District Four is horse race

By Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist, 10/16/2003

Less than three weeks remain in the contentious Boston City Council race between Charles C. Yancey and challenger Ego E. Ezedi Jr. As typically happens with so little time left, the tensions seem to be increasing.

At least that was the impression yesterday when Ezedi accused Yancey of distorting his own record, the day after a lively debate at Roxbury Community College.

Among other issues, Ezedi asserted that Yancey has consistently taken credit he doesn't deserve for the construction of a middle school on Mildred Avenue, which Yancey once opposed.

The details feel less important than the shot in the arm the race has given to politics in Dorchester and Mattapan and to neighborhood politics in general. For the first time in a while, a City Council election actually feels vital, as if something significant is at stake.

In a recent interview, Yancey took exception to the idea that this was his first serious challenge in years. "This is not my toughest race," he said. "That was with Bill Owens."

There's no predicting the outcome here, but Ezedi, an ordained minister and an aide to US Representative Michael E. Capuano, has clearly dispensed with the nice-guy, stick-to-the-issues approach he rode to a second-place finish in the September preliminary.

"I'm glad he's standing on his record," Ezedi said yesterday. "Because his record is weak."

The new Mildred Avenue Middle School has become Ezedi's primary exhibit in pointing out the incumbent's shortcomings.

Yancey voted against building the school, a ridiculous move given the need in his district. The veteran councilor insists that his vote was based on the fact that the site was environmentally hazardous. It received a multimillion-dollar cleanup before the school could be built.

The new school was also not popular among its immediate neighbors, concerned about the havoc several hundred adolescents could wreak.

"I wasn't voting against a school; I was voting against the siting," Yancey said in a recent interview.

Despite officially opposing the construction, Yancey often appears to take credit for it, because he voted for the bond authorization that funded three new schools. Somehow, he was against it and for it at the same time, a gymnastic feat possible only during campaigns.

For his part, Yancey harps on Ezedi's lack of a record and seems to resent that his opponent's activities are covered at all.

Yancey has charged that there is a conspiracy to drive him from office. After 20 years in office, he seems to have forgotten that incumbency isn't the only issue that decides elections.

Certainly Yancey has more of a public record than Ezedi, though most of his major accomplishments, like the construction of the B-3 police station, occurred several terms ago.

Yancey just doesn't have lifetime entitlement to what is, after all, a job.

"I'm going to continue to door-knock and challenge my opponent's weak record that he claims to be standing on," Ezedi said yesterday. "In 20 years, all he has is these four or five things he can point to, and these are things he's had very little to do with."

Until recently, this was a race dominated by questions of who is really behind Ezedi. Finally, it is becoming a question of who will represent the district. That alone is a healthy change.

This isn't an especially healthy time for minority politics in Boston.

The first and only Latino city councilor is fighting for his life. Collectively, the three councilors of color have managed to marginalize themselves on the council, engaging in an ugly and unproductive war with their colleagues that ultimately no one can win.

But a good campaign creates its own energy, and it is now clear that the voters of District Four care. With three weeks to go, that may be the most impressive thing about the race.

Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com.