A Tale of Two Eighth District Voters

Pam Thomure is a prominent progressive activist and the past president of the Cambridge Democratic City Committee.

Her stated goal in this year's election?

To push a pro-choice, progressive woman into national elected office.

"We in Massachusetts consider ourselves to be a progressive and liberal state," she said last week. "It's an embarrassment that we do not have pro-choice, progressive and activist women representing Massachusetts."

After meeting privately with the two female candidates, Marjorie O'Neill Clapprood and Susan Tracey, Thomure's vote was set. As early as April 2, she knew she would cast her ballot for Clapprood.

No matter, of course, that nine of the ten candidates (including seven of the eight males) were staunchly pro-choice. No matter that most were progressive; some, like George Bachrach, take pains to prove they're "unreconstructed" in their liberalism.

But much to the surprise of political pundits, not all eighth district voters based their decision on their identity the way Thomure did.

Take Ron Slayman, for example.

Slayman, a 39 year-old black man, thought he would vote for Boston city councillor Charles Yancey because the candidate was also black.

"I believe we need to feel black unity," he says.

But as the race took off, more and more candidates added their names to the ballot, and Slayman stopped to think and listen.

"They talk about home ownership issues," he says. "I was born and raised in Boston. Not a lot of black people own the property on which they [were raised]. And as you see, about this urban gentrification and urban renewal projects, they're really removing people of color."

Slayman's young son attends the Renaissance charter school in urban Boston, a first attempt in a unique and controversial experiment to raise Boston public education to meet state-wide standards.

But while Slayman thinks charter schools are the key to his son's success, his candidate, Yancey, opposes charter schools.

Enter Chris Gabrielli, a white, selfmade millionaire and strong champion of charter schools.

"I go by vibes and how you feel about them," Slayman says. "He's talked a lot about ideas. Home ownership, soft mortgages. And they were real inspiring for people like me who lived here all my life. I can't afford to live in the same neighborhood that I was born and raised in," he says. "Chris Gabrielli is the first candidate who I was able to talk about it to."

"Until I met Chris Gabrielli, I was going to vote for Charles Yancey," Slayman said. "I was going to vote just because he's black."

"However after doing some careful soul-searching, [I know] I need to vote for a candidate who's actually going make a difference."

Early on in the race for the eighth, there was a fear that the wrangling of identity politics, long a contentious issue for moderate Democrats, would demolish any hope of one candidate being elected with a mandate.

To be sure, that happened in part. But some voters close to the core issues found a way to wade through competing claims of patronage.