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Swiston, Burg for alderman

In the highly contested city wide race for two at-large seats in Ward 3, we're endorsing two very different newcomers.

Greer Tan Swiston ran an admirable but unsuccessful campaign against Rep. Kay Kahn last year, but has fortunately not lost her ambition for elected office. Swiston is a Republican - which would certainly help give Newton's vocal minority of conservatives a much-needed voice at City Hall - but her party affiliation is beside the point. Her strength is her willingness to listen, and to get along with people with whom she disagrees. Swiston's fiscally conservative, socially moderate views would be welcome in these times of tight budgets. Her commitment to improving every day city services shows that she understands one of the key responsibilities of being alderman and has already done her homework by listening to residents.

We're also endorsing Leslie Burg , who's being backed by the city's Democratic establishment, yet seems to be running for all her own reasons, not theirs. Her assessment of Mayor Cohen's strengths and weaknesses - she argues the he's done a good job managing the city, but has been weak on leadership - is honest. Additionally, her three goals - maintaining the city's diversity, improving long-range financial planning and letting the public see more clearly how decisions are made at City Hall - get to the heart of what's wrong with this city.

By endorsing Swiston and Berg, we are passing over incumbent Ted Hess-Mahan and another challenger, Anatol Zukerman. Hess-Mahan has been a strong liberal voice on the board, but we are disappointed that he failed to make headway on reducing the board's size - one of the main issues he used to get elected two years ago and one to which we promised to hold him accountable. We're also not recommending Zukerman, a gadfly of the current administration, in part because we haven't seen him demonstrate much willingness to work with people with whom he disagrees, but mostly because Swiston and Berg are outstanding choices.

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