The Ward 5 Democratic Committee is in its final days of knocking on doors and collecting information on voters to help on the big day, next Tuesday.
At its recent Candidates Forum at the Community Church of Boston, all of this November’s Democratic candidates whose districts include Boston Ward 5, were invited to seek the committee's endorsement. Attendees were state representatives Byron Rushing and Marty Walz and Sonia Chang-Diaz, a candidate for the Second Suffolk State Senate seat currently held by Dianne Wilkerson, who lost to Chang-Diaz and is now running a sticker campaign.
Rob Whitney, chair of the Ward 5 Committee, said each gave a brief statement and the committee then voted unanimously to endorse Representative Walz and Representative Rushing for re-election and endorsed Chang-Diaz for state senator for the Second Suffolk District.
In addition, the committee endorsed the following candidates: Barack Obama and Joe Biden for president and vice president, respectively; state senators Anthony Petruccelli and Steven Tolman; Representative and Speaker of the House Salvatore DiMasi; Congressman Michael Capuano and US Senator John Kerry.
On the three ballot questions, the committee voted as follows: to endorse the "No" position for Ballot Question No. 1 - to make no change in the state income tax laws; and to endorse the "Yes" position on Ballot Question No. 3 - to prohibit dog races on which betting or wagering occurs. With respect to Ballot Question No. 2, concerning replacing criminal penalties for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana with a new system of civil penalties, the committee didn’t issue any endorsement one way or the other, said Whitney.
The Ward 5 Committee is pretty busy these last few days, helping out their Democrats, especially the Obama campaign, with old-fashioned footwork and phone calls. Rob Whitney and Ania Camargo coordinate car pools along Beacon Hill, and Emily Stone is organizing the NH runs for Back Bay. “Stone is a strong volunteer,” says fellow Ward 5 member Ross Levanto.
The Ward 5 committee is composed of about 20-30 core members, with voting members elected in February.
A big factor in this year’s campaign is the committee’s increased use of the Internet to help its cause. Levanto is blogging about his choices, and notes that Ward 5 has its own Facebook page. “There are a lot of young professionals who are wired and who check out Facebook. New media has impacted this race, I’m sure,” he said.
He uses Facebook to post Ward 5 events, articles and photos. “We do not have to maintain a website,” he says. “The other thing is, the way Facebook operates, when there’s a posting on Facebook, there’s more of an impact from a viral way than posting on a blog. Whenever someone posts something, I’m told on my status page.”
Levanto prefers his blog, which he finds easier to post his opinions, tips for people going to the polls. “The most common question I get is ‘Where do I vote and how do I find out where my polling place is?’ The Ward 5 Committee is active just letting people know about events,” he says.
Levanto’s top three priorities this campaign season begins with Sonia Chang-Diaz, who is running for Dianne Wilkerson’s state senate seat. “I’ve had a lot of personal commitment to her campaign, and because that race isn’t over yet, I feel it’s unfinished business,” he says. He spends time making phone calls, canvassing, going door to door, talking to neighbors, posting blogs for her. “Last night, I was helping out a phone bank in Boston. I am taking off a day of work on Election Day to stand with her at a polling station,” he says.
Second on his priority list is supporting Barak Obama, whom he’s supported since late January. He’s volunteering in the mayor’s office on behalf of Obama, too. Third is his fight to defeat Question 1, which he says will “cripple” the state.
Levanto is busy, but his employer, Schwartz Communications in Waltham, where he is a vice president specializing in high tech public relations, is “very supportive of me. They understand people’s hobbies,” he says.
More importantly, though, he and his fellow Ward 5 members are working to ensure that people don’t just sit back and say that Obama is a done deal, my vote isn’t needed. If nothing else, their vote on the ballot questions are crucial, with such thin poll margins. He’s optimistic about seeing a high turnout this Tuesday. Now, if only that momentum could carry over into non-presidential election years.
“If you talk to Ward 5 voters, what they will tell you they care about the most, it’s generally a combination of education, cleanliness, and to some extent crime, which are issue that matters the most to local officials,” says Levanto. But conversely, it’s the municipal elections that don’t draw the voters to the polls. “I see that as a fundamental disconnect,” he says. “I’ve sat in lines at voting booths during presidential elections at my voting location, long lines that took me 20 minutes to vote. If that excitement would just carry over year to year.”
Is there a disconnect with some voters in this election? Who is Joe SixPack, anyway? “I don’t think it’s me,” says Levanto, laughing. “The thing I love about this stuff is you work hard and you think you can make a difference. Who would have thought the biggest story would be Joe the Plumber? That’s what so great about politics.”
For anyone who tells Levanto that their vote doesn’t count, he loves to tell the story of one election season in his Connecticut hometown As a teenager, he was going to vote for the first time in a race for the second congressional district. “We had five registered voters in our family, and we’d talk about who we were going to vote for. The guy won by four votes,” he says. If one person in his family hadn’t voted, the election would have turned out differently.
In related area news:
• On Election Day, the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB) will host a membership table near one of the polls, at the Boston Public Library.
• Councillor Michael Ross will be in Florida to help with voter protection. “There’s a new law in Florida that makes it very difficult to vote if that license doesn’t identically match their name,” says Ross, who will be casting his absentee ballot before he flies out. “There is a concentrated effort, unfortunatelym to suppress votes, and so I will serve with other attorneys to make sure everyone who wants to vote will do so.” He’ll be volunteering to make sure people aren’t being turned away from the polling booth. “The reason why the vote didn’t go to somebody else the last time was because of dirty tricks,” says Ross, an Obama supporter. He’s also working with the mayor’s office to push for a vote against Question 1. “Eliminating the income tax will cripple government,” says Ross. “It’s a shortsighted law created to prey on people’s most selfish tendencies.” He’s still mulling over the other two questions.
o State Rep. Marty Walz is running uncontested, so she’ll be helping out her sister’s campaign in New Hampshire.

