Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino officially announced he would not to seek another term in office on March 28, 2013. Now that the 20-year leader is stepping aside, who will replace him? Numerous candidates lined up to be Boston’s next mayor, but now only 12 remain in the race. Click through the gallery of potential Menino successors.

Arroyo announced his candidacy on April 9, 2013. He has served on the Boston City Council since 2010, where he developed a “Boston Youth Agenda” to help create job opportunities for the city’s young people. He has strong ties to the labor movement’s progressive wing and is a second-generation city councilor, but is still considered green.

Barros announced his campaign for mayor of Boston on April 25, 2013, shortly after resigning from the Boston School Committee. Barros was the first Cape Verdean to serve on the School Committee and is the executive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in Roxbury.

Activist Charles Clemons is a former correctional officer, a former Boston police officer, and the co-founder of local radio station TOUCH 106.1 FM.

Conley has more than a decade in citywide elected office; hasn’t been tested politically since 2002 and the city’s southwest corridor of Hyde Park, West Roxbury and Roslindale is already busy. In 1993, Conley succeeded Menino in the Boston City Council following Menino’s successful run for mayor.

Pictured: Conley and his wife, Tricia, attended a fund-raiser at TD Banknorth Garden.

Connolly was the major candidate out of the gates to challenge Menino before the mayor decided not to run. Connolly was first elected to the Boston City Council in 2007. A former middle school teacher, he is chairman of the Committee on Education and is fluent on the issue of education policy.

First elected to the City Council in 2002, Consalvo is a Hyde Park councilor long close to Menino, but with limited citywide name recognition and, like Conley, from a politically crowded part of the city. He has pledged to make public safety, improving the city’s public schools, and development his top priorities.

Charlotte Golar Richie, a former aide to Mayor Menino and Governor Deval Patrick and the former chief of Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development, became the first major female African-American candidate in the mayor’s race on May 1, 2013. Richie, a Dorchester resident, says her motivation to run comes in part from the media’s focus on negative stories about Dorchester. As a member of Mayor Menino’s cabinet, Golar Richie has advised the mayor on housing policy issues and community relations.

Ross announced his candidacy on April 11. The former City Council president has not been shy about aspirations for higher office; but his political roots don’t extend to the city’s traditional politically influential neighborhoods. Ross was first elected to the City Council in 1999 and eventually served as its first Jewish president. He has fought for physical fitness in public schools and played a key role in negotiating a compromise between the city and the firefighters union.

The longtime community organizer, 40-year Boston resident, and co-founder of the Codman Square Health Center and Codman Academy officially threw his hat in the ring on April 6, 2013.

Dorchester state representative Martin Walsh officially announced his candidacy on April 10. Walsh has close ties to labor and a long list of favors owed to him by politicians across the city. But those labor ties could prove too cozy. Walsh has promised to mirror his campaign around his work in the Legislature, which includes a focus on economic development, education, and substance abuse treatment.

Wyatt, the only Republican in the race, previously ran for an at-large Boston City Council seat in 2007. Wyatt works selling Boston Herald newspapers.

Yancey has 30 years on the City Council, dating to Menino’s first year on the Council and longer than any other City Council member. He serves as the Council’s chairman of the Post Audit and Oversight Committee and vice chairman of the City, Neighborhood Services and Veterans Affairs Committee. Yancey is also running for his current City Council seat. If elected mayor and re-elected to the Council, he will have to choose which office to serve. Yancey has until July 2 to remove his name from one or more races.