Ward 5 Democrats take it vote by vote, door by door

by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun

The Ward 5 Democratic Committee is in its final days of knocking on doors and collecting information on voters to help on the big day, next Tuesday.
At its recent Candidates Forum at the Community Church of Boston, all of this November’s Democratic candidates whose districts include Boston Ward 5, were invited to seek the committee's endorsement. Attendees were state representatives Byron Rushing and Marty Walz and Sonia Chang-Diaz, a candidate for the Second Suffolk State Senate seat currently held by Dianne Wilkerson, who lost to Chang-Diaz and is now running a sticker campaign.
Rob Whitney, chair of the Ward 5 Committee, said each gave a brief statement and the committee then voted unanimously to endorse Representative Walz and Representative Rushing for re-election and endorsed Chang-Diaz for state senator for the Second Suffolk District.
In addition, the committee endorsed the following candidates: Barack Obama and Joe Biden for president and vice president, respectively; state senators Anthony Petruccelli and Steven Tolman; Representative and Speaker of the House Salvatore DiMasi; Congressman Michael Capuano and US Senator John Kerry.
On the three ballot questions, the committee voted as follows: to endorse the "No" position for Ballot Question No. 1 - to make no change in the state income tax laws; and to endorse the "Yes" position on Ballot Question No. 3 - to prohibit dog races on which betting or wagering occurs. With respect to Ballot Question No. 2, concerning replacing criminal penalties for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana with a new system of civil penalties, the committee didn’t issue any endorsement one way or the other, said Whitney.
The Ward 5 Committee is pretty busy these last few days, helping out their Democrats, especially the Obama campaign, with old-fashioned footwork and phone calls. Rob Whitney and Ania Camargo coordinate car pools along Beacon Hill, and Emily Stone is organizing the NH runs for Back Bay. “Stone is a strong volunteer,” says fellow Ward 5 member Ross Levanto.
The Ward 5 committee is composed of about 20-30 core members, with voting members elected in February.
A big factor in this year’s campaign is the committee’s increased use of the Internet to help its cause. Levanto is blogging about his choices, and notes that Ward 5 has its own Facebook page. “There are a lot of young professionals who are wired and who check out Facebook. New media has impacted this race, I’m sure,” he said.
He uses Facebook to post Ward 5 events, articles and photos. “We do not have to maintain a website,” he says. “The other thing is, the way Facebook operates, when there’s a posting on Facebook, there’s more of an impact from a viral way than posting on a blog. Whenever someone posts something, I’m told on my status page.”
Levanto prefers his blog, which he finds easier to post his opinions, tips for people going to the polls. “The most common question I get is ‘Where do I vote and how do I find out where my polling place is?’ The Ward 5 Committee is active just letting people know about events,” he says.
Levanto’s top three priorities this campaign season begins with Sonia Chang-Diaz, who is running for Dianne Wilkerson’s state senate seat. “I’ve had a lot of personal commitment to her campaign, and because that race isn’t over yet, I feel it’s unfinished business,” he says. He spends time making phone calls, canvassing, going door to door, talking to neighbors, posting blogs for her. “Last night, I was helping out a phone bank in Boston. I am taking off a day of work on Election Day to stand with her at a polling station,” he says.
Second on his priority list is supporting Barak Obama, whom he’s supported since late January. He’s volunteering in the mayor’s office on behalf of Obama, too. Third is his fight to defeat Question 1, which he says will “cripple” the state.
Levanto is busy, but his employer, Schwartz Communications in Waltham, where he is a vice president specializing in high tech public relations, is “very supportive of me. They understand people’s hobbies,” he says.
More importantly, though, he and his fellow Ward 5 members are working to ensure that people don’t just sit back and say that Obama is a done deal, my vote isn’t needed. If nothing else, their vote on the ballot questions are crucial, with such thin poll margins. He’s optimistic about seeing a high turnout this Tuesday. Now, if only that momentum could carry over into non-presidential election years.
“If you talk to Ward 5 voters, what they will tell you they care about the most, it’s generally a combination of education, cleanliness, and to some extent crime, which are issue that matters the most to local officials,” says Levanto. But conversely, it’s the municipal elections that don’t draw the voters to the polls. “I see that as a fundamental disconnect,” he says. “I’ve sat in lines at voting booths during presidential elections at my voting location, long lines that took me 20 minutes to vote. If that excitement would just carry over year to year.”
Is there a disconnect with some voters in this election? Who is Joe SixPack, anyway? “I don’t think it’s me,” says Levanto, laughing. “The thing I love about this stuff is you work hard and you think you can make a difference. Who would have thought the biggest story would be Joe the Plumber? That’s what so great about politics.”
For anyone who tells Levanto that their vote doesn’t count, he loves to tell the story of one election season in his Connecticut hometown As a teenager, he was going to vote for the first time in a race for the second congressional district. “We had five registered voters in our family, and we’d talk about who we were going to vote for. The guy won by four votes,” he says. If one person in his family hadn’t voted, the election would have turned out differently.
In related area news:
• On Election Day, the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB) will host a membership table near one of the polls, at the Boston Public Library.
• Councillor Michael Ross will be in Florida to help with voter protection. “There’s a new law in Florida that makes it very difficult to vote if that license doesn’t identically match their name,” says Ross, who will be casting his absentee ballot before he flies out. “There is a concentrated effort, unfortunatelym to suppress votes, and so I will serve with other attorneys to make sure everyone who wants to vote will do so.” He’ll be volunteering to make sure people aren’t being turned away from the polling booth. “The reason why the vote didn’t go to somebody else the last time was because of dirty tricks,” says Ross, an Obama supporter. He’s also working with the mayor’s office to push for a vote against Question 1. “Eliminating the income tax will cripple government,” says Ross. “It’s a shortsighted law created to prey on people’s most selfish tendencies.” He’s still mulling over the other two questions.
o State Rep. Marty Walz is running uncontested, so she’ll be helping out her sister’s campaign in New Hampshire.

