250.

''It's just good government," he said, adding that he donates to politicians who ''pay attention and handle their constituencies well . . . guys you can talk to about a project and [they] try to work to get things done, as opposed to work to stop them."

By election day, Flaherty's campaign had spent $354,831. The next biggest spender was John Connolly, whose fifth place finish cost $331,210, records showed.