Boston’s two daily newspapers are reporting something that has been apparent to close observers of campaign finance filings: City Councillor At-Large John Connolly says he is considering a run for mayor this year as Mayor Thomas Menino faces a decision about whether to run for a sixth term.

Connolly has been an aggressive Education Committee chair on the City Council. (Folks will remember the Expired Food Affair in 2011, and it cropped up in his campaign literature later that year, further endearing Connolly to the Menino administration.)

In the last few months, he has been on a fundraising spree and talking more and more like a potential candidate for mayor. The headline in a Boston Phoenix profile earlier this month dubbed him “The Oppositionist.”

“I think he masters these moments in terms of presenting a vision, so I have no objections to the speech,” Connolly told the Reporter after the mayor’s State of the City speech last month. “I just think there are bigger questions about follow up actions, particularly when it comes to schools and safety on our streets.”

Menino, who has not said whether he is running for a sixth term, has slowed the pace of his fundraising after hospital stays at the end of the year.

Two candidates, both longshots, have already declared that they are in mayoral campaign mode: Hyde Park’s Will Dorcena and Fields Corner’s Charles Clemons.