Somerville Reelects Mayor After Newspaper Charges

A controversial editorial about Somerville Mayor Thomas F. August in last Thursday's edition of the Somerville Journal may have led supporters of the mayor to buy out the newspapers at local newstands before yesterday's mayoral elections.

Election returns from the Somerville board of elections late last night showed August leading his three opponents with 5211 votes. Eugene Brune trailed closely with 4988 votes.

Michael Capuano, with 3594 votes, and Paul Haley, with 2814 votes, followed.

These figures include returns from 36 Somerville precincts; two remained outstanding.

The editorial in the Journal, by Somerville Journal editor Barbara Powers, opposed August's re-election for a second two-year term in favor of any one of the other three candidates. The editorial charges August with poor management of city finances, excessive taxation, and inability or unwillingness to communicate with his constituents.

The Somerville Journal hit the stands late last Thursday. Fran Conti of Warner's Cable Channel 13 news department said yesterday people across the city bought copies of the paper in bulk quantity late that evening. Several news dealers ran out of papers, and the publishers of the Journal printed and distributed 6000 more copies on Friday.

Charles Noe, manager of the Out of Town News Agency in Harvard Square, said his store sold about 150 copies of the paper this weekend, 100 more than usual.

William P. Dole, publisher of the Somerville Journal, said yesterday he never charged that members of August's campaign organization bought the paper in bulk to keep it off the stands before Tuesday's election. But he added August has since admitted the deed.

August could not be reached for comment yesterday.

In an interview Friday with Conti, August said that his supporters in the city had probably been responsible for the bulk purchases, because "they knew how unfair it was that I didn't have a chance" to respond to the editorial comments.

In a statement to Conti, August said the article does not disturb him, and added that it might help him in the election. "This midnight issue was delivered without any chance for us to respond," he said. "The voting public have already made their minds up."

Dole said that the issues in the Journal's editorial are old, and that August has consistently refused offers to comment on them in the past.

"Whoever did do it, I thank them very much--we sold a lot of papers," Dole said.