McCann, Bachrach Run Even In Three-Way Senate Contest

Depending on which side you support, the race for the Suffolk and Middlesex Senate seat represents a contest between the old and new schools of politics, or between a tested incumbent and an inexperienced outsider.

Campaign officials for State Sen. Francis X. McCann, a 13-term Democrat, and Independent challenger George Bachrach last night agreed only that the election is still too close to call.

Although either McCann or Bachrach will surely win in the heavily Democratic district including Belmont, Watertown, Allston-Brighton and the western edge of West Cambridge, the outcome may be decided by the support given Republican candidate George C. Leslie, Jr.

Bachrach has spent $50,000 in the race, McCann $10,000, and Leslie $600. But Leslie said yesterday, "I'll draw enough votes away from Bachrach to swing the vote to McCann."

Lesser of Two Evils

The only candidate who favors Proposition 2 1/2, Leslie said that Bachrach had hoped to face McCann alone, because in the past three elections McCann has benefitted from a vote split between two challengers. But he said McCann is "the lesser of two evils," because he is a moderate and Bachrach is a "liberal who believes in more government services for everyone."

Leslie's support of Proposition 2 1/2 could indeed hurt Bachrach, Patricia A. Crowell, field coordinator for Bachrach, said yesterday.

Mild epithets have replaced the issues in this campaign. Bachrach is calling the 68-year-old McCann an "invisible Senator," and McCann replies that Bachrach is so unfamiliar with the area, "if you put him in the State House, he'd be lost in ten minutes."

The Big Meets

Crowell said McCann has not filed one significant piece of legislation in ten years. She added that the Senate Post-Audit and Oversight Committee, headed by McCann, is designed to review how state money is spent but "has not met for the past year."

McCann yesterday called that charge "a total, bare-faced lie." For one thing, he said, the committee studied state excise taxes this year and found that the state loses about $30 million annually in delinquent payments.

The Post-Audit Committee meets "at least once a month" and periodically schedules special meetings, Patricia McCarthy, secretary to it, said yesterday.

McCann said last night that Bachrach has not lived in the district long enough "to know where town hall is." He said Bachrach moved to Watertown in 1978 from Larchmont, N.Y., and has only once voted in Massachusetts.

"That is totally false," Crowell responded. She said Bachrach lived in Allston-Brighton since 1973 and moved to Watertown in 1976.

But the Watertown city clerk said yesterday that city records indicate Bachrach moved to Watertown from New York in 1978.

Pamela R. Saunders '81, a Bachrach campaign worker, said yesterday Bachrach has lived in the district long enough to be effective, adding, "George knows more about the area's problems than Frank McCann ever knew."

Bachrach supports MBTA reform, elimination of county government, improvement of services for the elderly, the bottle bill, and property tax reform though means other than Proposition 2 1/2

McCann said he would continue to serve the "working class" by supporting re-districting of Watertown, improved relations with labor, minimum-wage legislation, and property tax reform--but not with Proposition 2 1/2.

Leslie supports "less government and lower taxes."