AFTER ALL THE FUROR, FEW VIE FOR OFFICE DESPITE KEY ISSUES, CANDIDATES LACKING

By Connie Paige GLOBE CORRESPONDENT and Matt Viser GLOBE STAFF
The Boston Globe
August 5, 2005

The firefighters are so upset that they almost stopped traffic during a recent demonstration. Cost estimates rose so rapidly that Newton North High School has drawn comparisons to a Newton version of the Big Dig. And, at least in some minds, a tax override is on the horizon.

So does that mean the November ballot will be bursting with candidates?

It doesn't look that way. With the filing deadline Tuesday, it appears that incumbents have little to fear.

Running for his third term, Mayor David B. Cohen does faces two challengers, but overall only a third of the races for School Committee and Board of Aldermen are contested.

The field is markedly different from what it was two years ago when nearly every seat had a challenger, thanks in large part to the Newton Taxpayers Association's recruiting efforts. While the association's candidates were rebuffed at the polls, it forced incumbents to campaign hard in the most competitive election in the city since the 1970s.

This year, the watchdog group does not plan to endorse any candidates, and it is abandoning efforts to gather signatures to force a ballot question on curbing the cost of a new Newton North High School.

As of last week, only two candidates besides Cohen had turned in the 400 signatures of registered voters needed to qualify for the mayor's race: Michael Striar and Thomas Sheff.

Candidates have until Tuesday to submit signatures, which will have to be verified by the Election Commission before their names go on the ballot.

"There's not a strong field of challengers for David Cohen," said Fran Yerardi, chairman of the Newton-Needham Chamber of Commerce. "I wouldn't say anybody's unbeatable, but I think with the field that's out there now, Mayor Cohen is surely the front-runner."

Striar, 47 and a father of three, is focusing his campaign on the schools, saying too much attention has been placed on standardized testing and hired administrators at the expense of new teachers.

"If parents really pay attention to that, I'm going to win," he said. "That's what I'm hanging my hat on."

Striar said he would soon step up his advertising.

To date, the money to underwrite his campaign, he said, comes from his partnership with two brothers and a sister in two family real estate and development ventures, Striar Management Group Inc. and Striar Development Inc. The companies, started by their father, are developing a 250-unit affordable housing project in Sharon, according to Striar.

"I have never taken a [campaign] contribution," he said. "I returned over $50,000 in contributions." However, he added, he is not ruling out soliciting contributions in the future.

During the 1990s, Striair worked in the entertainment industry under the business moniker of Striar Entertainment Group. He said he promoted such acts as Guns 'N Roses, Stevie Wonder, and AC/DC.

Striar acknowledges that he does not fit the typical image of a public official. At a meeting last month about cutting fire service, Striar appeared in a T-shirt with Newton firefighters inscribed on it. At one point, he started screaming at Cohen and rushed over to him. Firefighters union president Francis Capello quickly confronted him and asked him to leave.

"I understand he was very emotional about the whole thing," Capello said last week. "I told him I don't think this is the right way to go about this."

The meeting concerned the fate of Engine 6, which the city took out of service July 1 to save $440,000 a year. Firefighters say the savings came at the expense of safety. They also have launched several street protests against layoffs, sick-leave policy, and the lack of a contract.

"Cohen has been sticking it to the firefighters," Striar said last week during a telephone interview, explaining his outburst. "They haven't had a pay raise in three years. These are guys who run into burning buildings to save people. His [Cohen's] abject disrespect is beyond irritating."

Striar agreed in last week's interview that his behavior might have lacked dignity, but said he would do it again.

"I'm going to get right in his face about it every time he tries to do that. Maybe it's not politically wise. I don't know. But I feel it's my obligation."

Sheff, 42, the second challenger to Cohen, said the mayor has ducked the issue of raising taxes while piling up city debt.

"This man spends money like it's going out of style," Sheff said in a telephone interview last week.

