House incumbent has 2 primary foes

Challengers seek Donato's seat

State Representative Paul J. Donato is coming under verbal fire from his two challengers as the three-way Democratic race in the 35th Middlesex District rolls into its final weeks.

Donato and fellow Medford residents Patrick McCabe and A. James Caralis are battling in the Sept. 16 Democratic primary in the district that includes parts of Medford and Malden. With no other contenders for the seat, the primary winner will have a clear path to victory in November.

A former Army infantry officer and veteran of the Kosovo conflict, McCabe, 36, said the district needs a change in leadership from Donato "to someone who shares our values."

"We need . . . a representative who stands for working families, protects a woman's right to choose, and votes for stem cell research and universal healthcare. And Paul Donato has voted against our families, against our values, and against our rights," said McCabe, the organizing and communications director for the State Employees Association of New Hampshire, Local 1984 of the Service Employees International Union.

McCabe cited Donato's votes against a proposed constitutional amendment making healthcare a right for all citizens, and bills to provide emergency contraception for rape victims, and to extend the buffer zone around reproductive clinics. He also noted an unsuccessful amendment Donato sponsored to remove funding for embryonic stem cell research from the recent life sciences bill. And he said Donato has voted against bills to close corporate tax loopholes on a number of occasions over the years before voting in favor of the one adopted this year.

Donato said his endorsement by unions representing working families - including the Massachusetts State Council of SEIU - is evidence that he stands up for working families. "They represent the true working families of the Commonwealth," he said of the SEIU.

He said he voted to send the constitutional amendment on healthcare to a study in 2006 because lawmakers were then crafting what became the state's landmark healthcare reform law. He said that his vote on emergency contraception and his embryonic stem cell amendment were due to his personal opposition to abortion rights, and that he opposed extending the buffer zone due to free speech concerns.

And he said he opposed past bills to close corporate tax loopholes because they were too antibusiness. He regarded the recent bill as a fair compromise benefiting businesses and taxpayers.

Software consultant Caralis, meanwhile, took Donato to task for his 2002 vote in favor of a change to the state school aid formula that Caralis said has "caused a lot of pain in Medford," one of only eight communities in the state receiving less school aid today than it did that year.

Donato said the formula is complex and at the time "no one knew what the effects would be." But he said he has worked since to ease the local aid shortfall, including by supporting the annual appropriation of "pothole" funds to help the eight communities. Donato secured $5.3 million in pothole money in this year's budget, and he said his endorsements by the state's two major teachers' show his support for education.

A self-employed manufacturer's representative, Donato, 66, is seen by many as the favorite. An eight-year incumbent who chairs the influential House Steering, Policy, and Scheduling Committee, he is known in the city from his previous service on the City Council and the School Committee. His challengers are both first-time candidates.

But Democratic State Committee member Robert E. Colt, who is publicly neutral, said he believes the contest is shaping up as an interesting one.

"You have the seasoned Paul Donato, who has done everything in politics for many years from his City Council days to being a current state representative," said Colt, a former Medford resident who now lives in Winchester. "Then you've got Patrick McCabe, who has an impressive resume with the West Point and the Kosovo military background."

And Caralis is also "plugging away" and "a factor in the race," said Colt.

Donato said he is campaigning on his record as an "accessible, responsible legislator" who has brought as much local aid to the district as the state's fiscal constraints allow. He pointed to grants he has secured for projects such as the restoration of the Chevalier Theatre in Medford.

His priorities in another term, he said, include continued advocacy for local aid, seeking long-term solutions to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority's rising water and sewer rates, and easing the present and anticipated traffic problems at Wellington Circle.

Caralis, 39, said he brings the background of having founded and run both a business and a nonprofit organization called OpenMass.org, a nonpartisan website that tracks the Legislature. He said he would work to provide more state funding for extended school day programs and for more state aid to the schools, in particular to reduce fees. He would also seek "innovative ways to help schools better connect with parents," he said.

McCabe said he has "the ability to bring groups of people together, the ability to lead," a quality he said he had shown as a military platoon leader and a union organizer.

John Laidler can be reached at laidler@globe.com.