Menino spends big to win big

By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino exploited his financial advantage in the waning days of his successful reelection campaign, outspending his challenger, City Councilor Michael F. Flaherty Jr., by more than two to one.

Flaherty had no money to battle Menino with television ads, instead relying mostly on mail and weekly newspaper ads.

For the last two weeks of October, Menino's campaign outspent Flaherty $446,439 to $212,565, according to reports filed with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance. Menino spent $203,030 on television ads, $46,645 on radio, and $116,189 on mail.

Flaherty, by contrast, paid about $102,000 in mail-related costs to the Campaign Network, which had handled similar chores for the campaign of City Councilor Sam Yoon, who was defeated in the preliminary and then joined the Flaherty campaign in the final weeks. Flaherty's second-largest expenditure in the latter half of October was a $26,000 American Express credit card bill.

Since January, Menino spent nearly double what Flaherty did, dropping $2.4 million on his campaign compared with Flaherty's $1.27 million.