Voters in Boston Tuesday are electing their first new mayor in twenty years. Either City Councilor John Connolly or state Rep. Marty Walsh will succeed the retiring Tom Menino.

“Personally, it’s a change in my lifestyle,” Menino says. “I’m going to miss it. I’m going to miss it a lot. But it’s time to go to pasture.”

At first glance, Menino’s exit and a new mayor’s election in Boston means little to the rest of New England or even western Massachusetts. Pollsters have not been paying attention to who non-Bostonians want to win that election. But there’s a good reason for the whole state to pay attention, according to UMass economics professor Bob Nakosteen.

In addition, there are quite a few contested mayoral races in western Mass Tuesday, including in Chicopee, Easthampton, Holyoke, North Adams, West Springfield and Westfield.