Members of the Ward 5 Republican Committee know they’re a minority in the Blue State, but keep up their push for Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin, and Jeff Beatty, who is running for U.S. Senate against John Kerry.
“I’m so used to being in the minority politically,” said Ellen Rooney, who leads the Ward 5 GOP crew. She counts about 25 regular members and other 35 “friends” of the campaign. Longtime fellow members include Rooney’s sister, Maureen, and Glenn Fiscus, Stephen and Rogina Jeffries, Lee and George Sprague, Reid Morrison, Richard Babson, and Mary Benedict.
Any Republicans who live in the district can sit in on the meetings, but the Ward 5 officers are elected via ballot during presidential campaign years such as this one. Rooney will be on the ballot.
Rooney, who is also executive director of the Beacon Hill Business Association, said when people join a ward committee and volunteer their skills, “Then you’re linked into what’s going on. If they’re making phone calls for this candidate or that candidate, going door to door, they’re in the loop,” she said.
Marty Samuels of Massachusetts Avenue is a new Ward 5 Republican Committee member, following a divorce and a move from Newton, where he was active with that GOP committee. “If you don’t do something, then you get what you deserve,” Samuels said. He doesn’t listen to the polls that say Beatty or McCain’s numbers are down, recalling the media headlines that proclaimed Dewey the winner over Truman. “People line up wanting to shake hands with Beatty,” he said. “To talk to him for 30 seconds, you want to vote for him. I find that heartwarming.”
The Ward 5 GOPsters were meeting once a month at Lir, and when the primaries started heading up, their meetings were visited by campaign representatives from Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and other Republican contenders, to answer questions from committee members, as also to solicit fundraising and campaign help. “That’s how they get their volunteers,” she explained. “The ward committees are really the grassroots.”
That’s how Rooney lost their secretary, when Ashley Maagero was snatched up by the McCain headquarters in New Hampshire. “It’s our loss and McCain campaign’s gain,” she said. “She’s an energetic, young, vital person. This is why the ward committees exist.”
Rooney, who moved to the Ward 5 area in the 1980s, joined the ward committee to find a few fellow Republicans in a Democrat stronghold. “When you live in Beacon Hill, most of the people you interact with are Democrats, and every so often you want to be in your own committee. I wanted to be around other people who had the same ideas, and for an exchange of ideas. I believe in being active. If you support certain candidates, you should work for them. Rather than complain about the status quo, you should work to change it,” she said.
Rooney and her sister were raised in Wisconsin by a Republican father and a mother who leaned independent. “We were raised to decide for ourselves … to weigh the issues,” Rooney said, recalling debates over the dinner table. “It’s a family that likes to talk and has lots of ideas.”
She came to Boston in the 1980s, and appreciated its love of politics. “What’s fun about this city is we love politics. There’s lots of good-natured bantering. It’s a political town -- if I didn’t like that, I wouldn’t live here,” she said.
She was elected chair since Romney first ran in 2000. Lately, it hasn’t been as much fun, she said. “This particular year, it’s such an incendiary topic. Wherever I go when I step over a threshold, someone is sure to come up to me and start talking politics. People are so emotional about it this year, I try not to engage in those situations.”
The committee is active, just not in your face. “I just say, ‘Keep your head down and just get to work.’ That’s what most people are doing. Keep on phone banking, keep making those calls, identifying the vote. All volunteer efforts are going to raising money and identifying the vote,” she said.
On Election Day, the committee organizes rides to New Hampshire, and making calls to make sure people are getting out to vote. She thanked her committee and those from wards 4, 9 and 14 for their phone bank help. “There’s some hardworking people at the McCain campaign,” she said.
These past weeks, the committee members are traveling to New Hampshire in the final days to make one last push. The McCain-Palin Boston field director, James Green led Ward 5 members and other Boston Republicans on a car pool to New Hampshire this weekend, and will go next weekend through Monday, to go door-to-door for McCain-Palin. “The big effort is calling voters and asking them, ‘Have you voted yet?’” she said.
She’s not discouraged by the polls. “We just keep goin, going, going. The polls keep changing .. We’re a small neighborhood in a Blue state, and it’s a big country. I do know there’s a lot of anger out there, a lot of emotion out there. People are worried about finances. We’re all impacted, we’re all going to see what happens,” she said.

