Hennigan seeks influx of cash to challenge Menino

Mayoral challenger Maura A. Hennigan said yesterday she will borrow against her home and two other houses she owns to pump at least $100,000 into her campaign.

Hennigan, whose campaign has just over $30,000, needs more money to seriously challenge Mayor Thomas M. Menino. His campaign has $1.1 million, and has raised nearly $40,000 in the last two weeks.

''I am prepared to run a viable campaign against the mayor to get my message out," she said. ''I will do TV, I will do radio, I will do mailings, I will do what it takes to hopefully win this election."

Hennigan would not say how much she would borrow for the race, adding she has not consulted with her accountant. But she said $100,000 is the minimum. Hennigan said she can mount a competitive campaign with $500,000.

''People can be very, very confident that this will be an adequately funded campaign," she said.

Menino had no comment last night.

Hennigan owns four properties in the city: her residence on Woodland Road in Jamaica Plain, with an assessed value of $552,100; a brick four-family rowhouse on West Cottage Street in Dorchester, with an assessed value of $249,000 and an attached lot with an assessed value of $45,600; and a three-family home on Child Street in Hyde Park with an assessed value of $342,000.

Hennigan said she owes money on all those properties and has no income outside of her $75,000 council salary, except for a small amount she earns from rents. She said she hopes the money she borrows is a loan to her campaign, but she is prepared not to get it back.

''I'm not a wealthy person -- this was supposed to be money I would count on for my retirement," said Hennigan, 53.

Former mayor Ray Flynn also took out a second mortgage on his house in his successful dark horse race for mayor in 1983, when he faced much better-financed competition.

''When you don't have any money and you want to serve the people of the city, it shows a great deal of commitment and seriousness," he said in an interview yesterday. ''You have to give her credit for putting it on the line."

Also yesterday, reporters were led on an unusual Boston tour by Hennigan. Instead of going by Duck Boat, they rode in a trolley she had rented. And instead of history, they heard laments about how the city is being run.

''Today, you are going to see Boston with new eyes," Hennigan said, departing her Jamaica Plain campaign office.

Hennigan, whose campaign has been searching for an issue that will seize the public's attention, rattled off complaints as the trolley passed through neighborhoods from South Boston to the North End. In her neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, she spied a crosswalk signal that wasn't working. She said she complained to the Public Works Department two weeks ago.

''It's an example of how constituents' complaints just get lost," she said.