Flaherty already looking to future

“It’s not over for Michael Flaherty,’’ he said, a day after losing his bid to unseat Mayor Thomas M. Menino, 57 to 42 percent.

Flaherty, 40, suggested that he may not wait four years for another mayoral contest. He said this year’s special election for US Senate - in which the Democratic candidates include two incumbent officeholders, Attorney General Martha Coakley and US Representative Michael E. Capuano - could lead to openings that would be appealing to Flaherty or his campaign ally, Councilor at Large Sam Yoon.

“Hypothetically, if one of the seats could open up there, that potentially could be attractive to either one of us,’’ Flaherty said. “Sam happens to live in the Eighth Congres sional District, and I’m a former prosecutor, so you never know.’’

Flaherty emerged from a meeting with City Council President Michael P. Ross looking weary. As he entered the council chamber, he slapped backs and shook hands with his council colleagues. Flaherty and Yoon gave up their seats to run for mayor; all of their colleagues were reelected Tuesday.

“Under the circumstances, he’s actually surprisingly normal,’’ Ross said. “Obviously, he didn’t win, but he did other things. He fought a fight that he believed in. I think the city is better for it.’’

Part of that fight involved contributions from firefighters that continued to pour in to Flaherty in during the campaign’s final days. Just yesterday, he reported that firefighters and their unions nationwide contributed nearly $25,000.

Flaherty said his concerns now are reconnecting with his family and getting a job. A lawyer, Flaherty had also worked for a law firm, Adler Pollock & Sheehan, but he took a leave from the job during the campaign and suggested he is now considering his alternatives.

“I could practice law. I’m a Teamster. I have a CDL [commercial driver’s license]. There’s a lot of things I can do,’’ Flaherty joked. “I expect there will be some sizable changes on the political landscape in the very near future, and so it’s always good to be ready, but I’m making no commitments at this point.’’

Political consultant Joyce Ferriabough-Bolling said she could see Flaherty running for district attorney and Yoon working for the Obama administration. “I would not say that, because of this run, doors were closed for him or Flaherty,’’ she said. “I definitely do not think their life is over for one run against a very skilled political operative who’s served this city for 16 years.’’

Flaherty said he had no regrets about his campaign. He rejected one criticism of his candidacy, that he had become too closely aligned with the firefighters’ union, whose acrimonious contract dispute with the mayor and resistance to drug and alcohol testing has damaged firefighters’ public image.

Flaherty and Yoon, who had accused Menino of punishing his campaign foes, expressed little concern about their own future.

“Yes, there is a naughty list; we’re going to be on it,’’ said Yoon. “But the bigger picture of this is that people agree and we heard them, and their voices were expressed at the ballot box.’’

Menino’s 2005 opponent, former councilor at large Maura Hennigan, went on to take a job as Suffolk Superior Court clerk of criminal courts, but was also raising money to pay off the $525,000 she invested in a campaign she lost 2 to 1.

His 2001 challenger, longtime critic and former councilor at large Peggy Davis-Mullen, disappeared from Boston’s political landscape for the South Shore, where her mortgage broker’s office got a cease-and-desist order last year from the state Division of Banks. Davis-Mullen showed up at Menino’s election night party and said she now counts herself as a Menino supporter.