In an October 20-22 poll taken by Suffolk University and Channel 7, 59 percent of state voters plan to vote against Question 1, which would eliminate the income tax. About 26 percent of voters favor the repeal and 14 percent were undecided.
David Paleologos, director of the Political Research Center at Suffolk, said the recent advertising campaign against Question 1 seems to have worked. "The margin was much closer back in August when no ads were running," he was quoted as saying.
About the same number said they expected state taxes to increase to help bridge a budget deficit, another 28 percent said they didn’t expect tax hikes and 12 percent were undecided.
A yes vote would give the average worker $3,700 back while giving the state government a needed downsizing. Many argue that a yes vote is a reckless initiative that would cut state operating costs by 40 percent, leaving municipalities and taxpayers in a $12.7 billion deficit during a time when government is already laying off workers and cutting services.
Local political activist Ross Levanto of the Ward 5 Democratic Committee and the Beacon Hill Civic Association has been volunteering with Mayor Thomas Menino’s office to work on phone banks, encouraging a no vote. “That has been a very worthwhile effort I think,” said Levanto. “Most of the people I talk to understand when they think about it that it’s a reckless idea. It’s just a question of getting people on the phone and helping them understand what’s involved, that this is not the way to make a statement because of the draconian cuts that would be involved. In all the phone calls, I haven’t talked to many people who are voting yes on Question 1, which is a good thing.”


Question 2

A yes vote decriminalizes personal possession of marijuana, making possession of less than an ounce of the drug a civil infraction with a $100 fine. Proponents believe the proposal would save taxpayers $30 million every year in law enforcement costs and end the creation of a Criminal Offender Record (CORI report) for such a marijuana possession charge. Currently, more than 7,500 people in the state pop up on CORI for personal marijuana possession, making job searches, home buying and getting student loans more difficult.
Opponents say the law would be a slippery slope, leading to teenage truancy, problems in school, and increased car crashes.
In the Suffolk poll, 51 percent of registered voters supported Question 2, while 32 percent opposed it, and 16 percent were undecided. An August survey saw 72 percent supporting decriminalization, so the recent decrease in the vote can be attributed to law enforcement officials’ arguments, said Paleologos.
"The no side has gained momentum over the past two months," Paleologos said in a statement. "The issue is whether the brass and blue will be able to move enough additional voters to their side in 12 days."
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley opposes the ballot question, saying its backers were trying to "turn our neighborhoods into the testing ground for a radical drug legalization agenda."
Levanto said he hasn’t made up his mind yet on this one. “It’s a tough question. There’s no escalation in terms of punishment. It’s kind of like a speeding ticket. I would be comfortable in escalation of punishment if you get caught repeatedly. There are significant issues about the CORI process, if you’re caught with this, it would significantly mess up your career.”