Sheff, who is single and has no children, said he is particularly concerned about the cost of building a new Newton North High School, now projected at $104.5 million, and said the school should be renovated instead of rebuilt to save money.

While lamenting a lack of personal resources to fuel his bid, Sheff said a friend who owes him money is paying for a phone bank to reach voters.

Sheff said he believes the service is worth about $400 $100 less than the state limit on in-kind contributions.

Jeff Seideman, president of the Newton Taxpayers Association, speculated that Cohen may have to propose another override of Proposition 2 1/2, which would raise taxes. Voters supported an $11.5 million override in 2002.

"I don't think Mayor Cohen is unbeatable," Seideman said last week. "I think his opponent, to succeed, has to go after his weak spots, which means his inability to balance the budget."

However, Seideman said Striar is "out-Cohening" the mayor in trying to throw more money at the schools not what Seideman sees as a winning strategy.

"There's a lot of discontent in the city for Mayor Cohen and what he stands for," Seideman said.

Gerry Chervinsky, Cohen's campaign consultant, said Newton voters may fault Cohen on one or another policy or initiative. Chervinsky, of KRC Communications Research, said Cohen's two greatest negatives were his support of the 2002 override and the construction of Newton North High School.

However, Chervinsky said his private polling shows that voters believe the city is on the right course.

Only one School Committee member so far faces a challenger this despite recent controversies that have spurred parents to attend committee meetings by the dozens and sign petitions by the hundreds.

"It's a real problem," said Geoffrey Epstein, who is running aginst incumbent Gail Glick. "We've got two folks Anne Larner and Susie Heyman who took eight years, took a break as they are required to, and are back again. There's a lack of energy, a lack of new ideas."

Epstein said he tried to talk at least two others into running. Both declined.

"There's a general perception that it's an incredibly onerous position, and that generally stops people from running," said the newcomer to citywide politics.

Epstein, who is founder and president of RGB Software, criticized the current School Committee for not looking for more ways to save money. He said the department should buy desktop computers instead of laptops, cut some of the technology specialist positions, and communicate better online.

"We used to be a school system where people came from nationwide to look at what we're doing. That's no longer really the case," he said.

Jonathan Yeo, copresident of the Newton PTO Council, is running unopposed for the seat held by outgoing member Nancy Levine. Yeo is the director of the state Division of Water Supply Protection and a former spokesman for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.

Also not running for reelection is Patricia Kellogg, whose seat has attracted at least three candidates: Claire Sokoloff, Lucia Dolan, and Andrew Gottlieb.

Unless more candidates announce, at least two-thirds of the committee will remain unchanged after the election.

"Getting new faces on the School Committee is important," said David Yavin, who last year helped start a parent advocacy group that has lobbied for more elementary school teachers. But "people do not easily view themselves in that role. They think this is a role for politicians: 'I work, I'm a parent.' To be an authority in the city is not a natural feeling for a lot of people."

Yavin, whose name was frequently mentioned as a possible candidate, said, "For personal reasons, I decided I wouldn't be able to do justice to the position if I ran this year."

The field for Board of Aldermen is similarly sparse. The hottest race will likely be in Ward 3, where five candidates are vying for two seats. The candidates include Alderman Ted Hess-Mahan, who won a seat on the board two years ago; Greer Tan Swiston, who developed a dedicated following in her unsuccessful bid to unseat state Representative Kay Khan last year; and Anatol Zukerman, a frequent critic of city building projects who last year helped form a community watchdog group called CiViC. Two community activists, Allan Lewis and Leslie Burg, are also planning to run.

For the first time in more than a decade, a black candidate is running.

Clark Turner, whose uncle Matthew Jefferson was the first black member of the Board of Aldermen, is the former president of CAN-DO, an organization that fights for more affordable housing and a member of the city's Planning and Development Board. He has a heavy challenge, though, going up against two of the board's stalwarts, Leonard Gentile and Amy Sangiolo.

Connie Paige can be reached at cpaige@globe.com . Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com .