'You called this 6 months ago," the subject line of the early morning email read, referring to New London Mayor Daryl Finizio's decision to reverse himself and run for re-election. I remember having the discussion a few months earlier with the sender, when Finizio announced that, for the good of the city, he would not run again, so that the public discourse about the city's budget and other problems would not be all about him and his political aspirations. I remember saying, at the time, something along the lines of: "I know how these people think. He will definitely run again once the coast is clear. He won't be able to help himself."

In my 30 years as a lawyer and public servant, I've worked with many elected officials. And from what I've observed, they fall on a spectrum between two types: the ones who run and serve mainly because they are intent of doing good, and the ones who run and serve mainly because they love being the center of attention, they crave adulation and they love power.

The former often find the invasion of privacy and the 24/7 nature of the campaign trail and constituent service to be a strain on their personal lives, but nevertheless choose to make what, for them, can be a real sacrifice because they see the opportunity to make the kind of positive impact that only being an elected official affords.

The latter (which I am sure I do not need to point out are more numerous) often have that other set of motives. Rarely do you find a politician who falls completely on either end of the spectrum, but when you're dealing with one of the attention seeking one's, it can be very amusing - the stuff of sitcoms.

Being mayor of New London in these times is no enviable task. Growing up and working in the city in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, was somewhat akin to watching a really, really slow motion train wreck. People who moved away seemed to be replaced only by people less well off.

Businesses that closed or moved to the suburbs were often replaced by more downscale ones. Property taxes, already comparatively too high, kept rising, while city services declined, the combination prompting those who were able to vote with their feet to do just that. Crime went up. Sadly, the 1990s and the 2000s were not much better. City lovers like myself harbored hope that people might come to re-embrace New London and the virtues of a more urban lifestyle, as we now see they have in many other places.

Still, it seems that glimmers of hope sparkle. It always makes me happy to see a thriving business on Bank Street, or a home get a fresh coat of paint in the city many of us still care about. I've written here before about New London's many assets, and the institutions that have a stake in the success of the city.

They need real leadership to bring them together and make the city shine. And I believe New London will someday again reach its true potential, but it's not going to be easy.

The passage of the referenda in the last election is definitely a positive development, generally as a sign that New Londoners have not given up on New London. On Election Day, they made some big, and bold, decisions about the issues facing the city, without having to figure in what any of this had to do with the current mayor's political future. But little did they know, it was really all about him! In his telling of it, the voters, although he was not on the ballot and promised not to be, were actually affirming his leadership.

By their passage of the referenda, they were begging, just begging, for him to run again, or so goes his assessment of things.

New London needs a leader, but a leader who is there for the right reasons. So I urge the voters to keep this question in mind as they evaluate the crop of mayoral candidates who emerge over the coming months: "Why does this person want to be mayor?" And, more importantly as New Londoners have recently learned, pay attention not just to what they say, but what they do.

Peter O'Connor is a New London native and currently lives and works in Boston. He can be reached at peteroconnorboston@gmail.com.