Question 3 would phase out greyhound racing, closing Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park and Wonderland Park in Revere. Proponents call greyhound racing inhumane, citing long hours spend in cramped cages, poor diet, and injuries sustained in racing. Proponents of the question include the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell, the Humane Society, and Grey2K. Since 2002, injury reports show that 714 greyhounds were hurt through 2007.
Opponents said their research is flawed, that the dogs are treated well, and that in this economy, we can’t afford to lose more jobs.
Poll numbers are a real dog race. In the Suffolk poll, 44 percent support it, while 43 percent were opposed, and another 13 percent were undecided. The poll of 400 people, conducted Monday through Wednesday, has a 4.9 percent margin of error.
Levanto is in favor of the question. His sister-in-law ended up taking in some greyhounds when Connecticut closed a racetrack, and, she told him, “These dogs were clearly abused. Out of human decency, I don’t think it’s right not to have dog racing. I know that means people may lose jobs, but the wording of the proposal - I think there’s a way to help them with their employment.”

In other poll findings Gov. Deval Patrick received a 57 percent favorability rating; 53 percent favored Senator Barack Obama for president compared to 34 percent for Senator John McCain. Ralph Nader got 3 percent. Incumbent U.S. Sen. John Kerry received 56 percent to his Republican challenger Jeff Beatty’s 19 percent.

A local woman starring in the Nora Theatre Company’s production of “Martha Mitchell Calling” gets to do all the fun things an actress loves doing: talking in a fun Southern accent, wearing a blonde Beehive styled by Gary Croteau of Mario Russo Salon, and being the center of the stage.
But more importantly, the role of Martha Mitchell brings out the energetic side of award-winning actress Annette Miller.
“What I love most about Martha is her energy, her passion, her commitment to her country, and to her husband,” says Miller, a resident of Commonwealth Avenue. “When I’m in the process of playing her, all the parts of me that are like her are brought to the surface. I am working on those parts of me that have to seek truth. Martha can hold her own in any political situation. She was a great campaigner. President Nixon called her the secret weapon. It’s been a joy to not put her on, step into her, but to bring her out of me, every night.”
“Martha Mitchell Calling” is an original play written by Jodi Rothe, and making its Boston premiere through Nov. 9 at the Central Square Theater. Miller plays the feisty southern belle, Martha Mitchell, who clamors to be heard during the tumultuous times of the Watergate scandal. The wife of President Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell, Martha was a passionate and influential Southern socialite dubbed “the Mouth of the South” who became famous for her outspokenness and famous phone calls to the press about matters the Nixon-era conspirators wanted kept quiet. Said President Nixon in a 1977 interview with David Frost, “If it hadn’t been for Martha, there’d have been no Watergate.”
“She introduced her husband to Nixon because she thought at the time he was the best one for her country. She learned all the bad stuff they were doing, and she wanted her husband to tell the truth, and he wouldn’t. He began to cover up, and she told the truth, and for the good of the country, said Nixon should resign,” explains Miller.
“What I like about the piece is that it very much speaks to the present time. There are lots of lines that resonate in today’s world, and it seems what Nixon covered up and Nixon did pales in comparison to what things are happening today, in terms of deceit and lying. We’re paying a heavy price for it, and Martha paid a price for it. They made her out to be a looney and she wasn’t. I love being given the opportunity to speak about something very passionately about what I believe in. Martha gives me the means to do all that,” says Miller.
The play has been in production since 2006, when Miller originated the role at Shakespeare & Company, and in New York state and Florida.
Miller and her husband moved to Commonwealth Avenue three years ago, when the empty nesters moved from Newton. “The kids had grown up, and it was time to go back to the city,” says Miller, who is a native of New York City. “I love the Back Bay, being able to walk to everything.” Their daughter, Deborah, lives in Washington D.C., and son Bruce runs the Barbershop Lounge on Fairfield and Newbury streets.
Miller’s been acting ever since junior high, and attended the High School of the Performing Arts in New York City (of “Fame” fame.) At 18, she launched her professional career at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in a series of summer musicals, starting with “The Desert Song”.
She received a scholarship to Brandeis University, where she received her bachelor’s degree and later her MFA, and also studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory in New York.
Since then, she’s been in many productions. Miller has been a member of Shakespeare & Company for a decade, performing in such productions as “King John,” “Twelfth Night,” “Collected Stories,” and “Love Letters”. She has performed both on and off Broadway, including the role of Sylvie in the female version of “The Odd Couple,” with Rita Moreno and Sally Struthers. Locally, she has also performed with the American Repertory Theatre and Merrimack Repertory Theatre, and has worked in TV and film.
Of course, her favorite role is the one she’s doing now. “You always love the one you’re near,” she drawls in the Martha Mitchell accent she slips in and out of during our conversation. She’s also fond of her role as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in “Golda’s Balcony,” for which she received the Elliot Norton Award for Best Solo Performance.
“I created that role,” she says. “That’s what a lot of people in Boston remember me doing.”
Miller loves working with the Central Square Theater, which she says is only a short walk across the Mass. Avenue Bridge. “It’s a new theater. It’s a very exciting space to be in. I think in this time and age, we really have to hear more from artists who connect in a very truthful way to the world they live in. The playwright has written a very funny and at the same time serious piece, and people find themselves laughing and crying.”
Miller isn’t sure where the production is headed next after it finishes its Boston run, but she’s preparing for her next role, as Madam Ranevsky in Dostoyevsky’s “The Cherry Orchard,” at the Central Square Theater in January. “I’m really excited about playing her,” she says.
“At this point in my professional career, I’m fortunate I have an opportunity to practice in a profession that is a passion,” she says. “What I love the most is being able to, I guess, make a career of my passion.”

