By contrast, Gloucester Sen. Bruce Tarr, a Republican who did have an opponent, had just $3,281 left at the end of the year.

The figures are among those listed in the reports area lawmakers filed last month with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

Rep. Doug Petersen, D-Marblehead, who faced both a primary fight and a Republican challenger, ended the year in the poorest financial shape — just $907 in the bank and a debt of more than $20,000.

For someone running unopposed, Berry, who is the Senate majority leader, raised an awful lot of money. But he says he had a good reason to raise it — and a good reason to hang onto it now.

Gov. Mitt Romney had launched an energetic, statewide effort to increase his party's paltry representation in the Legislature, and Berry says he acted in self-defense, holding nearly half a dozen fund-raisers in the previous 12 months.

"Republican moles told me that they had recruited six people who might run against me," Berry says. "Gov. Romney had declared war on the Democrats in the Legislature."

He notes that the Republican candidate for Senate in Plymouth raised $300,000 for that battle. Most of Romney's candidates, he added, were people with lots of money. "They'd been recruited from the financial class," he says.

Nonetheless, when the dust settled, Berry had no opponent in November. "I stopped raising money in May when I began to feel safe," he says.

And that money remains a political asset, Berry points out. "It deters someone from taking you on."
He insists he has no interest in seeking a higher office.

Berry used his campaign funds to donate $5,000 to the Democratic Party in order to help thwart Romney. He also commissioned a poll for nearly $13,000. He included other candidates in the poll and shared results with fellow Democrats prior to last November's balloting.

"There were no surprises in it," he says. But he adds that he was "thrilled" with his own numbers, which reflect a favorability rating near 60 percent across the district. Still more impressive, his negatives are in the single digits. "And I've been around over two decades," he notes.

He also used the poll to discover which issues are the most pressing for residents of Peabody, Salem and Danvers. Education, property taxes and the environment were high on the list.

"I did (the poll) in October when people are thinking about politics," he explains. "It gives me an idea about what direction I should go in."

Which, ironically enough, proved useful on Monday when the senator had a one-on-one conversation with Romney, discussing the needs of his district. After seeing nearly all his GOP recruits go down in defeat, Romney has dramatically changed his tactics, Berry says: "He's trying to work with the Legislature."

Romney was remarkably receptive as he listened to Berry's take on issues like the need for an MBTA parking garage in Salem or the impact of chronic flooding in downtown Peabody.

"I bragged about Salem State ... a very important resource," he says.

"It was a very good conversation. He's a good listener and he's actually very helpful."

Staff writer Claude Marx contributed to this report.