Miller answers the call

by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
A local woman starring in the Nora Theatre Company’s production of “Martha Mitchell Calling” gets to do all the fun things an actress loves doing: talking in a fun Southern accent, wearing a blonde Beehive styled by Gary Croteau of Mario Russo Salon, and being the center of the stage.
But more importantly, the role of Martha Mitchell brings out the energetic side of award-winning actress Annette Miller.
“What I love most about Martha is her energy, her passion, her commitment to her country, and to her husband,” says Miller, a resident of Commonwealth Avenue. “When I’m in the process of playing her, all the parts of me that are like her are brought to the surface. I am working on those parts of me that have to seek truth. Martha can hold her own in any political situation. She was a great campaigner. President Nixon called her the secret weapon. It’s been a joy to not put her on, step into her, but to bring her out of me, every night.”
“Martha Mitchell Calling” is an original play written by Jodi Rothe, and making its Boston premiere through Nov. 9 at the Central Square Theater. Miller plays the feisty southern belle, Martha Mitchell, who clamors to be heard during the tumultuous times of the Watergate scandal. The wife of President Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell, Martha was a passionate and influential Southern socialite dubbed “the Mouth of the South” who became famous for her outspokenness and famous phone calls to the press about matters the Nixon-era conspirators wanted kept quiet. Said President Nixon in a 1977 interview with David Frost, “If it hadn’t been for Martha, there’d have been no Watergate.”
“She introduced her husband to Nixon because she thought at the time he was the best one for her country. She learned all the bad stuff they were doing, and she wanted her husband to tell the truth, and he wouldn’t. He began to cover up, and she told the truth, and for the good of the country, said Nixon should resign,” explains Miller.
“What I like about the piece is that it very much speaks to the present time. There are lots of lines that resonate in today’s world, and it seems what Nixon covered up and Nixon did pales in comparison to what things are happening today, in terms of deceit and lying. We’re paying a heavy price for it, and Martha paid a price for it. They made her out to be a looney and she wasn’t. I love being given the opportunity to speak about something very passionately about what I believe in. Martha gives me the means to do all that,” says Miller.
The play has been in production since 2006, when Miller originated the role at Shakespeare & Company, and in New York state and Florida.
Miller and her husband moved to Commonwealth Avenue three years ago, when the empty nesters moved from Newton. “The kids had grown up, and it was time to go back to the city,” says Miller, who is a native of New York City. “I love the Back Bay, being able to walk to everything.” Their daughter, Deborah, lives in Washington D.C., and son Bruce runs the Barbershop Lounge on Fairfield and Newbury streets.
Miller’s been acting ever since junior high, and attended the High School of the Performing Arts in New York City (of “Fame” fame.) At 18, she launched her professional career at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in a series of summer musicals, starting with “The Desert Song”.
She received a scholarship to Brandeis University, where she received her bachelor’s degree and later her MFA, and also studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory in New York.
Since then, she’s been in many productions. Miller has been a member of Shakespeare & Company for a decade, performing in such productions as “King John,” “Twelfth Night,” “Collected Stories,” and “Love Letters”. She has performed both on and off Broadway, including the role of Sylvie in the female version of “The Odd Couple,” with Rita Moreno and Sally Struthers. Locally, she has also performed with the American Repertory Theatre and Merrimack Repertory Theatre, and has worked in TV and film.
Of course, her favorite role is the one she’s doing now. “You always love the one you’re near,” she drawls in the Martha Mitchell accent she slips in and out of during our conversation. She’s also fond of her role as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in “Golda’s Balcony,” for which she received the Elliot Norton Award for Best Solo Performance.
“I created that role,” she says. “That’s what a lot of people in Boston remember me doing.”
Miller loves working with the Central Square Theater, which she says is only a short walk across the Mass. Avenue Bridge. “It’s a new theater. It’s a very exciting space to be in. I think in this time and age, we really have to hear more from artists who connect in a very truthful way to the world they live in. The playwright has written a very funny and at the same time serious piece, and people find themselves laughing and crying.”
Miller isn’t sure where the production is headed next after it finishes its Boston run, but she’s preparing for her next role, as Madam Ranevsky in Dostoyevsky’s “The Cherry Orchard,” at the Central Square Theater in January. “I’m really excited about playing her,” she says.
“At this point in my professional career, I’m fortunate I have an opportunity to practice in a profession that is a passion,” she says. “What I love the most is being able to, I guess, make a career of my passion.”

An informal look at the ballot questions

by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun/Beacon Hill Times
In an October 20-22 poll taken by Suffolk University and Channel 7, 59 percent of state voters plan to vote against Question 1, which would eliminate the income tax. About 26 percent of voters favor the repeal and 14 percent were undecided.
David Paleologos, director of the Political Research Center at Suffolk, said the recent advertising campaign against Question 1 seems to have worked. "The margin was much closer back in August when no ads were running," he was quoted as saying.
About the same number said they expected state taxes to increase to help bridge a budget deficit, another 28 percent said they didn’t expect tax hikes and 12 percent were undecided.
A yes vote would give the average worker $3,700 back while giving the state government a needed downsizing. Many argue that a yes vote is a reckless initiative that would cut state operating costs by 40 percent, leaving municipalities and taxpayers in a $12.7 billion deficit during a time when government is already laying off workers and cutting services.
Local political activist Ross Levanto of the Ward 5 Democratic Committee and the Beacon Hill Civic Association has been volunteering with Mayor Thomas Menino’s office to work on phone banks, encouraging a no vote. “That has been a very worthwhile effort I think,” said Levanto. “Most of the people I talk to understand when they think about it that it’s a reckless idea. It’s just a question of getting people on the phone and helping them understand what’s involved, that this is not the way to make a statement because of the draconian cuts that would be involved. In all the phone calls, I haven’t talked to many people who are voting yes on Question 1, which is a good thing.”