When Governor Deval Patrick announced cutbacks last week, Mayor Thomas M. Menino followed suit with his own belt-tightening announcements, including a hiring freeze and a cutback on capital improvement projects.
Menino also announced plans to fast-track three Back Bay developments, which he hoped would bring in more money to the local economy.
In a move he hasn’t made since September 11, 2001, the mayor pushed the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) to finish up development projects in the city. In response, the BRA immediately identified five projects that could enrich the local economy by $1.9 billion and bring in thousands of jobs. The projects include three in the Back Bay: the 19-story 888 Boylston Street office tower near the Hynes Convention Center; a 30-story residential tower on Exeter Street; and the Hayward Place, a 14-story mixed-use building with 19,000 square feet of retail space and underground parking.
“It was in response to the governor’s state fiscal plan,” said BRA spokesperson Jessica Shumaker. “We rely on the state for a number of things.”
Shumaker said, “The BRA will look at ways to see which projects can get their approvals in a quicker time frame. Nothing has been immediately determined.”
She said the Hayward Place project has already received BRA approval, and that the Exeter and Boylston projects are well along in the process. “We will try to get board approval quickly,” she added.
And other projects that aren’t on the fast track?
“These were just the five that immediately came to mind. It doesn’t mean that other projects won’t be identified and looked at,” said Shumaker.
State Representative Marty Walz, who also is actively involved with these development projects, was startled when she heard about the express approvals.
“I’m not sure what they are saying,” said Walz, who points out that these projects also depend on community support. Since PruPAC (Prudential Project Advisory Committee) is reviewing Back Bay proposals and are slated to take a vote Nov. 10, that may mean PruPAC may not approve them, said Walz.
“The outcome of that vote is entirely uncertain. The project is tentatively [set] for approval in December. Those meetings are already scheduled, and I don’t know if there’s anything to expedite.”
While Walz said the BRA is correct that, on its end, the BRA is well along in the process, she worries whether the PruPAC recommendations will be ignored in trying to expedite the projects.
The Copley Tower project in particular is a long way away from being approved by PruPAC, said Walz “There is significant work to be done by the CAC. It could be sped up, but the CAC [Citizens Advisory Committee] is already meeting every other week … that’s a pretty aggressive schedule.
“The BRA can ignore that recommendation if it likes, but I’d be surprised if this could move much faster than it could be moving,” said Walz. “They may need to look at other things that can be sped up, or other projects that are languishing, but these three buildings are not languishing.”
Menino also speculated that the city may have to postpone such capital improvement projects as maintenance and repairs of playgrounds, parks, sidewalks, streets, and schools, and also cut back on community policing and firefighter training.
"This is the beginning, as I look at it. What it's going to mean is we're going to have to work smarter and more efficiently," Menino said. So far, that doesn’t mean layoffs.
On Wednesday, Governor Patrick announced more than $1 billion in state budget cuts, of which the city is expected to be directly affected by only $5 million of those cuts.
The Next PruPAC meeting is Monday, November 10, at 6 p.m. at the Hynes Convention Center in Room 102 to discuss 888 Boylston/Exeter Street Residences DPIR submission.

