Primaries: A Glance at the Candidates

District Attorney

John J. Droney has been District Attorney of Middlesex County since his appointment by then-Senator John F. Kennedy '40 in 1959.

From his beginnings as a vigorous crime-buster through three unopposed elections, Droney has been a fixture in county politics. That all might very well end today.

For the first time since 1966, Droney has received a serious challenge for his job--Scott Harshbarger '64.

Droney has not been able to effectively or personally answer Harshbarger's challenge. He has been suffering for the last three years from a debilitating illness that makes speech and movement difficult. He speaks and acts through surrogates, and his insistence in staying on for one more term has led many experts to believe if elected that he will serve only till February, when he will be eligible to collect maximum pension.

The campaign of Democrat Scott Harshbarger for Disctrict Attorney of Middlesex County, which began seven months ago as a "quixotic venture" by an experienced public sector attorney, has evolved somewhat dramatically into a serious and credible challenge to Droney's 19-year incumbency.

Harshbarger credits the success of his campaign to many things. For one, the former Assistant Attorney General and chief of the Public Protection Bureau has been strongly endorsed by The Boston Globe, the South Middlesex News, The Lowell Sun, The Somerville Journal, the Minuteman Publications, The Real Paper, as well as a host of Democratic town committees and liberal organizations.

The endorsements reflect the wide-spread appeal of Harshbarger's ten years of legal experience in addition to the grass-roots, county-wide campaigning he has done since resigning from the Attorney General's staff in February.

Governor

In 1974 a group of prescient liberals including Michael Walzer, professor of Government, and Martin Peretz, then-lecturer on Social Studies, took out newspaper ads supporting incumbent Republican Governor Francis Sargent against his ADA-endorsed Democratic opponent, Michael Dukakis. The ads basically pointed out that Sargent was a good liberal who supported social welfare programs for the poor, and that a bird in the hand, etc... Dukakis won anyway, 65 per cent to 35 per cent. And the worst nightmares of the liberals have come true.

Dukakis is one of the new breed of liberal pols, like Jerry Brown of California and Pete Flaherty of Pennsylvania, who have discovered they can be liberal without the poor. They have to be environmentalist, consumerists, and support women's issues as long as it doesn't cost money, and keep up an obnoxiously honest and austere lifestyle. And they keep getting elected.

Under Dukakis, real incomes for welfare recipients have fallen 18 per cent; for the disabled, real incomes have dropped 20 per cent. Dukakis cut general relief completely in 1975. As State Rep. Barney Frank points out, Dukakis balanced the Massachusetts budget by lowering the real incomes of poor people.

But those aren't the issues in the 1978 campaign: former Cambridge Mayor Barbara Ackermanndoesn't have the money to mount an effective liberal challenge to Dukakis. And former MassPort Director Ed King would not only slash the incomes of poor people, he'd also sweep environmental, consumer and women's issues under the carpet. Dukakis will win again, but there is no joy in Mudville.

If both Edward Kings win their respective primaries for governor, there inevitably will be confusion on election day over who is who. Many Democratics are already confused, if not frustrated, over Edward J. King's more conservative, seemingly Republican politics.

King says he is running for the blue collar workers he describes as the "mainstream of the Democratic Party." He favors capital punishment, mandatory jail sentences for drug pushers, nuclear power as "the safest alternative form of energy," raising the drinking age to 21, and most of all--Proposition 13.

But despite King's rhetorical affinity for workingclass people, his opponents believe any man who was director of the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) for 16 years cannot be much of a workingclass hero.

Treasurer

It could be worse for Robert Q. Crane as he seeks renomination for yet another term as Treasurer. Last year, beset with political problems stemming from a criminal investigation into his conduct as treasurer, he looked like a loser.

But that has all changed now. Joseph Kennedy Jr. was persuaded not to run for treasurer and the rumors about an indictment of Crane faded. Somehow, all of Crane's personal connections with banks doing business with the state have not come back to haunt the incumbent, as many expected. Instead, Crane has had some success in stressing improvements in the treasurer's office.

Crane is a politician of the old school--good to his cronies and cheery with the electorate (he sings and pals around with Bobby Orr). Renomination is a likely bet.

Boston City Council President Lawrence S. DiCara '71, Crane's principal opponent in the primary, is a familiar figure on the local scene, though less well-known to voters elsewhere in the state.

DiCara was only a couple months out of Harvard when he became the youngest Boston city councilor and president in the city's history. His has been a consistently progressive and reasonable voice in a body not known for progressivism and reasonableness.

DiCara is ambitious, and he never thought much of Crane, especially after the incumbent offered his help if DiCara would only get out of the race and run for secretary of state.

By charging Crane with squandering the taxpayers' money by running a sloppy office and depositing Massachusetts money in out-of-state banks--not to mention a number of other alleged irregularities--DiCara is trying to create the image of an incompetent treasurer

He has proposed an end to deposits of Massachusetts money in banks doing business in South Africa. He also has a Linked Deposit System proposal--designed to end redlining.