Question 2

A yes vote decriminalizes personal possession of marijuana, making possession of less than an ounce of the drug a civil infraction with a $100 fine. Proponents believe the proposal would save taxpayers $30 million every year in law enforcement costs and end the creation of a Criminal Offender Record (CORI report) for such a marijuana possession charge. Currently, more than 7,500 people in the state pop up on CORI for personal marijuana possession, making job searches, home buying and getting student loans more difficult.
Opponents say the law would be a slippery slope, leading to teenage truancy, problems in school, and increased car crashes.
In the Suffolk poll, 51 percent of registered voters supported Question 2, while 32 percent opposed it, and 16 percent were undecided. An August survey saw 72 percent supporting decriminalization, so the recent decrease in the vote can be attributed to law enforcement officials’ arguments, said Paleologos.
"The no side has gained momentum over the past two months," Paleologos said in a statement. "The issue is whether the brass and blue will be able to move enough additional voters to their side in 12 days."
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley opposes the ballot question, saying its backers were trying to "turn our neighborhoods into the testing ground for a radical drug legalization agenda."
Levanto said he hasn’t made up his mind yet on this one. “It’s a tough question. There’s no escalation in terms of punishment. It’s kind of like a speeding ticket. I would be comfortable in escalation of punishment if you get caught repeatedly. There are significant issues about the CORI process, if you’re caught with this, it would significantly mess up your career.”

Question 3 would phase out greyhound racing, closing Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park and Wonderland Park in Revere. Proponents call greyhound racing inhumane, citing long hours spend in cramped cages, poor diet, and injuries sustained in racing. Proponents of the question include the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell, the Humane Society, and Grey2K. Since 2002, injury reports show that 714 greyhounds were hurt through 2007.
Opponents said their research is flawed, that the dogs are treated well, and that in this economy, we can’t afford to lose more jobs.
Poll numbers are a real dog race. In the Suffolk poll, 44 percent support it, while 43 percent were opposed, and another 13 percent were undecided. The poll of 400 people, conducted Monday through Wednesday, has a 4.9 percent margin of error.
Levanto is in favor of the question. His sister-in-law ended up taking in some greyhounds when Connecticut closed a racetrack, and, she told him, “These dogs were clearly abused. Out of human decency, I don’t think it’s right not to have dog racing. I know that means people may lose jobs, but the wording of the proposal - I think there’s a way to help them with their employment.”

In other poll findings Gov. Deval Patrick received a 57 percent favorability rating; 53 percent favored Senator Barack Obama for president compared to 34 percent for Senator John McCain. Ralph Nader got 3 percent. Incumbent U.S. Sen. John Kerry received 56 percent to his Republican challenger Jeff Beatty’s 19 percent.

