Backers are difference in selectman race
The most prominent issue separating the two candidates for selectman may be the role of endorsements.
On most issues, candidates Jesse Mermell and Jules Levine are fairly well aligned, including on the most prominent taxpayer concern: whether to put a tax override before the voters next year. Both would use an override only as a last resort.
The race for the seat to be vacated by Selectman Michael Merrill is the only contested townwide office in the May 1 election.
Mermell, 27, has the endorsements of Brookline PAX, the Brookline Civic Association, and at least two unions. She finished a strong third in last spring's selectmen's race, behind Robert Allen and Betsy DeWitt. Allen has endorsed her this year.
Levine, 68, has declared that he will accept no endorsements from civic organizations, businesses, neighborhood associations, or any group that might expect preferential treatment by the Board of Selectmen. "I will take no money and make no money," Levine said, meaning that he will donate his selectman's annual stipend of $2,500 to charity if elected and that he and his law firm will not represent clients before the board during or after his tenure there. "I will be beholden only to the people," Levine said.
Both Mermell and Levine have been endorsed by current or former Town Meeting members, political activists, and elected officials: Levine by state Senator Steven A. Tolman, Mermell by selectmen Allen, Nancy Daly, and Gil Hoy, several fellow library trustees. and a number of School Committee members.
Mermell heads the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus, and is former director of the Massachusetts Democratic Future, a party organization. She ran field operations for John Slattery's bid for lieutenant governor in 2002 and the successful state Senate campaign of Pamela P. Resor. Mermell already holds two Brookline elected offices: library trustee and Town Meeting member.
In 1994 and 1996, Levine ran for state representative against incumbent John Businger. A former county prosecutor and Boston University law professor, Levine is currently in private practice. He has published at least two books on the law and has raised his family in Brookline.
Mermell -- who, unlike Levine and four of the five selectmen now in office, is not a lawyer -- said that she expects to "make no personal profit from being a member of the board." She was also noncommittal about whether the office might be a steppingstone to higher political ambitions.
"I'm running to serve a three-year term," she said. "Beyond that, I have no crystal ball."
Levine said that in the past dozen years, the town has found ways to avoid predicted cuts and that he hopes that other revenues will make a 2008-09 override unnecessary. He said that before voting for an override, he would support making further cuts to things like the Department of Public Works, cutting the Town Hall renovation project, and deferring other capital projects. But he said he would support an override if necessary to maintain good-quality schools and services.
Mermell outlines four conditions that would have to be met before she would vote for an override, including protection for low-income residents, a plan that will ensure that the tax hike is not a stop-gap measure, and assurance that all other revenue options have been exhausted.
The two are scheduled to meet voters and discuss the issues at 2 p.m. Monday at a League of Women Voters event at the Senior Center, and at 7 p.m. Thursday in the sixth-floor Selectmen's Hearing Room in Town Hall. 