Menino Looks Like He's Polling

New campaign-finance report from the Mighty Mayor shows $30,000 paid to Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates of Santa Monica, California for "consulting." That, my friends, looks like a poll to me -- and, you know, folks who are planning to not run for re-election do not need to poll. Chalk it up as one more big sign that Menino wants another four years!

One interested party who I discussed this with suggests that folks who expect to win with 70 percent of the vote don't need to poll either, so maybe this shows that Tom is a little more nervous about his potential challengers than he lets on.

Of course, Menino can afford to poll, early and often: he recorded another $45,725 in contributions for November 15-30 -- more than $15,000 of which came from his own employees, including an all-star line-up of the city government's top personnel.

Michael Flaherty took in $25,000 in that same period -- ah, yes, breathe the crisp air, it's fundraising season! Sam Yoon took it easy for the fortnight, raising just $2975.

Yoon is still acting like he's serious about running for the big office, and Flaherty is acting like he is running. I'm hearing talk of Flaherty making serious moves to put together staff and infrastructure drawing on national talent. Hope he's got plans for how to pay them.