Ward 5 voters square off

Ward 5 Democrats take it vote by vote, door by door
by Sandra Miller

The Ward 5 Democratic Committee is in its final days of knocking on doors and collecting information on voters to help on the big day, next Tuesday.
At its recent Candidates Forum at the Community Church of Boston, all of this November’s Democratic candidates whose districts include Boston Ward 5, were invited to seek the committee's endorsement. Attendees were state representatives Byron Rushing and Marty Walz and Sonia Chang-Diaz, a candidate for the Second Suffolk State Senate seat currently held by Dianne Wilkerson, who lost to Chang-Diaz and is now running a sticker campaign.
Rob Whitney, chair of the Ward 5 Committee, said each gave a brief statement and the committee then voted unanimously to endorse Representative Walz and Representative Rushing for re-election and endorsed Chang-Diaz for state senator for the Second Suffolk District.
In addition, the committee endorsed the following candidates: Barack Obama and Joe Biden for president and vice president, respectively; state senators Anthony Petruccelli and Steven Tolman; Representative and Speaker of the House Salvatore DiMasi; Congressman Michael Capuano and US Senator John Kerry.
On the three ballot questions, the committee voted as follows: to endorse the "No" position for Ballot Question No. 1 - to make no change in the state income tax laws; and to endorse the "Yes" position on Ballot Question No. 3 - to prohibit dog races on which betting or wagering occurs. With respect to Ballot Question No. 2, concerning replacing criminal penalties for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana with a new system of civil penalties, the committee didn’t issue any endorsement one way or the other, said Whitney.
The Ward 5 Committee is pretty busy these last few days, helping out their Democrats, especially the Obama campaign, with old-fashioned footwork and phone calls. Rob Whitney and Ania Camargo coordinate car pools along Beacon Hill, and Emily Stone is organizing the NH runs for Back Bay. “Stone is a strong volunteer,” says fellow Ward 5 member Ross Levanto.
The Ward 5 committee is composed of about 20-30 core members, with voting members elected in February.
A big factor in this year’s campaign is the committee’s increased use of the Internet to help its cause. Levanto is blogging about his choices, and notes that Ward 5 has its own Facebook page. “There are a lot of young professionals who are wired and who check out Facebook. New media has impacted this race, I’m sure,” he said.
He uses Facebook to post Ward 5 events, articles and photos. “We do not have to maintain a website,” he says. “The other thing is, the way Facebook operates, when there’s a posting on Facebook, there’s more of an impact from a viral way than posting on a blog. Whenever someone posts something, I’m told on my status page.”
Levanto prefers his blog, which he finds easier to post his opinions, tips for people going to the polls. “The most common question I get is ‘Where do I vote and how do I find out where my polling place is?’ The Ward 5 Committee is active just letting people know about events,” he says.
Levanto’s top three priorities this campaign season begins with Sonia Chang-Diaz, who is running for Dianne Wilkerson’s state senate seat. “I’ve had a lot of personal commitment to her campaign, and because that race isn’t over yet, I feel it’s unfinished business,” he says. He spends time making phone calls, canvassing, going door to door, talking to neighbors, posting blogs for her. “Last night, I was helping out a phone bank in Boston. I am taking off a day of work on Election Day to stand with her at a polling station,” he says.