Tip

Of all the names and faces involved in the Mass primary today, the ones you're sure to recognize both belong to Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill, Congressional representative of the 8th Disctict (including his home turf, Cambridge) and Speaker of the House. Tip has been pretty busy this year in Washington, what with restoring Uncle Joe Cannon's post to its former grandeur and fending off charges of involvement in Koreagate. You've seen his, uh, craggy Irish face splashed all over newspapers and magazines.

And here's the real kicker. O'Neill is, of course, running for his seat. And in the primary, he stands unopposed. No one, even in Massachusetts, is foolish enough to challenge him. He is the surest thing since they invented loaded dice. Isn't it nice to have a choice?

More for the Senate

Congressman Paul Tsongas is a good liberal. Secretary of State Paul Guzzi is a good liberal. Separating them in the Democratic Senate primary today are Tsongas's four years' experience in Congress, Guzzi's willingness to call for a moratorium on nuclear power plant construction, Tsongas's early start in the race before Ed Brooke's messy divorce began dominating the front page, and the fact that Guzzi plays squash to relax while Tsongas jogs. Seriously.

The Boston Phoenix beams that for once, progressive voters have a choice between two credible candidates, frontrunners. The deal may come down to style: Tsongas laid-back, reflective, discoursing on the complexity of the issues; Guzzi displaying a tad of Jimmy-Carter-like nuclear-peanut hyperbole.

Tsongas has the edge right now, with a late TV surge stressing his experience, the federal money he finagled to rehab downtown Lowell, and his familiarity with foreign policy and energy issues. But the experience line might not work against Ed Brooke.

One of the many candidates for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate is Paul Guzzi '65, currently the Secretary of State.

Guzzi proposes a moratorium on the construction of nuclear power facilities, supports the Kennedy-Corman National Health program as well as a tax-based income policy, and favors an $18.1 billion tax cut.

Since his name is on every piece of state stationery, Guzzi has one big advantage over most of the other candidates in this race--people know his name. However, it should be noted that he waited until Brooke's divorce trials really heated up to declare that he would be running.

Senator

The conservative's conservative, Avi Nelson, has come from the world of radio talk shows to mount what could be a serious challenge to Sen. Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass.) for the Republican nomination.

The Jewish Republican from Brookline built his political reputation on an aggressive anti-busing platform, and he has gained a reputation as holding a strong anti-minority line, coming out against such programs as affirmative action.

But the challenger to the more liberal Brooke has declared he will win in a close race, and observers generally agree the contest should be tight. The GOP primary is expected to draw a heavy voter turnout which many feel will benefit Brooke.

Lately, Nelson has fought off some adverse publicity in the wake of a Boston Globe story about his involvement in a commodity options firm run by his wife. Nelson dismissed as "rehash" the deal in which $300,000 in options were sold and later found to be worthless.

Despite 12 years of incumbency and strong party support Brooke campaigned feverishly this summer because of the spectre created by his well-publicized divorce case.

Brooke spent a part of July and August in court explaining misstatements on a divorce deposition which he claims were never used in the initial divorce proceedings. The divorce is settled and the Middlesex and Sussex County district attorneys investigated the mistatements and found them not to be pertinent, but obviously, some question may remain.

With renewed party support, topped off by an endorsement by Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.), Brooke has stressed his seniority and record in attempting to erase the effects of the court case.

Brooke has worked extensively for senior citizens and as a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee he was instrumental in creating interest-paying checking accounts in New England.

Kathleen Sullivan Alioto, Democratic candidate for the Senate, is thus far famous for three things. First, she is pregnant; second, Frank Sinatra is raising money for her campaign; third, her husband is former San Francisco Mayor Joseph P. Alioto, and he is really hitting the stumps here. None of these factors is likely to win her election to the Senate this fall, and they are rapidly creating the impression that there isn't much else to Ms. Alioto besides that nice smile she carries.

In fact, Alioto has a fairly decent record to show for her four years on the Boston School Committee and there really is some substance behind the fluff. During her first year on the committee she appeared at a Hyde Park anti-busing meeting and stood up to the hooting crowd, telling them that their children, no matter what, were going to receive an integrated education.

In short, there is a woman with a mind behind the shopping baskets full of food that she walks around with. Alioto has a ton of money, but she seems to have run her campaign on trying to create an image, rather than an image of the issues, and what can you do with someone like that?

Most people think that Elaine Noble doesn't stand a chance in this one. It's one thing to be a woman running for the Senate, but if you match that up with a very crowded race for the Democratic nomination and throw in the fact that Noble has openly supported gay rights, victory seems impossible.

In a campaign that has attracted nation-wide attention because Noble herself is a lesbian, she has affirmed her abilities as a pragmatic, tough politician. As a state representative for Boston, Noble is a lot more liberal than most of Beacon Hill, but she has been willing to compromise on certain issues in order to be effective.

Noble showed a lot of promise early in the campaign, which, by the way, she got into earlier than most of the candidates running for Brooke's seat. Back then, even Tip O'Neill had kind words for her.