CRANSTON –– One in, one out?

Former City Councilwoman Cynthia M. Fogarty, who lost the Democratic mayoral primary two years ago, said yesterday that she is considering another run for the city’s top office.

Meanwhile, Michael J. Sepe, chairman of the Democratic City Committee, said state Rep. Peter G. Palumbo, D-Cranston, has informed party officials he would not seek the mayoralty this fall.

But Palumbo said yesterday he had not yet made up his mind and that an announcement would come tomorrow.

So goes the political parlor game that is consuming this city after Mayor Michael T. Napolitano announced Tuesday that he will not seek reelection, citing family obligations.

Sepe said there now appear to be three possible candidates for the party’s nomination –– Fogarty, City Council Vice President Paula B. McFarland and Rep. Charlene Lima, D-Cranston.

And he said all three women could beat Allan W. Fung, a former councilman who is the presumptive Republican nominee.

“I think this is the year of the woman,” Sepe said. “And I’m proud any one of them will be the first woman mayor” of Cranston.”

Party endorsement is shaping up as key for the Democratic nomination.

Fogarty, who ran without the endorsement two years ago, said she would not take that step again.

McFarland, who is finishing a fifth term on the council, said it is important for the party to settle on a candidate in the coming weeks and avoid a divisive primary.

And with three women weighing a run, she said, the party might have an easier time coming to a consensus.

“One of the things that women bring to the table –– we know we can set aside our ego for the benefit of the community,” she said.

Lima, for her part, said she would like to see the party come together behind a single candidate.

But she would not swear off a primary battle, if it came to that.

“Sometimes it’s a healthy thing to have a primary,” she said.

Fogarty, who served two terms on the City Council, from 2003 to 2006, highlighted her fiscal management skills yesterday in a preview of what a mayoral campaign might look like.

Cranston’s financial woes are shaping up as the central fact of political life in a city that, like many others in Rhode Island, is coping with a state budget crisis, a declining economy and rising fuel and health care costs.

Council member Anthony J. Lupino, whose name has been tossed around as a possible mayoral candidate, said yesterday that he would not seek the office.

dscharfe@projo.com