Second on his priority list is supporting Barak Obama, whom he’s supported since late January. He’s volunteering in the mayor’s office on behalf of Obama, too. Third is his fight to defeat Question 1, which he says will “cripple” the state.
Levanto is busy, but his employer, Schwartz Communications in Waltham, where he is a vice president specializing in high tech public relations, is “very supportive of me. They understand people’s hobbies,” he says.
More importantly, though, he and his fellow Ward 5 members are working to ensure that people don’t just sit back and say that Obama is a done deal, my vote isn’t needed. If nothing else, their vote on the ballot questions are crucial, with such thin poll margins. He’s optimistic about seeing a high turnout this Tuesday. Now, if only that momentum could carry over into non-presidential election years.
“If you talk to Ward 5 voters, what they will tell you they care about the most, it’s generally a combination of education, cleanliness, and to some extent crime, which are issue that matters the most to local officials,” says Levanto. But conversely, it’s the municipal elections that don’t draw the voters to the polls. “I see that as a fundamental disconnect,” he says. “I’ve sat in lines at voting booths during presidential elections at my voting location, long lines that took me 20 minutes to vote. If that excitement would just carry over year to year.”
Is there a disconnect with some voters in this election? Who is Joe SixPack, anyway? “I don’t think it’s me,” says Levanto, laughing. “The thing I love about this stuff is you work hard and you think you can make a difference. Who would have thought the biggest story would be Joe the Plumber? That’s what so great about politics.”
For anyone who tells Levanto that their vote doesn’t count, he loves to tell the story of one election season in his Connecticut hometown As a teenager, he was going to vote for the first time in a race for the second congressional district. “We had five registered voters in our family, and we’d talk about who we were going to vote for. The guy won by four votes,” he says. If one person in his family hadn’t voted, the election would have turned out differently.
In related area news:
• On Election Day, the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB) will host a membership table near one of the polls, at the Boston Public Library.
• Councillor Michael Ross will be in Florida to help with voter protection. “There’s a new law in Florida that makes it very difficult to vote if that license doesn’t identically match their name,” says Ross, who will be casting his absentee ballot before he flies out. “There is a concentrated effort, unfortunatelym to suppress votes, and so I will serve with other attorneys to make sure everyone who wants to vote will do so.” He’ll be volunteering to make sure people aren’t being turned away from the polling booth. “The reason why the vote didn’t go to somebody else the last time was because of dirty tricks,” says Ross, an Obama supporter. He’s also working with the mayor’s office to push for a vote against Question 1. “Eliminating the income tax will cripple government,” says Ross. “It’s a shortsighted law created to prey on people’s most selfish tendencies.” He’s still mulling over the other two questions.
o State Rep. Marty Walz is running uncontested, so she’ll be helping out her sister’s campaign in New Hampshire.






