November 4, 2009 Menino gets four more years to lead Boston Play video

(NECN: Alison King, Boston, Mass.) - It'll be another four years in City Hall for Boston Mayor Tom Menino. He has won an unprecedented fifth term in office, beating City Councilor Michael Flaherty by 15 points.

Menino has already been in office for 16.5 years, longer than any mayor in the city's history.

Flaherty had run in an unusual partnership with City Councilor Sam Yoon. Flaherty, a lifelong resident of South Boston, had vowed to make Yoon, a community organizer of Korean descent, his deputy mayor had won.

History shows it's tough to unseat a Boston mayor. No incumbent has lost the seat in 60 years. The last one was James Michael Curley, who was ousted by John Hynes in 1949 after a term that was interrupted by a five-month federal prison sentence for mail fraud.