Joshua Resnek of our editorial staff met with Lt. Governor Tim Murray last week. The lieutenant governor was frank and honest in a wide-ranging discussion. Here is what he had to say in answer to our questions during the interview.


Question: Recession? Are we in a recession?
Answer: Yes. I think it is reality. Tax revenues are tightening. Unemployment is rising.

Question: What to do about it in order to maintain stability?
Answer: Acknowledge the problem. Deal with it in a straightforward manner. No one can predict what will happen. Make cuts sooner rather than later.

Question: Chapter 70 – local school aid. It was not touched during this round of spending cutbacks. What about looking ahead?
Answer: Cuts are inevitable, it would appear. Again, no one can make that prediction today.

Question: Question 1 – the state income tax. Are you for or against?
Answer: I’m not voting for Question 1. We all rely on the services which government provides in this state.

Question: If you were the governor, what would you be doing differently to meet the challenge of the changing economy?
Answer: I wouldn’t be doing anything differently. My previous municipal experience tells me intuitively we’ve been responsible about the cuts we made. We all need to understand that local government is what we rely on most for services, so the cuts must maintain a careful balance. And so far, they do.

Question: Casino gambling? Dead or alive in Massachusetts?
Answer: A casino is coming. We’ll try to craft the best deal. It could be discussed, again as early as January.

Question: The presidential race. We go to the polls next week to elect a new president. Who is it going to be? And who are you voting for?
Answer: Senator Obama will win by a strong margin, with coat-tails. I’m voting for Senator Obama.

Question: If Senator Obama wins, there is great speculation that the governor will be called to Washington to serve in the cabinet. Does he stay or does he leave?
Answer: The governor is here to stay.

Get out and vote

Next week, we elect a president and vice president at a time when the future of the economy appears to be hanging in the balance. American hegemony also hangs in the balance. And whether or not we go into the future as the world’s brightest hope is largely dependent on the outcome of this election.
We will not tell you who to vote for. In this blue region of the nation, voters are very hip and not terribly undecided about for whom they’ll cast their vote.
Bostonians, by and large, are American patriots, even though our patriotism is being questioned because we are easterners and live an urban and urbane existence in one of the most liberal areas of the nation.
The presidential election itself this time around is profound political business. It is the stuff of history.
It may very well turn out to be a seminal moment in the life and times of the United States and for the world, for that matter.
We will go on with the Republicans or we will choose the Democrats.
It is as simple as that.
Whatever way we go, it will ultimately be the result of the will of the people, united in the belief in American democracy, and once again proving that American democracy is the strongest in the world.
This giant, lurching, pulsating nation of ours elects its leaders, while a vast majority of the nations on this earth have leaders chosen because of birthright or by military rulers or are led by dictators who are the only name on the ballot.
In Boston alone, more than 50,000 new voters have registered to vote in this election.
It is a similar situation throughout the nation, where millions of new voters have shown a desire to be heard.
And they will be heard.
Next Tuesday, the world will await the outcome of this important election.
And when it is done, when a winner has been established, a new American president and vice president will have been elected without coercion, by a vote of the people.
It is one of the wonders of this nation that we will honor the outcome of that vote, whatever it is, that we will inaugurate a new leader in January, and that we will move on to the imperatives of an uncertain future that awaits us.
God bless the United States of America.