Brookline Newcomer 

Voters stay home, progressives lose 

The few Brookline residents who voted for Selectman last week opted for Donna Kalikow and Robert Allen's promise of strong leadership rather than Mark Levy and Don Weitzman's brand of grassroots input into decision making. They also chose more overdevelopment, more subservience to big business interests, and more nails in the coffin of Brookline's fondly remembered progressive era. At this rate, Ronny Sydney should easily beat Frank Smizik in the September Democratic primary for state representative. If the slide escalates, someday soon our rep will be a Republican.

One mistake the progressive candidates made was avoiding discussion of substantive issues. It was only after months of vague generalizations that all four candidates finally identified publicly--just one week before the election--a few specific points about which they disagreed. More or less directly, they responded to the question put to them by TAB reporter Emily Sweeney: "Has there been a decision made by the Board of Selectmen that you disagree with? What was it, and what would you have done differently?" They faced a similar question during the League of Women Voters forum, which brought titters and nods from the audience and apparent discomfort among the candidates.

The answers were instructive, though too late to have much impact. It turns out the candidates did differ on issues ranging from overnight parking to overdevelopment to forms of taxation. I'm not sure why they took so long to admit this. If the progressives had emphasized from the beginning a true progressive agenda and had focused on boosting the anemic voter turnout, they might have formed a working coalition of neighborhood activists, lower income residents, apartment dwellers, and others. Over 81% of registered voters didn't show up at the polls and additional residents never registered. Given the election's lack of substance and energy, they didn't have much reason to bother.

Of course, the candidate least forthcoming in response to the TAB's question was easily reelected. Although she was more direct at the League forum, during her interview Donna Kalikow failed to identify any differentiating issue. In fact, when Kalikow noted there were some Town Meeting decisions she had disagreed with and Sweeney asked her to elaborate, the politician's response was disconcerting: "Oh, that's not going to help me... I'm not going to bite."

Allen at least means well and has plenty of enthusiasm and ideas. He actually seems to listen when you talk to him. He could do some good if he distances himself from the business forces that helped elect him and becomes an independent thinker and doer, but right now it's too soon to tell if he'll be just one more development-first echo.

The lawn signs now turn from the town election to the Sydney-Smizik slugfest, which has demonstrated early on a difference from the Selectman campaign. The race to represent most of Brookline in the House has already brought an effort to differentiate the candidates, with Smizik blasting the record Sydney's running on. Demonstrating an admirable display of specificity in a letter to the Globe, the challenger listed several issues dear to the hearts of local progressives on which Sydney caved in to the conservative House leadership.

As I understand it, Sydney narrowly defeated John Businger two years ago by defining the long-time incumbent's independent progressive stance as ineffective. She said she'd build better working relationships with other legislators in order to get things done. She failed to tell us that the most important relationship would be with Speaker Finneran and that getting things done didn't necessarily mean progressive things.

I'd be more impressed with Smizik's criticism of Sydney for trying to maintain her credibility with the House leadership if Smizik's own School Committee wasn't doing the same thing on MCAS. Smizik has taken the safe-for-Brookline position that the high-stakes test should be reformed or replaced. But he's refused to break School Committee ranks and come out against reprisals for boycotters, and he still won't put any teeth in the committee's weak verbal assurances that Brookline teachers don't dumb down the curriculum and teach to the test. His head-in-the-sand approach to MCAS isn't a good sign for those hoping to see a more independent voice in the House.

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