This year, Sullivan faced a tough re-election campaign, spending more than $100,000 and advertising on television. But his human touch proved to be his best asset.
During the shooting of one of the TV ads, Rafferty recalls, "an elderly person walked right into the middle of the scene."
"Ed stopped and talked to the person for 15 minutes," Rafferty says. "The director said he was losing money, but Ed was patient and allowed the whole operation to stand still."
The New Councillor
Michael Anthony Sullivan attended council meetings from the time he was 7 years old.
Sullivan says other councillors recall giving him money to go buy ice cream so he would get out of their way, but he says he remembers nothing of the sort. When he was older, Michael Sullivan worked with his father for three years. Walter Sullivan now says that although his son has served only 10 months on the council, he "knows just as much as anyone sitting in that council for 15 to 20 years."
Walter says he brought up his five children to value public service like he did.
"They learned right in the house that there was no bullshit," he says. "They were out there to respect people and that's what they did."
Like his father and grandfather, Sullivan is accessible. He attends as many community meetings as he can and, at 2:30 a.m. on a recent morning, he even received a call from a constituent who had been imprisoned and needed help.
But unlike his father and grandfather, the young Michael has an extensive education. He attended Boston College High School, Boston College and Boston College Law School.
After law school, Michael Sullivan served more than four years in the District Attorney's Office and three in the Massachusetts Attorney General's office. At both jobs, he was joined by his identical twin, Walter J. Sullivan Jr.
Because of his educational background, Michael, now 35, has a different perspective from the other Sullivans. He has moved away from the old-style patronage way of politicking, observers say. "Michael is doing for the Sullivans what Bobby Kennedy's kids did for that family," Koocher says. "He is moving toward an issue basis rather than a patronage basis."
Sullivan says that, because of his education and experience as a lawyer, there is a difference in style between him and his father. "The Tab said I said more in two weeks that I was on the council than my father said in 30 years."
"But talk doesn't count," Michael Sullivan says. "The ultimate vote does."
Sullivan's education, experience and youth make him a natural candidate for higher office. He says he doesn't know what office he would run for, but he's sure it will be "a place where I get to affect people's lives in a positive way."