Lynn’s mayoral race heating up in final stretch

As a city councilor in 1981, Clancy seemed poised to claim the mayor’s seat when he outpaced incumbent Antonio Marino by 1,393 votes in the preliminary. But that November, Marino trounced Clancy by more than 3,000 votes.

“No one knows the situation better than I,’’ said Clancy. The preliminary and final elections are “two very separate and distinct races. It’s apples and oranges.’’

Still, this year’s preliminary outcome - Councilor at large Judith Flanagan Kennedy took first place by more than 200 votes while running as a write-in candidate - has spurred Clancy to step up the intensity of his campaign.

“It was a wake-up call for me politically and a wake-up call for the people who campaigned for me,’’ said Clancy, 59, noting that his last “real political race’’ was in 1994, when he was first elected to the state Senate.

The mayoral race has intensified in its final stretch.

Last weekend, Kennedy filed a complaint with Lynn police alleging that Clancy or a member of his campaign staff affixed her signature on a document in a flier he mailed out over the weekend.

The document, part of a candidates’ questionnaire from the North Shore Labor Council, showed Kennedy’s answer to a question about tax options. Kennedy charged that Clancy took her signature from another document, a right-to-organize pledge she also provided the labor council.

Clancy confirmed he had taken the signature from the pledge, but said the pledge and the questionnaire were a single document and that the signature applied to both.

“I think it’s a smokescreen to divert attention from the substance of her answers on raising property taxes,’’ Clancy said of Kennedy’s accusations.

Clancy has hit Kennedy for having ranked property taxes on the questionnaire as first among seven revenue options that were labeled those “you are most likely to support as an elected official.’’ Kennedy has said she selected property taxes because other options listed would not be within her control as mayor.

Clancy is used to taking heat from city unions, but is confident he can prevail by delivering a message to voters about his record in leading the city during difficult times.

“I’ve balanced eight budgets and increased bond ratings without laying off any police officers or firefighters. I think that’s a strong record,’’ Clancy said. “I’ve supported and enforced the residency law. We rolled bar hours back from 2 a.m. to 1 a.m. We built the new Manning Field.’’ Annual tax increases have been well below the state average, he said.

Clancy also noted his administration’s willingness to tackle the longstanding challenge of removing power lines from a key waterfront site in order to open it to development.

A lifelong Democrat in a heavily Democratic city, Clancy is quick to point out that his opponent is a registered Republican.

“That means a lot in a place like Lynn that depends so much on policies and funding formulas that come out of Democratic administrations, whether at the state or federal level,’’ he said.

He also sought to contrast his positions with those of Kennedy on what he said were some major issues.

He said Kennedy had opposed the rollback in bar hours and voted against enforcing the residency requirement - which requires most city employees to live in Lynn - and against funding for construction of the new Manning Field.

City Council president Timothy Phelan thinks it would be a mistake to count out Clancy in any way based on the preliminary.

“I think it’s wide open,’’ said Phelan, who is publicly neutral in the race. “I absolutely think he can win this. It’s like [Patriots’ coach] Bill Belichick says: Regardless of your record, at the beginning of the day, the score is 0 to 0.

“I think what you take from the primary election is that it’s going to be a close election,’’ Phelan said. “They are very different candidates on all their issues and . . . it really gives people a choice.’’

Growing up in Lynn, Clancy was immersed in politics early. His father, the late Edward J. “Nipper’’ Clancy, was a city assessor and a popular West Lynn figure who coached baseball and was active in political campaigns. His mother, the late Claire Clancy, was a secretary to the late mayor Arthur Frawley. Clancy’s grandfather and two uncles were city councilors.

“I’ve been around politics and baseball all of my life, literally,’’ said Clancy, who lives with his wife, Beth, and has a stepson, Sean Mills, 23.

A 1968 graduate of St. Mary’s High School in Lynn, Clancy earned a bachelor’s degree from Providence College in 1972 and a law degree from Suffolk University in 1975. He was an assistant attorney general for two years before starting a private practice in Lynn that he discontinued when he entered the Senate in 1995.

Clancy was elected a councilor at large in 1977. In his second term, he lost his bid to unseat Marino. But two years later, he ran successfully for councilor at large and served four terms.

In 1990, Clancy narrowly unseated state representative Thomas W. McGee, the former House speaker and father of current state Senator Thomas M. McGee. In 1994, he was elected to the seat of retiring state senator Walter J. Boverini, who died last year.

Clancy was elected without opposition to succeed retiring mayor Patrick J. McManus in 2001, and had no challengers in his 2005 reelection. McManus died unexpectedly in July after launching a campaign to unseat Clancy.

“It’s not an easy job; there’s no syrup-coating that,’’ Clancy said of being mayor. But, he said, he continues to enjoy the challenge and believes he offers the “experienced leadership’’ the city needs in a worsening fiscal climate.

“You need a steady hand,’’ he said.