Who should be the Boston Globe Magazine’s Bostonian of the Year 2012?

By Doug Most, Globe Staff

It’s that time again.

Since we named our first Bostonian of the Year in the Boston Globe Sunday magazine back in 2004 (some guy named Theo Epstein, remember him?), seven more have followed. There was a governor who made history, a Big Dig whistleblower, a Boston Celtic, the United States Attorney for Boston, and a little-known maverick who took on the mortgage crisis.

In 2009 Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren took the honor for her work taking on big business in Washington, and then a year later Scott Brown was our Bostonian for his shocking victory in the US Senate race after Ted Kennedy’s death. Who knew that two years later those two would square off in the most expensive senate race in history?

So who deserves the 2012 Bostonian of the Year honor? And who should be on our list of runners-up. There has been no shortage of big stories to choose from, that’s for sure, some to celebrate, others to scorn.

A drug lab scandal, a former governor running for the White House, a present governor giving a rousing convention speech, a meningitis outbreak, a Red Sox flop, a hockey strike, a free concert from Aerosmith and a new album to boot, a fresh burst of technology excitement, the London Olympics, an expanded Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park, the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 that brought a flotilla of Tall Ships to our harbor, and a new Patriots tight end who broke records and reminded everyone how much fun it was to be 23 years old.

And that’s just for starters.

Have a suggestion? Have at it in the Comments. On Twitter join the discussion using the hashtag #2012Bostonian. And look for the issue on Dec. 23.