This Town Isn't Big Enough for Two Parties, Pardner

It's like the chicken and the egg. Everyone believes that whoever wins the Democratic nomination for state representative and state senator in Cambridge automatically wins the final election. Thus, no Republicans bother to run for office in this city. And so the Democrats continue to sweep every election. This year is no different. If you were hoping to find heated political contests in Cambridge, you should have looked for them in the Democratic primary.

As it was, even the primary races were not much to look at this year. Freshman representative Saundra Graham, who represents the 28th Middlesex district, which includes the area surrounding Harvard Square, was unopposed in the primary. Now she is well on her way to a second term in the Massachusetts House, but for one general election adversary--Freda Lee Mason, a Libertarian.

"It's clearly an ideological race," a State House source said. Graham is spouting the liberal ideology, and Mason is respresenting the libertarian cry for reduced governmental interference into the lives of individuals.

"I don't see any problems, but you can't be sure," Graham said. Even so, she has not thrown herself into a full-fledged campaign. Graham appears relatively certain of her own victory--the campaigning she's doing is mostly on behalf of Sen. Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass.) and Francis W. Hatch '46, Republican candidate for governor, the only Republicans who have a chance of winning in Middlesex County.

Graham, who is also a member of the Cambridge City Council, feels property tax reduction is the biggest issue in Massachusetts politics this year.

"The problem is how to lower taxes without affecting programs," she said. Graham advocates the establishment of a graduated state income tax--which was defeated 2-1 on a statewide referendum in 1975--combined with a plugging-up of loopholes in the tax laws. She also believes that there should be a strict separation of the services which are provided at the state and local levels. Cities would collect taxes solely for essential services, like fire and police, and the state would spend its tax dollars on social services. This would result in "a drastic reduction in property taxes," she said.

Graham is not the only incumbent Democrat being opposed by a Libertarian in the upcoming elections. Stephen A. Tringward, a Libertarian, is trying to acquire the State Senate seat which Francis X. McCann has held for 24 years. McCann, who describes himself politically as "a Democrat," is known as a somewhat conservative voice in the Senate. He has been associated with efforts to reduce crime and strengthen the Cambridge Police Department.

McCann was opposed in the primary, but he won by a comfortable margin of 3800 votes. Still McCann said it was a hard race and he doesn't count on Tuesday's election as an easy one. "Anytime anyone else is on the ballot, it's a problem," McCann said.

But political oracle and Cambridge City Councilor Alfred E. Vellucci says otherwise: "The Libertarians are in the same position as the Republicans--they'll get wiped out."

One candidate who doesn't have to worry about losing is incumbent Democrat Michael J. LoPresti Jr. '70. LoPresti is running unopposed for reelection to his senate seat, which covers the area from Harvard Square east into Boston.

LoPresti, who said he was a member of the Young Democrats Club while at Harvard, has been a senator for five years. "I think any of us like to feel we have no opposition because we're doing a decent job and people are satisfied," LoPresti said. He added that he cannot be classified as either liberal or conservative, having voted different ways on different issues.

Like Graham, LoPresti feels that property tax relief is the number one issue in this election. "The whole country is caught up in tax relief, but it's confusing and I don't think people understand it," he said.

The most interesting feature of this year's election was caused not by political conflicts, but rather by the statewide redistricting which had the immediate consequence of reducing the number of seats in the state legislature.

Cambridge lost only one seat in the House, but lost nothing in the Senate. State Representative Thomas H.D. Mahoney would have had to oppose Rep. Charles F. Flaherty in a head-to-head contest for the combined East Cambridge representative district. Mahoney opted instead to take a sabbatical from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is chairman of the History section of the Humanities Department. "In effect, I'm also taking a sabbatical from politics," Mahoney said.

Mahoney is not fond of gerrymandering, which he says must be discussed in terms of "the whole state--not just Cambridge," he says, adding that "redistricting increased the number of people a representative now has for constituents, in effect making services rendered one-third more difficult" to provide.

Your choices: For representative, there is either the liberal Saundra Graham or the libertarian Freda Mason. In the state senatorial race west of Harvard Square, you can vote for the conservative Frank McCann or the libertarian Stephen Tringward. From Harvard Square to the East, you have no choice but the varied political views of Mike LoPresti.

But if Cambridge elections go the way they always have, your vote may not make a difference--the Democrats are bound to sweep the city. Which reminds me--why did the chicken cross the road?