Maura Hennigan

Maura A. Hennigan is an American politician who currently serves as the Clerk Magistrate of the Suffolk County, Massachusetts Superior Court Criminal/Business Division. She is a previous member of the Boston City Council and was a candidate from Mayor of Boston in 2005.

Early life

Hennigan graduated from Mount Saint Joseph Academy, an all-girls, Roman Catholic college preparatory school in Boston. She attended Salve Regina College, but did not graduate. She later earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

After college she became a registered dietician, interning at Boston Lying-In Hospital. She was a teacher in the Boston Public School system for seven years until she lost her job as a result of cuts following the implementation of Proposition 2½.

Political career

From 1982 to 2006, Hennigan was a member of the Boston City Council. She was the first woman to chair Boston Ways and Means Committee.

In 1986 she was a candidate for Massachusetts Auditor. She finished second in a three way Democratic primary to A. Joseph DeNucci.

Hennigan unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of Boston in 2005. She was defeated by incumbent Thomas Menino, who garnered 67% of the vote.

In 2006, Hennigan was elected Clerk of the Criminal/Business Court of Suffolk County, after defeating Assistant Clerk of Court Robert Dello-Russo. She is the ninth elected official to hold this position and the first female.

Television

Hennigan hosts a weekly television show on Boston Neighborhood Network Television.

Personal life

She is the daughter of former register of probate, State Senator, State Representative, and Boston School Committee member James W. Hennigan, Jr.. She has two siblings: a brother, James W. Hennigan III, and a sister Helen. Her grandfather James W. Hennigan, Sr. was a State Senator and the namesake of the James W. Hennigan School in Jamaica Plain. She is the grandneice of William O. S. Hennigan, a member of the Boston Common Council in 1900.