Rivals for House Say It's too Close to Call

With only two weeks left before the general election, a tight race for central Cambridge's State Representative seat remains too close to call.

Incumbent Saundra Graham, who lost last month's Democratic primary by 49 votes to Alvin E. Thompson, claimed community support last week and said she needs only to teach voters the logistics of her write-in/sticker campaign.

On the other side, Thompson maintains that his name's presence on the ballot does not assure him victory. "I'm running as if I'm the loser," the Cambridge truant officer said in an interview Friday.

While sticker campaigns have rarely succeeded, Graham's publicity director, Michael J. Albano, helped with a rare success--that of his father, State Sen. Salvatore Albano (D-Somerville), in 1984.

"We are reinforcing those who already vote for me and who will vote for me," said Graham. "We are identifying that, and we're teaching them how to use the stickers. Then we're going to the undecided, to talk to the undecided about why they should vote."

100,000 Stickers

Graham's campaign has printed 100,000 stickers for the district's 20,000-odd registered voters, she said. Campaign workers will mail them, hand them out from door to door and mail them to voters--at a total cost of around $50,000, she said.

"To raise $50,000 in this city for a campaign--how do they get that kind of money?" asked Thompson. "Number one, the people with the money do not live in the district. Anyone who contributes to your campaign has an interest in it."

But Graham has said her opponent also has external interests. While Thompson bills himself as a progressive who favors rent control, she noted that he is a close friend of City Councillor William H. Walsh, who has often opposed keeping rents below market rate.

Thompson acknowledges the friendship with Walsh but says he does not "go along with his theories" on rent control. Both Walsh and Thompson have said in the past that they favor imposing a "means test" that would allow only those with incomes below a certain level to pay the reduced rents.

The primary winner's campaign has tried to downplay the differences between the two candidates, saying that Graham and Thompson would tend to vote the same way on most issues.

Thompson maintained that he is just as "progressive" as Graham, devoted to day care, foster parenting programs and gay and lesbian issues. He also said he supported rent control.

"If we had the power in the State House to even attempt to bring a bill to abolish rent control, I want to bet you that if you even had a hearing on it, you're probably dead on the way out the door," said Thompson.

But Graham maintains that Thompson's position on rent control is not clear enough. "The question is, what kind of rent control? Make him say what kind of rent control," she said.

Thompson, who made his campaign finance records public last week, said he has raised $1900, has $400 in debt and recieved no contributions from Walsh or developers.

The most important issue, said Thompson, is accessibility and reliability. Because Graham also serves on the Cambridge City Council, she cannot concentrate fully on the State House and has missed several votes, he said. Her narrow loss, he said, "is indicative of being out of touch with her constituents."

Graham has said she will not run for re-election to the City Council.

But while Graham said she may have been overconfident in last month's primary, she has been working to strengthen her ties to her constituents and make them aware of her record, she said.

"You somehow think that people know what you're doing, and you take for granted that they know what you're doing, because you're working so hard and the programs are being put into place and child care is coming about and jobs are coming about," said Graham. "The physical things are there, and you just surmise that people know that you're doing all this work."