Navigating Newton's political waters

On leave from Iraq, a Navy specialist eyes a run for mayor

Setti Warren rushed home from Iraq last week to be with wife Tassy for the birth of daughter Abigail Kara. (Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff)

NEWTON - Setti Warren had spent months talking to local political power brokers about running for mayor and was leaning toward a candidacy last September when he received two profoundly life-altering announcements: He was being mobilized to serve in Iraq. And his wife was going to have a baby.

He decided to lay the groundwork for a campaign anyway. In his absence, a committee of political players - who were hungry for change in Newton well before Mayor David B. Cohen took himself out of contention for reelection - have been building the case for Warren's candidacy.

Last Tuesday, in a patriotically picture-perfect turn of events, Warren dashed home for a 15-day leave from Iraq for his daughter's birth and to prepare for his first event as a potential candidate. All he needed was an apple pie.

But in a city still smarting from its recent tax override battle and the controversy surrounding its outgoing mayor, Warren's return sparked complicated questions: How much can someone care about Newton North High School while he's in a war zone? How will voters get to know a candidate who is reluctant to stake out positions while he's on active duty? And in Newton, a city of 84,000 where leaders approved a resolution against the Iraq invasion, does military service necessarily help a candidate?

A Wicked Local blog item about Warren's upcoming meet-and-greet with voters sparked a fierce online debate about when Warren should start taking stands on the issues, whether serving in the military implies support for the war, and why he would go to war at all, given his employer. Warren has been working as the deputy state director for US Senator John F. Kerry, whose conflicted feelings about his service in the Vietnam War and about the US involvement in Iraq dogged his 2004 presidential campaign.

A Navy intelligence specialist, Warren said he is unable to disclose details of his service, because it could compromise his mission. A US Department of Defense directive issued in February spelled out policies warning that military members cannot campaign, raise money, or give interviews while on active duty; they are never allowed to participate in politically oriented activities while in uniform or even use photos of themselves in uniform in campaign literature after their service ends.

Warren believes he can engage in informal activities while home on leave but he remains reticent about controversial local issues, saying he cannot fully engage in them until he returns. The mail takes so long to reach him in Iraq that he was not even able to cast a vote on the most contentious issue of the day, the tax override. (So many voters wanted to know his stance that he made an exception to his policy and let it be known he would have supported it.)

What motivates him to consider a campaign, he says, are a desire to restore fiscal responsibility to Newton, to start long-term planning processes for school reconstruction, and to help heal divisions in the community.

"It's a gift for me to be able to come back here and ask voters to trust me to work for them," he said. "It's a real opportunity to serve my hometown."

Warren, 37, was class president in each of his four years at Newton North and was tapped by former mayor Theodore Mann to help quell tensions among students after a racially tinged fight in 1987. In later years, he worked on President Clinton's advance team and served as a liaison to governmental agencies for a Clinton cabinet secretary before serving as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for New England in 2000. He was national trip director for Kerry's 2004 campaign, where he met his wife, Tassy, on the advance staff. The senator was in their wedding party. The couple lives in the house he grew up in, between City Hall and Newton North.

Warren had signed up for the Navy Reserves in 2002. The military is in his blood. His father, Joseph Warren, served in Korea, his grandfather in World War II, and his great-grandfather in World War I. "I felt strongly about serving and wearing the uniform," said the younger Warren. "It's just part of my makeup."

Though his exploratory committee filed papers to start raising money for him last November, Warren does not plan to formally announce his candidacy until he returns from service in October - more than a year before the mayoral election.

"The bottom line for me is, when I'm in Iraq, I want to focus on the mission at hand," he said. "But I plan on getting back here and I am going to literally knock on every door in the city."

Mike Striar, who lost a challenge to Cohen in 2005, has been prodding Warren online to begin answering questions - on the issues and the war - straight away. "He is pretty much a blank slate as a candidate and that's one of the reasons I posed the Iraq question," Striar said in an interview.

Warren said there would be plenty of time to introduce himself to voters and catch up on a campaign.

Newton's next mayor will not be elected until November 2009, but the dynamics of the upcoming campaign changed dramatically in recent weeks. The mayor - already facing public rancor over the $197 million cost of building a new Newton North High School - sought a 28 percent pay raise and faced so much public outrage that he scrapped the raise request and said he would not run for reelection. The $12 million tax increase he had championed was rejected by the voters.

Now, with a bitter populace and a rare, open election, there is expected to be a stream of eager contenders. Among them are Alderman Ken Parker and state Representative Ruth Balser, a Newton Democrat who first faces reelection to the House. But her interest in the seat cost Warren one of his key early supporters - Steve Grossman, the former Democratic National Committee chairman and a prodigious fund-raiser, who had been expected to appear at Warren's upcoming event. A good friend of Balser's, Grossman decided to back her instead.

"I have no intention of ever saying anything negative about Setti," said Grossman. "He's exciting and dynamic and youthful and compassionate and has a deep commitment to the city."

In Warren's absence, his presumptive campaign is being launched largely by his wife and his father, who was secretary to Governor Michael Dukakis's presidential campaign. They created a slick website and have been building a volunteer base, holding small house parties. They raised some $11,000 in two months of last year, including maximum contributions from Grossman and his wife, and $100 from Newton restaurateur Darryl Settles, who owns The Beehive, a South End hotspot. Among the local notables pushing a Warren candidacy are attorney Andrew Stern, former alderman John Stewart, the Rev. Howard Haywood, and Peg Hannigan, the 88-year-old godmother of Newton politics.

"I know it will be hard because he hasn't been elected," said Hannigan. "But he's got some good ideas and sometimes a new broom sweeps clean."