Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has won an unprecedented fifth consecutive four-year term.

Menino held off a challenge from City Council President Michael Flaherty. Menino already has been in office for 16 1/2 years, longer than any 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 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.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)