BOSTON (November 3, 2009)--Boston Mayor Thomas Menino won an unprecedented fifth consecutive four-year term Tuesday as he held off a challenge from City Council President Michael Flaherty.

Menino already has been in office for 16 1/2 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 if he won.

History shows it's tough to unseat a Boston mayor; no incumbent has lost the seat in 60 years.

The last one who did was James Michael Curley, who was ousted by John Hynes in 1949 after a term interrupted by a five-month federal prison sentence for mail fraud.