Kennedy announces run for 2nd term

LYNN – Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy told supporters Wednesday night she is running for a second term and listed accomplishments she hopes will help her win reelection.Kennedy said her administration since taking office in January 2010 has kept the city’s budget “on track for three years during a recession without layoffs;” hired 60 firefighters and police officers; initiated improvements to city parks, including Robert McManus Field and Barry Park, and “stopped cronyism.”Kennedy said she weighed “pros and cons” in deciding to run for a second four-year term and concluded the “city has turned around and the future is looking brighter.””Who took out nomination papers today to run for a second term as mayor?” she asked the crowd gathered in the Franco-American Hall Wednesday.”Judith Flanagan Kennedy,” her supporters shouted in reply.The deadline for taking out nomination papers for municipal elected office is more than two months away, but Kennedy’s campaign announcement caps off a list of incumbents and challengers for the 2013 local elections while leaving one question unanswered: Will anyone run against her?The city’s first woman mayor said her decision to run again included weighing her family’s privacy and the demands her public life places on them.”Being mayor is a hard job. There is loss of privacy and upheaval in your personal life. No one could ask for a more supportive extended family,” she said Wednesday.Kennedy said her attention will turn in the wake of her announcement to crafting a city budget. She told supporters her first three and a half years as mayor have been defined in part by increased business interest in the city, including the Demoulas grocery chain’s interest in Federal Street land.Lynn attorney James Moore on Tuesday said the real estate holding company he represents continues to be interested in buying the land in the city’s center from General Electric and leasing to Demoulas.Kennedy also said additional work is planned in other city parks and said the water “play pad” at Flax Pond and the new Barkland dog park on Parkland Avenue are public improvements accomplished by her administration.Kennedy aimed part of her Wednesday announcement at city workers and union leaders in the Franco crowd. She said rumors that preceded her into City Hall following her November 2009 election win included one claiming she “would fire half the staff” in City Hall.”You were apprehensive about me coming in,” she said, before adding her administration “ushered in a culture of fairness.””I appreciate all you do,” she said.Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].