Disappointing Debute

IF ANYTHING was clear after last Monday's Boston maydeal candidates forum, it was that to one has yet emerged to challenge Mayor Kevin H. WAhite. And with less than five months lift before the September open primary. White--who has not declared his candidacy despite dropping all sorts of hints--appears to be in the driver's seat.

White, who has been sitting pretty in City Hall for 10 years, is now less popular than ever before in his career. But, as a recent television poll reported, no one is in any position to take advantage of the anti-White backlash.

At the Monday forum, eight earnest candidates tried. They smiled for the cameras, rehashed their campaign platforms, and made every effort not to be offensive to the press or to the 150-odd women of Simmons College in the audience. And when the two hours were over, none of the candidates had said anything brilliant or gave any sign of being set to "break from the pack," as one candidate aptly put it. The most constructive input came from two candidates who clarified once and for all that they will not do so. City Councilor Frederick C. Langone, a crusty old codger who specializes in down-home wisdom and speaks to everybody as if he were their grandfather, clinched the James Watt Hole-in-the-Foot award by telling one of the students in the audience to "come back to me after you've survived a rape," to discuss women's issues. And Eloise Linger, the candidate for the Socialist Workers Party, proved exactly why socialists don't run cities by discussing El Salvador instead of Roxbury.

The serious candidates--of whom former School Committee President David I. Finnegan and City Councilor Raymond L. Flynn are considered favorites--offered even less excitement. Former State Representative Melvin H. King reached out to gays, women, the poor, and Blacks--whom he termed the "niggers" of Boston. Suffolk County Sheriff Dennis J. Kearney called for opening the door to City Hall and banishing crime from the streets, presumably enhancing his good-guy image, Flynn copped an FDR line, offering the observation that the role of government is to help those who can't help themselves--which prompted one member of the press to ask him if his populist stance accounts for his inability to raise money. And former WBZ radio host Finnegan lamely quipped that he is "a lot better looking on the radio than in person."

AS MAYORAL races go, this is certainly a wholesome and appealing bunch. Any one of them would have added a touch of class to the dreary Chicago election, and any one of them would make a better mayor than incumbent White, who has had several sides indicted on corruption charges and has himself been linked to such high-level scandals as selling a Beacon Hill town house for a dollar. But wholesomeness doesn't equal victory, especially in a town that is rather blase by now about corruption.

White has more money than his challengers combined and is one of the most accomplished politicians around when it comes to mere staying power. In 1979, White used a patronage system modelled after the late Richard J. Daley Chicago machine to bury his opponents--King. Finnagan and Joseph F. Timilty. Relying almost solely on campaign contributions from city employees and developers. White out-fundraised and out-campaigned the opposition. The prospects for a similar coup this year are improving. Finnegan, one of the latest entrants into the race, started his campaign already about $70,000 in debt from past efforts and of the rest, only Kearney has proven his ability to raise more than token contributions from East Boston pensioners.

White's greatest advantage, though, lies in the structure of the electoral process. In September, all candidates will participate in an open primary, after which the two top vote-getters will have till November to continue courting the public. Assuming White gains one of those two spots, the system will thus automatically eliminate all but one of his challengers. And faced with a one-on-one choice between White and an unproven, underfinanced challenger voters may well choose the incumbent by default.

Though the candidates at Monday's forum studiously avoided mentioning White by name, they will have to start pretty soon if they are to have any hope of victory. Candidates such as Langone. Lawrence S. DiCara '71--an able and knowledgeable politician who seems to have no real support base--and former MBTA Chairman Robert R. Kitey would do best to endorse front-runners such as Finnegan, Flynn or King. The Mayor is the real issue in this campaign: next to him, the issues only offer a pretext for repeats of Monday's counterproductive showcase.