Are Republicans feeling blue? Absolutely not
by Sandra Miller

Members of the Ward 5 Republican Committee know they’re a minority in the Blue State, but keep up their push for Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin, and Jeff Beatty, who is running for U.S. Senate against John Kerry.
“I’m so used to being in the minority politically,” said Ellen Rooney, who leads the Ward 5 GOP crew. She counts about 25 regular members and other 35 “friends” of the campaign. Longtime fellow members include Rooney’s sister, Maureen, and Glenn Fiscus, Stephen and Rogina Jeffries, Lee and George Sprague, Reid Morrison, Richard Babson, and Mary Benedict.
Any Republicans who live in the district can sit in on the meetings, but the Ward 5 officers are elected via ballot during presidential campaign years such as this one. Rooney will be on the ballot.
Rooney, who is also executive director of the Beacon Hill Business Association, said when people join a ward committee and volunteer their skills, “Then you’re linked into what’s going on. If they’re making phone calls for this candidate or that candidate, going door to door, they’re in the loop,” she said.
Marty Samuels of Massachusetts Avenue is a new Ward 5 Republican Committee member, following a divorce and a move from Newton, where he was active with that GOP committee. “If you don’t do something, then you get what you deserve,” Samuels said. He doesn’t listen to the polls that say Beatty or McCain’s numbers are down, recalling the media headlines that proclaimed Dewey the winner over Truman. “People line up wanting to shake hands with Beatty,” he said. “To talk to him for 30 seconds, you want to vote for him. I find that heartwarming.”
The Ward 5 GOPsters were meeting once a month at Lir, and when the primaries started heading up, their meetings were visited by campaign representatives from Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and other Republican contenders, to answer questions from committee members, as also to solicit fundraising and campaign help. “That’s how they get their volunteers,” she explained. “The ward committees are really the grassroots.”
That’s how Rooney lost their secretary, when Ashley Maagero was snatched up by the McCain headquarters in New Hampshire. “It’s our loss and McCain campaign’s gain,” she said. “She’s an energetic, young, vital person. This is why the ward committees exist.”
Rooney, who moved to the Ward 5 area in the 1980s, joined the ward committee to find a few fellow Republicans in a Democrat stronghold. “When you live in Beacon Hill, most of the people you interact with are Democrats, and every so often you want to be in your own committee. I wanted to be around other people who had the same ideas, and for an exchange of ideas. I believe in being active. If you support certain candidates, you should work for them. Rather than complain about the status quo, you should work to change it,” she said.
Rooney and her sister were raised in Wisconsin by a Republican father and a mother who leaned independent. “We were raised to decide for ourselves … to weigh the issues,” Rooney said, recalling debates over the dinner table. “It’s a family that likes to talk and has lots of ideas.”
She came to Boston in the 1980s, and appreciated its love of politics. “What’s fun about this city is we love politics. There’s lots of good-natured bantering. It’s a political town -- if I didn’t like that, I wouldn’t live here,” she said.
She was elected chair since Romney first ran in 2000. Lately, it hasn’t been as much fun, she said. “This particular year, it’s such an incendiary topic. Wherever I go when I step over a threshold, someone is sure to come up to me and start talking politics. People are so emotional about it this year, I try not to engage in those situations.”
The committee is active, just not in your face. “I just say, ‘Keep your head down and just get to work.’ That’s what most people are doing. Keep on phone banking, keep making those calls, identifying the vote. All volunteer efforts are going to raising money and identifying the vote,” she said.
On Election Day, the committee organizes rides to New Hampshire, and making calls to make sure people are getting out to vote. She thanked her committee and those from wards 4, 9 and 14 for their phone bank help. “There’s some hardworking people at the McCain campaign,” she said.
These past weeks, the committee members are traveling to New Hampshire in the final days to make one last push. The McCain-Palin Boston field director, James Green led Ward 5 members and other Boston Republicans on a car pool to New Hampshire this weekend, and will go next weekend through Monday, to go door-to-door for McCain-Palin. “The big effort is calling voters and asking them, ‘Have you voted yet?’” she said.
She’s not discouraged by the polls. “We just keep goin, going, going. The polls keep changing .. We’re a small neighborhood in a Blue state, and it’s a big country. I do know there’s a lot of anger out there, a lot of emotion out there. People are worried about finances. We’re all impacted, we’re all going to see what happens,” she said.

