PAWTUCKET -- In October, when James E. Doyle had his left knee replaced, it eliminated the handicap that had made it difficult for him to get around for 49 years, including the 9 years since he was elected mayor.

But that isn't the reason Doyle, who turns 68 today, has been going door-to-door in Ward 3, a key battleground in his campaign for reelection.

"The real reason is that it's the first time since 1997 I've had an opponent," he said.

R. Thomas Magill, a retired Pawtucket firefighter and former Bryant University administrator, is running against Doyle in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary.

In an interview, Doyle said he views Magill's candidacy not as a crisis, but as an opportunity: It will make it easier for him to get his message out, something he didn't have much of a chance to do in 1999, 2002 and 2004, when he ran unopposed.

Mayor since 1998, Doyle has been running on his record, boasting that the city is cleaner, its financial picture rosier and its economic prospects brighter than when he first took office.

At the same time, a lot remains to be done, he said. The city's new water treatment plant hasn't been finished; plans to restore commuter rail service to the Pawtucket-Central Falls train station are in limbo; and construction hasn't started on a pet project of his administration, a waterfront hotel.

Doyle said all that unfinished business explains why he is running for reelection, and why, if he is reelected, he won't rule out running for another two-year term.

"The campaign slogan sums it up," he said: "Much accomplished, but more to do."

Reelection would make Doyle the longest-serving mayor in the city's history -- longer serving even than Charles H. Holt, a Republican who outlasted Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.

Doyle said he likes the job so much he puts in time on weekends, evenings and holidays, and has taken just 7 or 8 weeks of vacation in 9 years.

"I get calls [from the Police Department] at 2 or 3 in the morning, 6 in the morning," he said, responding to his opponent's criticism that he isn't always in the office.

"My work schedule is different from other people's. I do take recreation time in the afternoon."

A former stationery salesman, Doyle is the husband of Joan Doyle, a retired teaching assistant in the city's public school system. They have three grown children: two daughters, Joanne and Cristen, and a son, Jamie, who was elected state senator from Pawtucket in 2004.

Doyle first ran for mayor in 1972, when he was a newly elected member of the City Council. He was defeated by then-Mayor Dennis M. Lynch.

He didn't run for mayor again until 25 years later, serving on the City Council until 1997, when then-Mayor Robert E. Metivier decided not to seek reelection, and four candidates, Doyle among them, lined up to take Metivier's place.

A lot of what Doyle cites as his accomplishments are implicit criticisms of Metivier, a former banker who was swept into office after the scandal-tarred reign of Mayor Brian J. Sarault.

If the city is cleaner, for example, it implies that when Metivier was mayor, it was dirty. If the city's financial picture is rosier, it implies that, under Metivier it was headed downhill.

Metivier said in an interview yesterday "it's just normal politics" for an incoming mayor to make statements that reflect badly on his predecessor. He said he doesn't take the statements personally and didn't have revenge in mind when Magill, who was going door-to-door drumming up support in the election, solicited his advice.

"Check to see how many people he has hired since he became mayor," Magill said Metivier told him.

Metivier acknowledging saying that and also telling Magill to check the city budget to see how much spending has increased.

Spending has increased from $113 million to $197 million under Doyle, according to the budget. That's a sign either of a burgeoning payroll or skyrocketing salaries, Magill said.

Metivier was paid $48,000 as mayor. Doyle is making $81,640. The wage increase results from two ordinances, one passed in 2003, the other just before Metivier left office. Magill cited it to show how much salaries have grown.

Doyle didn't deny that his salary is higher, or that higher salaries are being paid to his top administrators.

But, in his case, the raises were voted by the City Council, without any lobbying or pressure from him, Doyle said. In the case of his top administrators, salaries have been increased in accordance with the increases paid to unionized city workers. If that didn't happen, "you wouldn't have people hanging around for long," Doyle said.

As for Magill's assertion that his administration is guilty of "excessive hiring and wasteful spending," Doyle calls that "a political statement at a political time based on pure conjecture and no fact."

Every penny of the recent tax increase went to the Pawtucket School Department to cover a school budget deficit, Doyle said. Not a penny represented an increase in spending by his office or other departments in City Hall.

When he took office, there were five people working in the mayor's office, Doyle said. Now, he said, there are only four.

Like Magill, Doyle has focused his get-out-the-vote effort on Ward 3, in Darlington, where turnout is traditionally high, and a contest for City Council -- incumbent Albert J. Vitali Jr. is being challenged by Henry S. Kinch Jr. -- is expected to draw voters to the polls.

Doyle is campaigning with the assistance of his wife, Joan, and his son, Jamie, who is also seeking reelection. Jamie's wife, Jaclyn, and their four-month-old baby, James E. Doyle III, have also hit the campaign trail.

Voter response has been positive, Doyle said. When there have been complaints, he said, they have been about neighborhood problems, such as traffic, speeding and trash pickup.

People aren't just polite. They are surprised to see him, Doyle said. "I've had a lot of people say, 'I've never seen a mayor at my door."'

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