Mayor's race given but others are hot

2 November 2001

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The mayor's race may be almost invisible, but there are three contests Tuesday that merit Boston voters' attention. Two are citywide. A third is a district council race whose outcome now seems tied to a college prank.

The Community Preservation Act is a highfalutin name for a property tax increase. It's one of those "only in Massachusetts" things that, should it pass, will leave the rest of the country scratching its collective head. Tax increases during recessions are dicey propositions to begin with, yet the CPA's supporters have a long list of politicians and community groups who have gladly signed on.

One reason for that is it's a targeted tax, to be used only on feel-good things like affordable housing, historic preservation and open space. Thirty communities in Massachusetts have already passed the CPA. All of them have used it to preserve open space and prevent new housing from being built. In Boston's case, of course, the avowed intent is quite different: It will be used to build housing, not stop it, say its supporters.

As taxes go, it's appealing. The purposes seem decent. It's lucrative, with the state matching any new local funds. Moreover, it's cleverly written so that most homeowners are exempted; the burden falls almost exclusively on businesses.

Good-government advocates dislike targeted taxes. In this case, they point to the CPA and wonder why, if there is to be a tax increase, it doesn't go to other pressing needs such as education. A full 20 percent of Boston's housing stock is already subsidized. The CPA will simply increase that number. Meanwhile, and ironically, the communities around Boston will use the same law to achieve the opposite ends.

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If there is a theme to the at-large City Council elections, it has to do with the role of the council as a counterweight to the mayor.

Mayor Thomas Menino is cruising to re-election, having spent little time justifying his past decisions or articulating an agenda for the next four years. Given that, it's probably more important than ever that the council has members willing to challenge the administration.

Two stand out in that regard. One, incumbent Steve Murphy from Hyde Park, may very well be the hardest-working member of the body. When Murphy came on the council five years ago, he was regarded as a conservative cut from the same cloth as the legendary Dapper O'Neil. But he has grown tremendously, reaching out to Boston's more progressive communities. He has also shown himself able to take tough - and sometimes lonely - stands on hard issues, such as the advisability of the Community Preservation Act or an inappropriate community benefits deal Menino cut with South Boston.

Maura Hennigan has been on the council 20 years, most of it representing District 6, composed of West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain. This year she's running for an at-large seat, a risky jump. Hennigan, one of two women on the 13-member council, has increasingly taken on citywide issues, especially on development. The rumor is she's positioning herself for a mayoral run. So what? In the meantime, should she win, she will offer a much-needed check to mayoral power.

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The past now haunts the District 6 council election - an open seat because of Hennigan's decision to run at large.

The contestants are two young men, fresh-faced and earnest. They are so much alike they could be clones. Both are well spoken, smart and quick with a handshake and a smile. John Tobin is white, Catholic, was raised and lives in West Roxbury, went to Catholic Memorial High School, and now works there. Mike Rush has exactly the same pedigree - including the fact that he works at Catholic Memorial.

Rush beat Tobin in the September preliminary, but conventional wisdom had it that Jamaica Plain, which typically has higher turnout in final elections, could be the deciding factor.

JP is far different from family-oriented, almost-suburban West Roxbury: It's gritty and urban, with diverse ethnicities and a distinctly more liberal cast. Both men reached out and secured endorsements from key JP activists. That was to Rush's benefit; if he could hold Tobin to a tie in JP, he figured, victory would be his.

Then along came Pat Buchanan.

A local newspaper, the Jamaica Plain Gazette, broke the story that Rush had once been an avid supporter of the far-right presidential candidate, writing letters in his support and contributing money. The news spread like wildfire.

Rush, taken aback, says the whole thing was part of some complicated feud he had with a fellow classmate. But at the tender age of 27, Rush hasn't been out of college long enough for people to dismiss college hijinks as irrelevant. Instead, those hijinks just raised questions about his character - an unwelcome October surprise that may very well redound to Tobin's benefit.