Ward 5 voters square off

Ward 5 Democrats take it vote by vote, door by door
by Sandra Miller

The Ward 5 Democratic Committee is in its final days of knocking on doors and collecting information on voters to help on the big day, next Tuesday.
At its recent Candidates Forum at the Community Church of Boston, all of this November’s Democratic candidates whose districts include Boston Ward 5, were invited to seek the committee's endorsement. Attendees were state representatives Byron Rushing and Marty Walz and Sonia Chang-Diaz, a candidate for the Second Suffolk State Senate seat currently held by Dianne Wilkerson, who lost to Chang-Diaz and is now running a sticker campaign.
Rob Whitney, chair of the Ward 5 Committee, said each gave a brief statement and the committee then voted unanimously to endorse Representative Walz and Representative Rushing for re-election and endorsed Chang-Diaz for state senator for the Second Suffolk District.
In addition, the committee endorsed the following candidates: Barack Obama and Joe Biden for president and vice president, respectively; state senators Anthony Petruccelli and Steven Tolman; Representative and Speaker of the House Salvatore DiMasi; Congressman Michael Capuano and US Senator John Kerry.
On the three ballot questions, the committee voted as follows: to endorse the "No" position for Ballot Question No. 1 - to make no change in the state income tax laws; and to endorse the "Yes" position on Ballot Question No. 3 - to prohibit dog races on which betting or wagering occurs. With respect to Ballot Question No. 2, concerning replacing criminal penalties for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana with a new system of civil penalties, the committee didn’t issue any endorsement one way or the other, said Whitney.
The Ward 5 Committee is pretty busy these last few days, helping out their Democrats, especially the Obama campaign, with old-fashioned footwork and phone calls. Rob Whitney and Ania Camargo coordinate car pools along Beacon Hill, and Emily Stone is organizing the NH runs for Back Bay. “Stone is a strong volunteer,” says fellow Ward 5 member Ross Levanto.
The Ward 5 committee is composed of about 20-30 core members, with voting members elected in February.
A big factor in this year’s campaign is the committee’s increased use of the Internet to help its cause. Levanto is blogging about his choices, and notes that Ward 5 has its own Facebook page. “There are a lot of young professionals who are wired and who check out Facebook. New media has impacted this race, I’m sure,” he said.
He uses Facebook to post Ward 5 events, articles and photos. “We do not have to maintain a website,” he says. “The other thing is, the way Facebook operates, when there’s a posting on Facebook, there’s more of an impact from a viral way than posting on a blog. Whenever someone posts something, I’m told on my status page.”
Levanto prefers his blog, which he finds easier to post his opinions, tips for people going to the polls. “The most common question I get is ‘Where do I vote and how do I find out where my polling place is?’ The Ward 5 Committee is active just letting people know about events,” he says.
Levanto’s top three priorities this campaign season begins with Sonia Chang-Diaz, who is running for Dianne Wilkerson’s state senate seat. “I’ve had a lot of personal commitment to her campaign, and because that race isn’t over yet, I feel it’s unfinished business,” he says. He spends time making phone calls, canvassing, going door to door, talking to neighbors, posting blogs for her. “Last night, I was helping out a phone bank in Boston. I am taking off a day of work on Election Day to stand with her at a polling station,” he says.
Second on his priority list is supporting Barak Obama, whom he’s supported since late January. He’s volunteering in the mayor’s office on behalf of Obama, too. Third is his fight to defeat Question 1, which he says will “cripple” the state.
Levanto is busy, but his employer, Schwartz Communications in Waltham, where he is a vice president specializing in high tech public relations, is “very supportive of me. They understand people’s hobbies,” he says.
More importantly, though, he and his fellow Ward 5 members are working to ensure that people don’t just sit back and say that Obama is a done deal, my vote isn’t needed. If nothing else, their vote on the ballot questions are crucial, with such thin poll margins. He’s optimistic about seeing a high turnout this Tuesday. Now, if only that momentum could carry over into non-presidential election years.
“If you talk to Ward 5 voters, what they will tell you they care about the most, it’s generally a combination of education, cleanliness, and to some extent crime, which are issue that matters the most to local officials,” says Levanto. But conversely, it’s the municipal elections that don’t draw the voters to the polls. “I see that as a fundamental disconnect,” he says. “I’ve sat in lines at voting booths during presidential elections at my voting location, long lines that took me 20 minutes to vote. If that excitement would just carry over year to year.”
Is there a disconnect with some voters in this election? Who is Joe SixPack, anyway? “I don’t think it’s me,” says Levanto, laughing. “The thing I love about this stuff is you work hard and you think you can make a difference. Who would have thought the biggest story would be Joe the Plumber? That’s what so great about politics.”
For anyone who tells Levanto that their vote doesn’t count, he loves to tell the story of one election season in his Connecticut hometown As a teenager, he was going to vote for the first time in a race for the second congressional district. “We had five registered voters in our family, and we’d talk about who we were going to vote for. The guy won by four votes,” he says. If one person in his family hadn’t voted, the election would have turned out differently.
In related area news:
• On Election Day, the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB) will host a membership table near one of the polls, at the Boston Public Library.
• Councillor Michael Ross will be in Florida to help with voter protection. “There’s a new law in Florida that makes it very difficult to vote if that license doesn’t identically match their name,” says Ross, who will be casting his absentee ballot before he flies out. “There is a concentrated effort, unfortunatelym to suppress votes, and so I will serve with other attorneys to make sure everyone who wants to vote will do so.” He’ll be volunteering to make sure people aren’t being turned away from the polling booth. “The reason why the vote didn’t go to somebody else the last time was because of dirty tricks,” says Ross, an Obama supporter. He’s also working with the mayor’s office to push for a vote against Question 1. “Eliminating the income tax will cripple government,” says Ross. “It’s a shortsighted law created to prey on people’s most selfish tendencies.” He’s still mulling over the other two questions.
o State Rep. Marty Walz is running uncontested, so she’ll be helping out her sister’s campaign in New Hampshire.






