Pricey meals, costly galas add up for mayor

Political tab hits $1.2m in the last 3 years

Mayor Menino has $1.3m in coffer to run again. (Globe Staff Photo / David Rizer)

Mayor Thomas M. Menino may often act like a small-town mayor, with his focus on potholes and local neighborhoods, but his political operation is strictly big city.

A review of spending from Menino's campaign account shows that the veteran mayor has spent $1.2 million on political expenses during the past three years, even though he has been cruising through his fourth term with no elections.

The largest outlay was for fund-raising receptions and parties at $325,000, including the rental of halls and ballrooms, catering, and entertainment. Most events were held at swish downtown hotels, such as the Fairmont Copley Plaza, the Boston Harbor Hotel, and the former Ritz-Carlton, now the Taj.

He also billed his campaign account for 70 dinners at a variety of restaurants, from Tavolo in Dorchester to Hamersley's Bistro in the South End and the Four Seasons and Locke-Ober downtown. In the city, the tabs ranged from $65.90 at Salvatore's on the South Boston waterfront to $552.62 for a meal at Bertucci's in December last year.

A couple of out-of-town meals were more expensive. One dinner at the Venice Ristorante & Winebar in Denver ran $652.29 in August, during the Democratic National Convention. In Las Vegas, the mayor spent $618.35 for a meal at the award-winning Bartolatta Ristorante at the Wynn resort and casino.

The mayor said this week that the expenses are just part of holding office.

"We're just doing what elected officials do every day," Menino said. The list of fancy dinners, he said, falls into the category of constituent relations.

"We meet people, go to dinner with them, and find out what's going on in the city," he said. "I do a lot of that every day. It's not a job where you go to the office and come home at 5 p.m."

The out-of-town meals were with Bostonians who were traveling, politicians or lobbyists who could be helpful to the city, or business people with potential interest in doing business in the city, said Dot Joyce, the mayor's spokeswoman.

Fund-raising, Menino's largest expense, netted his campaign $2.33 million in contributions since his last bid for reelection in 2005, and that was more than twice what he spent, the records show. If he chooses to run, he is in a strong position to campaign for an unprecendented fifth term in 2009 - with $1.3 million still in the bank.

The mayor has a full campaign operation up and running with a downtown office, salaried campaign staff, and he also just commissioned a $30,000 poll from a California firm, a sure sign that he is strongly considering a run.

Menino said this week he is still deliberating about his future.

"I have to decide, 'Is the city ready to move forward? Am I effective?' " the mayor said after his annual holiday visit to the Bowdoin-Geneva section of Dorchester. "I've got the energy, I've got all of the same things I had the first day I ran for this job."

Menino will become the city's longest-serving mayor with 16 years and six months in office if he finishes his current term.

Political observers say the mayor's campaign fund-raising galas may be a far cry from the old days, when the figurative hat was passed over corned beef in the back room of Doyle's or Amrheins, but Menino's events are a sign of the times in modern politics, where it now costs an estimated $1 million to win a mayoral election.

In addition, they say, Massachusetts' campaign finance laws limit individual contributions to $500, which means larger fund-raisers with more attendees are necessary.

"You have to have bigger affairs and you have to have them more often," said Michael McCormack, a lawyer and former city councilor.

McCormack also said fancy dinners are necessary.

"If you're going to sit down with CEOs, you don't go to Joe's pizza shop, you go to the Four Seasons," he said.

The campaign hosted 42 receptions - about one per month - at two dozen venues. The campaign spent an average of $7,500 for each reception, including floral arrangements, catering, invitations, and music.

The mayor's spending also included some $81,000 in contributions to local community organizations and $17,000 for flowers for constituents.

The two at-large city councilors who are eyeing a run at the mayor's office next year both have far less in the bank than Menino. Councilor Michael Flaherty reports a balance of roughly $542,000 in his campaign account, while Councilor Sam Yoon has only $63,000.

Flaherty, who has been on the council since 2000, spent nearly as much as Menino since 2005, with expenses of $971,000. But more than half of that was spent during his reelection bid in 2007. (City Council members are elected for two-year terms; mayoral terms are four years.)

Yoon, whose wife sent out a plea for campaign donations last week to family and friends, has hosted fund-raisers in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where he tapped Asian Americans for contributions toward his potential mayoral run. Yoon, the city's first Asian American councilor, would be the first to be mayor, if he were elected.

A spokesman for Yoon said yesterday that he expects the councilor will have a six-figure balance by the end of the year.

"Flaherty could not be reached for comment.

Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.