Rob Consalvo, in this profile by WBUR’s David Scharfenberg, doesn’t try to hide his message that a Consalvo administration would look a lot like the Menino administration. “In Consalvo world,” writes Scharfenberg, “ a status quo strategy is something like a no-brainer.”

“He’s only got a 90 percent approval rating,” Consalvo, one of 12 candidates for mayor, says of the city’s retiring 20-year incumbent. “Anybody that thinks they’re looking for change — I’ve got news for ya.”

With that, the Hyde Park pol who has been derisively dubbed the “mini-me” because of his effort to march in lockstep with a guy who got his start representing the same council district not only doesn’t try to hide from the moniker, he seems to wear it as a badge of honor.

But he has a lot of company.

Against the backdrop of a retiring five-term mayor whose poll numbers remain sky-high, a mayoral race whose contenders seem more nervous about alienating any group of voters than in taking tough stands seems to have spawned a whole school of mini-mes.

On the casino issue, it’s been perilous to even suggest that the entire city should have a say on the issue as opposed to only the East Boston residents who would be closed to the proposed Suffolk Downs gambling site. Limiting the vote to Eastie residents is Menino’s position, which has somehow made it the default stand for candidates looking to succeed him When Suffolk DA Dan Conley announced in May that he supported a citywide vote, the earth shook. The Globe immediately framed it as a move that runs the risk of “alienating Menino, who remains a powerful force.”

Bill Walczak has now gone one step further, announcing this week that he opposes outright a casino in Boston. The move landed him at the top the Globe’s front page. Andrew Ryan wrote that with a large field of contenders, “candidates need issues that will distinguish them from one another.” But just as often the candidates seem reluctant to say anything that might make them stand out — especially if it involves taking a position at odds with the man they hope to succeed.

On the same day that the paper put Walczak’s anti-casino announcement above the fold, it featured a story on the candidates’ positions on a dozen or so issues. Many of them seemed to be something less than the most burning issues facing the city. Nevertheless, the responses were telling when it comes to sizing up candidates on the mini-me index.

Should Boston welcome a Walmart store, something Menino has said won’t happen on his watch? Only Mike Ross had the temerity to say he would. The others might as well have responded, “What Tommy said.” (Not Marty Walsh, though; he wouldn’t even answer the question.)

This morning, Globe business columnist Shirley Leung trots out the odd notion that we ought to let the market decide whether a Walmart is right for Boston, and she gives Ross some props for saying so. “This isn’t Soviet Russia,” she writes.

Maybe not. But we’ve become some weird municipal approximation of it when it comes to certain issues, and more than a little bit of that has infected the mayor’s race.

A little glasnost seems in order.