PEABODY — History is not on Russell Donovan's side.
The retired General Electric technician is a candidate for mayor in a city that loves its incumbents.
The last time a sitting executive lost an election in Peabody was in 1951, when Philip O'Donnell edged out Leo McGrath.
Fifty-eight years later, Donovan's path to victory is steeply uphill. He hasn't raised any money or canvassed neighborhoods making his pitch to voters.
Mayor Michael Bonfanti is seeking a fifth term in the corner office. He said he felt an obligation to run again.
"I really feel that right now, given the circumstances, I'm probably the most qualified to serve the city," he said. "I have an idea of what needs to be done."
Donovan was a last-minute entry into the race, taking out nomination papers on the last possible day.
"I'm always philosophically opposed to unopposed candidates," he said. "There needs to be an expression of different views and opinions."
The challenger
Some people think he looks like former President Bill Clinton, especially if he takes off his glasses.
When his then-high-school-age daughter dialed into a radio show a dozen years ago and won a chance to meet Clinton at a Boston fundraiser, Donovan went with her.
When they walked in, the crowd waiting to get in thought the guest of honor had arrived, he said.
Donovan, 60, grew up in Lynn and graduated from Lynn English High School in 1966. He moved to a home on Quail Road in Peabody in 1976.
There, he begins each day poring over The Wall Street Journal. The local paper hits his doorstep in the afternoon, and it receives the same scrutiny. He devours even the fine print of the legal notices.
"It's my innate interest in knowing what's going on," Donovan said, "a cause-and-effect kind of thing."
He is quick to call a reporter with a tidbit that catches his eye. And over the years he has accumulated an archive of clipped articles he calls upon to make a point about taxes or flooding.
Donovan first ran for office in Peabody in 1985, when he lost a bid for councilor-at-large. Subsequent campaigns for the council also ended in defeat, most recently in 2005 when he came up short against Ward 1 Councilor Barry Osborne. That same year, Donovan's son, Shawn, then a senior at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, ran against Bonfanti. He received 279 votes and finished last in a primary that included former state Rep. John Slattery.
Donovan believes homeowners' tax bills are too high.
"We're the fall guy," he said, arguing that businesses haven't had to absorb comparable increases in recent years. Donovan favors tweaking the tax rate to provide some relief to homeowners. He acknowledges that the adjustment he supports, exempting a portion of single-family home values from taxation, could mean that the owners of some of the city's more valuable residential property could end up paying more in taxes.
On his computer is photo after photo of the May 2006 flood and its impact on his South Peabody neighborhood. Donovan sees flooding as a consequence of overdevelopment and blames construction of the nearby YMCA for displacing water and exacerbating things for him and his neighbors.
The city needs to update its flood mapping, Donovan said. And downtown, where a multimillion-dollar fix is proposed, he instead favors passive development like the park the city is building on Walnut Street.
His diverse experience at General Electric, where he worked in human resources and dealt with hiring, labor relations, compensation and benefits, qualifies him to be mayor, Donovan said.
"It's been a low-key campaign," Donovan said. "I have limited resources, limited time."
Does he think he can win?
"I'm always hopeful," he said.
The incumbent
Despite modest yearly increases, Bonfanti has done what his predecessor did — kept Peabody's property taxes the lowest on the North Shore, if not all of Essex County. He has also built up the city's reserves and maintained its favorable bond rating.
But he faced criticism last spring for crafting a budget that dealt a harsh blow, in the form of job cuts, to the city's school system. Bonfanti defends the cuts as the "rightsizing" of a system that had kept the same level of staffing as student enrollment fell by as many as 500 in recent years.
"That's the reality of it," Bonfanti said.
He pointed out that the city has spent $60 million upgrading school facilities since he took office in 2002 and that Peabody has low activity and athletic fees compared to surrounding communities.
He was also criticized last fall for signing off on a police union contract that made Sept. 11 a paid holiday in exchange for concessions that included drug testing and higher health care contributions. He has since acknowledged the move was a mistake.
Bonfanti won four terms on the Peabody Municipal Light Commission before becoming mayor. He picked up more than 70 percent of the vote in the 2007 mayoral race to earn an easy victory over Barbara Guillette.
Under Bonfanti's watch, Peabody has purchased 85 acres of open space, including Tillies Farm and Sids Pond, and seen the construction of a popular 4.6-mile bikeway.
The city has secured roughly $8.1 million in grant funds to solve its flooding problems and $900,000 in state and federal dollars to combat substance abuse among young people.
The Northshore Mall and Lahey Clinic have renovated and expanded, and Children's Hospital Boston has announced plans for a new facility in the Industrial Park.
The revitalization of downtown, however, has stalled. It's been two years since the City Council discussed rezoning that would open sections of downtown to mixed-use development.
"We're all to blame," Bonfanti said, referring to himself and councilors.
He is hopeful the next council president, likely Anne Manning or Dave Gravel, will put rezoning on the council's agenda.
Bonfanti remains committed to putting an assisted-living center in Peabody. But his focus in the short term is ensuring that the city successfully weathers the economic downtown.
"The priority," he said, "is to get through the next couple of years."
Russell Donovan
Address: 12 Quail Road
Age: 60
Occupation: Retired, former General Electric technician
Education: Lynn English High School, 1966; bachelor's in business administration, Northeastern University, 1979
Elected office: None
Family: Wife, Donna; daughters, Diana, 31, Jennifer, 27; son, Shawn, 25
Michael Bonfanti
Address: 7 Dana Road
Age: 64
Occupation: Mayor; former bank examiner, retired from the FDIC
Education: Peabody High School, 1962; Salem State College, bachelor's in business administration, 1967; master's in public administration, Suffolk University, 1980
Elected office: Mayor since 2002, former library trustee (6 years) and Peabody Municipal Light commissioner (14 years)
Family: Wife, Dorothy; daughter, Leah, 36; son, David, 33
