By Elaine
Allegrini
ENTERPRISE
STAFF WRITER
Posted Nov
03, 2009 @ 02:02 AM
Last
update Nov 03, 2009 @ 10:53 AM
BROCKTON —
Rosa Evora, 41, has been active in many
city elections, but said that today’s is
different.
“We’re moving forward, seeing things
differently,” said Evora, a Cape Verdean
woman and a military veteran. “The fact that
we have a black president opened our eyes
that other people are just as smart.”
She, along with the rest of the city, is
waiting for the results that could write a
chapter in the city’s history — the election
of either the first woman mayor or the first
minority city councilor, or both.
Councilor-at-large Linda Balzotti is
facing incumbent Mayor James E. Harrington
in a tight race. And minority candidates
Jass Stewart and Marc Lucas, who are
African-American, and Fred Fontaine, who is
Haitian, are on the ballot along with
Patrick Quinn, Larry Curtis and incumbents
Robert Sullivan, Thomas Brophy and Todd
Petti.
Stewart has been there before, twice
losing to Harrington. In the 2005 and 2007
campaigns, he followed in the footsteps of
past candidates including Gayle Kelley,
Mablene Bennett and Moises Rodrigues — women
and minorities seeking the mayor’s office or
a seat on the council.
In Brockton, women outnumber men 52
percent to 48 percent, and one in five of
the 94,000 people counted in the Census are
minorities — 2,000 are African-American,
7,500 Latino, 2,000 Asian and 8,900 Cape
Verdean.
The challenge for minority candidates
has traditionally been getting out the vote
in those precincts of the city that are high
in minorities. Many minorities are not
registered to vote.
But Rodrigues, a past council candidate
and the city’s director of community
services, said that the 23,000 voters who
turned out to support Barack Obama in the
last presidential election show that may
well be changing. Today, minority candidates
have a better chance than in 2003.
But, in the end, he said, “It doesn’t
matter what your race, your ethnicity is, as
long as you’re ready and willing to work
with everyone.”
David Luberoff, executive director of
the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston
at the Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University, said the political
system is going to run into trouble if large
segments of the population are not
represented.
“I would hope that all else being equal,
City Hall ought to look somewhat like the
community,” said Luberoff.
Joel Barrera of MassCommonwealth
Seminar, a nonprofit founded in 2003 to open
the doors of the Statehouse to minorities,
said that times and people are changing.
“The demographics are different today
than even two years ago, certainly 10 years
ago,” he said. “It’s only a time before good
candidates step forward.”
Stewart agreed.
“Two trends are happening at the same
time,” he said. “People are becoming
disillusioned with the status quo, and there
are a lot more promising candidates who are
not part of the establishment.”
Fontaine said whatever the minority,
it’s representative of the community.
“It’s good for the city,” he said, as he
hustled to continue campaigning on the last
day before the election.
His strategy was making phone calls,
while Stewart was out campaigning in
neighborhoods and work areas, and Lucas took
time to make more signs for supporters to
hold on election day.
A worker was also busy making more signs
at Harrington headquarters, while the mayor
kept to his schedule as sitting mayor.
At Balzotti’s headquarters, volunteer
Wendy Sims made phone calls to remind voters
that tomorrow was the day to go to the
polls.
“It will be a big day for Brockton,”
said Balzotti, taking a midday break at
home. “In some way, shape or form, history
is going to be made.”