Crowded opening

At least five mayoral candidates are gearing up to woo Newton's discontented electorate

Three-term mayor David Cohen, whose popularity has been slipping among Newton residents, is not seeking re-election. (Justine Hunt/Globe Staff)

Now that the presidential campaign is over, a different election is expected to grip Newton: deciding who will replace Mayor David Cohen.

The race is like few Newton has seen before, with a bitter populace, at least five candidates preparing a run for a rare open seat, and 12 months of campaign time.

Whoever emerges as the replacement for Cohen (inset above) must find a way to address a growing list of aging buildings, find new revenue or stretch the city's budget, and oversee the completion of the embattled Newton North High School building project. And always lurking is the question of whether Newton needs another property tax increase.

"There's no incumbent, which is a rarity in Newton," said Gerry Chervinsky, a local political observer and a former Cohen campaign manager. "It's a wide-open race. Voters are not going to be focused on who's in charge now and how they're doing. This is about finding a leader for the future."

Cohen, wrapping up his third term as mayor, announced in May that he would not seek reelection next year. The decision was pushed by many of his own supporters, who felt they had a better chance of persuading voters to approve a Cohen-championed $12 million tax increase if they knew he would not be in office much longer. However, the Proposition 2 1/2 override request lost at the polls anyway.

But Cohen's growing unpopularity and his decision not to run again changed the political game in Newton, a city that has witnessed just one mayoral election without an incumbent since Theodore Mann was first elected in 1973. That election occurred after Mann died in office in 1994. Cohen defeated incumbent Thomas B. Concannon Jr. in 1997.

Alderman Ken Parker and Setti Warren, a lawyer, Navy Reserve intelligence officer and former aide to Senator John F. Kerry, quickly formed exploratory committees for a mayoral campaign, and have since been joined by three unexpected, and eager, potential contenders.

Alderman Paul Coletti, the second-longest serving board member in Newton history with 32 consecutive years in office, would relinquish his seat on the board with a run for the city's executive office. State Representative Ruth Balser, who said she wouldn't have run against her friend Cohen, is preparing to throw her hat in the race. And local antitax advocate Jeff Seideman would have run for an alderman's seat, but under the changed circumstances says he is going for the mayor's job.

Unlike the 2005 mayoral race, which Cohen breezed through, candidates in next year's election are unlikely to be dealing with a happy populace. Their pride in the city has been knocked down a peg, as the $195.2 million Newton North project gave Newton an image as an entitled community whose leaders poorly managed a gargantuan project. Residents have also expressed dissatisfaction with last spring's request for a property tax override, school and library funding cuts, and what many perceive as a lack of transparency in City Hall's operations.

Voter ire appears particularly directed at the once-popular mayor, after a difficult year for Cohen.

"Will there be a George Bush factor?" asked Alderman George Mansfield, who has been working on Parker's exploratory committee but says he hasn't decided whom he will endorse for mayor. "I don't think it will be to a comparable extent. There are an awful lot of people who are just completely opposed to Bush's policies. There are people who feel Cohen could have and should have done a better job, but there isn't a total abhorrence for what he has stood for."

The current candidates generally agree, saying they think the issue is one of leadership.

"People are not necessarily looking . . . to change leaders," said Coletti in a phone interview. "But they're looking for leaders to step up to the plate and make tough decisions."

Those decisions are about issues such as the city's finances and infrastructure, and the candidates say it's time to find creative and innovative solutions.

Coletti, the only person to formally announce his candidacy, proposes consolidating duplicate departments between the city and schools to "restructure the city to do more with less manpower."

He said he would also review the police, fire and public works staffing "to provide the level of services taxpayers need," and create a capital improvement plan to take better care of the city's buildings. The longtime chairman of the Board of Aldermen's Finance Committee says the city is in better financial shape than the state or nation, but will need to find new sources of revenue, such as by encouraging new growth and public-private partnerships.

Parker, who has not formally announced his candidacy but was the first of the five to form an exploratory committee, has committed his ideas to paper. He worked with a group of citizens, aldermen, and others to create a strategic plan, dubbed a "Blueprint for Newton's Future."

Parker points to successful revenue-generating strategies in other communities, such as developing a payment in lieu of taxes program for tax-exempt entities in the city; finding private funding for municipal projects; soliciting private donations by offering incentives such as naming rights; allowing flexible development options by charging fees; and forming a municipal power company. Parker said he would save money through preventive maintenance, water conservation, and better recycling measures.

"I believe that these revenue opportunities, cost savings, and management reforms should be implemented before we look at the possibility of raising taxes," Parker wrote in an e-mail.

Warren, too, said the next mayor needs to establish a vision for the city. The Navy reservist, after returning from a yearlong tour in Iraq a few weeks ago, says he will formally enter the race by the middle of this month and then begin to outline the details of his plans for the city.

But to begin with, he says, the city should look into increasing revenue by expanding its commercial base, particularly in Newton Centre and along Needham Street. Warren said the expansion would have to take traffic flow, open space, and a mix of residential and commercial development into account.

He also mentioned public-private partnerships, and working more closely with local institutions, such as Boston College.

"The city needs to do a thorough review of our expenditures and make sure we're delivering services effectively," Warren said in a telephone interview. "I'd like to make sure we've done that before we go back to taxpayers and ask for a debt exclusion or override."

Balser, who was unopposed for her sixth term as state representative on Tuesday's ballot, also said she is just beginning to engage in conversations about Newton's spending and revenues. In an interview at the Newton Harvest Fair, where she was handing out red "Ruth Balser" campaign balloons, the Democrat said she would work over the next year to protect local aid and support the optional meal and hotel tax proposed by Governor Deval Patrick.

And if she were elected mayor, Balser later said in a telephone interview, she "would not be interested in cutting, but there might be efficiencies, for instance in health insurance. One option is to work with the city employees to move the health insurance system from the city into the state, and that would not cut back on their benefits but it might save money because of efficiency."

Seideman, who is president of the Newton Taxpayers Association, did not altogether rule out raising taxes, but called it a last resort. He said the city first needs to look at its commercial growth and payment in lieu of taxes program opportunities; consider consolidating the school system's and municipal government's human resources and information technology departments; and assess each department in the city individually. He would also freeze executive salaries.

The local activist said renovating Newton's schools is a priority, but the city needs to "engage in an aggressive maintenance program, which hasn't been done in decades . . . it's irresponsible."

He said the city needs to begin preparing for those renovations now, by such methods as temporarily holding off on demolishing the old Newton North building and using it for swing space during other school renovation projects.

The top two vote-getters in a nonpartisan primary next September would face off in the Nov. 3 election.

Rachana Rathi can be reached at rrathi@globe.com.