DeNucci hangs up political gloves

DeNucci, once one of the world’s top professional boxers, confirmed yesterday that he would officially announce his retirement at a press conference Monday.

“I am leaving because it is time,’’ said DeNucci, 70. “I knew it was time to go in my other career as a boxer. It was when I didn’t want to be an opponent. I am on top, and I want to keep it that way. I want to go out on top of my game.’’

DeNucci’s departure could mean that three of the state’s six constitutional officers positions will be up for grabs in next year’s election, given Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill’s decision to run for governor and Attorney General Martha Coakley’s frontrunner status in the special election for Edward M. Kennedy’s US Senate seat.

DeNucci, a Newton Democrat, has been wrestling with a decision about whether to retire for months, according to those close to him. They said he is torn, but was facing strong pressure from his family to step down after completing his record sixth term. When he leaves in January 2011, he will have been the longest serving state auditor.

A Golden Gloves champion at age 16, DeNucci became a world-ranked middleweight fighter and holds the record for the most bouts in the old Boston Garden. DeNucci’s most famous battles were his fights with former middleweight champ Emile Griffith. They fought twice in 1972 at the Garden, when Griffith, who 10 years earlier pummeled an opponent so thoroughly the man died 10 days later, was five years from the end of his career. Both went the full rounds, but the first fight was highly controversial. DeNucci and many others were convinced he had won, but the referees scored it for Griffith.

A Newton native and son of an Italian working class family, DeNucci came to the State House in 1957 as a page. He rose to the position of court officer and then legislative aide. In 1976, DeNucci was elected to the House, eventually serving as chairman of the Human Services Committee. In that role, he became a strong advocate for the elderly and poor. Just as importantly, he developed close ties to the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, which was instrumental in his election as state auditor in 1986.

“I have had a great career, and I am proud of it,’’ he said in a brief interview yesterday. He said he wants to spend time with his family and to travel with his wife, Barbara.

The veteran political figure said his health was not a factor in his decision to retire. Rumors that he was in ill health had spread in political circles, to the point of encouraging some would-be candidates to quietly begin to get ready for a campaign to win the office.

His decision to leave creates a wide-open campaign for the office next year. Even the Republican Party, which has held only one state constitutional office other than governor or lieutenant governor since the late 1960s, is hoping to make a serious effort to win the post. Mary Connaughton, who served on the board of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, has said she plans to run for the position.

Potential Democrats include former state Senator Guy Glodis, now sheriff of Worcester County; Councilor at Large Stephen Murphy of Boston; Governor Deval Patrick’s labor secretary, former state representative Suzanne Bump, and state Senators Marc R. Pacheco of Taunton and Mark C. Montigny of New Bedford.