Trying to Hold On

One of Cambridge State Sen. Michael J. Barrett '70's first encounters with Saundra Graham occurred during his last moments as a Harvard undergraduate, when Graham and a group of her supporters broke up Commencement to protest Harvard's expansion into the Riverside neighborhood.

But 18 years have seen a lot of changes for Graham. She now holds seats in both the City Council and the State House. As a six-term state representative, she faces Barrett not as a demonstrator, but as a colleague.

When Graham began her political career, many viewed her as a radical activist, an outsider trying to give her constituency a voice against big developers. She recalls protesting the Vietnam War and aiding radical student groups such as the one that took over University Hall in 1969.

Barrett says that while Graham's tactics may have changed, her political agenda and her approach to problems remain the same in many ways.

"Saundra Graham is still an outsider, both in the city and the State House--in a good sense," says Barrett. "She is tough, aggressive. She still pounds the table for decent things. I have not seen her change."

But some of Graham's constituents feel that, in the process of gaining political power, Graham has lost touch with them. And they say that's why she lost this September's Democratic primary to Alvin E. Thompson.

Even her allies say that she is not as close to her constituents as she once was.

"I think this will be a chastening experience for her," says Barrett. "She must make herself more accessible."

Graham herself acknowledges that she has not been in close enough contact with her constituency. She attributes her loss last month to a lack of awareness of her accomplishments, and says she should have done more to inform her constituents of what she was doing.

By making local voters aware of her efforts inside the State House, Graham says she hopes to convince them that she is still actively working for them.

Many who see a changing relationship between Graham and her district point to the fact that she cast the decisive sixth vote to let MIT go ahead with its University Park development. Graham sided with the Council's five Independents to approve a rezoning proposal, on condition that MIT build 400 units of housing, 150 of them subsidized, as part of the development.

Graham defends her vote on the project, saying she got MIT to promise more housing than the activists hoped for. Rather than compromising, she says, she forced MIT to compromise.

William Cavellini, a leader of the Simplex Steering Commitee's campaign against the project, acknowledges that Graham extracted more housing from MIT, but says she neglected to consult the committee. For example, he says Graham did not tell him when the Community Development Department redefined the meaning of low-and moderate-income housing. When he pointed the change out to her, Cavellini says, "she just shrugged her shoulders."

"She was not in 100 percent communication with us, and I fault her for that," says Cavellini.

Cavellini says that while he believes Graham is committed to affordable housing, he finds her more inclined as a politician to make deals with developers.

"I have not seen an official vote of hers that has been anti-rent control," said Cavellini. "But she has made speeches in the Council, similar to [Mayor Alfred E.] Vellucci, that show signs of wavering. People worry because they see little signs."

In the past, Graham has also faced criticisms that she is willing to compromise her principles, particularly where her family is concerned. In 1985, a series of articles in The Boston herald accused Graham of involvement in the real estate activities of one of her sons and questioned her devotion to tenant's rights.

The attacks centered on the efforts of Graham's son, Carl Graham Jr., to evict tenants from rent-controlled apartments in a six-family building he had recently bought, to make room for his own family and two of his sisters. Although Graham was present at the sale of the house, she denied giving her son anything more than moral support.

In addition, two of her sons were arrested last spring on drug charges, and in 1981 her son Daryl was convicted of deriving a living from prostitution.

"My children don't change my issues," says Graham. "If they did, my oldest son would have me vote down rent control, and I don't believe in that."

She complains that the public and the press treat her differently than they would treat a man facing similar family problems. "They treat women differently," she says, comparing her own negative publicity to that surrounding the drug charges against the son of former vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro.

Nonetheless, the controversy surrounding her children may be one reason why Graham has been hard pressed to hold her City Council seat in recent years. In 1983, she was one of four candidates for City Council to be elected solely from first choice votes on the city's preferential ballot. In the 1985 election, she barely managed to retain her position, coming in last among the nine seats on the Council.

Graham also has some ties to developers. Amongthe contributors to her campaign are Cambridgearchitects as Peter Steffian and Graham Gund, bothof whom have been involved in building low-andmoderate-income housing.

"She's a reasonable person," says Steffian, whocollaborated with Graham on the construction of808 Memorial Drive. "She realizes that to get themost out of what she's looking for, she's got togive something up along the way."

Graham acknowledges that being inside the StateHouse has caused her to alter her methods. In1970, "The Harvard Corporation would not give usone minute of time," she says. "That's why theCommencement was broken up."

But now, she says, "People tend to label you aninsider, which is probably true--only that theinsider has brought those issues, which used to beon the outside, on the inside. I didn't have tojump and scream at Harvard when they came to theCity Council, because I had one ninth of thatpower, to vote them up or vote them down."

She maintains that the change in tactics hasnot reduced her dedication to housing,rent-control, education, and child care.

After her election to the City Council in 1971,Graham says she forced the Cambridge HousingAuthority to manage waiting lists for apartmentsimpartially, and halted a series of evictions.

More recently, Graham was among the creators ofthe civilian Police Review Advisory Board, theonly civilian panel in New England that reviewspolice conduct. Supporters noted that she hascontinued to antagonize the police politicallydespite her sons' tangles with the law.

In the State House, Graham has backed home rulepetitions giving the city power to implement rentcontrol. She also formed a child-care coalitionthat she calls "second to none."

"I have bucked the system inside and out, andI'm still doing that," she says