Are Republicans feeling blue? Absolutely not
by Sandra Miller

Members of the Ward 5 Republican Committee know they’re a minority in the Blue State, but keep up their push for Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin, and Jeff Beatty, who is running for U.S. Senate against John Kerry.
“I’m so used to being in the minority politically,” said Ellen Rooney, who leads the Ward 5 GOP crew. She counts about 25 regular members and other 35 “friends” of the campaign. Longtime fellow members include Rooney’s sister, Maureen, and Glenn Fiscus, Stephen and Rogina Jeffries, Lee and George Sprague, Reid Morrison, Richard Babson, and Mary Benedict.
Any Republicans who live in the district can sit in on the meetings, but the Ward 5 officers are elected via ballot during presidential campaign years such as this one. Rooney will be on the ballot.
Rooney, who is also executive director of the Beacon Hill Business Association, said when people join a ward committee and volunteer their skills, “Then you’re linked into what’s going on. If they’re making phone calls for this candidate or that candidate, going door to door, they’re in the loop,” she said.
Marty Samuels of Massachusetts Avenue is a new Ward 5 Republican Committee member, following a divorce and a move from Newton, where he was active with that GOP committee. “If you don’t do something, then you get what you deserve,” Samuels said. He doesn’t listen to the polls that say Beatty or McCain’s numbers are down, recalling the media headlines that proclaimed Dewey the winner over Truman. “People line up wanting to shake hands with Beatty,” he said. “To talk to him for 30 seconds, you want to vote for him. I find that heartwarming.”
The Ward 5 GOPsters were meeting once a month at Lir, and when the primaries started heading up, their meetings were visited by campaign representatives from Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and other Republican contenders, to answer questions from committee members, as also to solicit fundraising and campaign help. “That’s how they get their volunteers,” she explained. “The ward committees are really the grassroots.”
That’s how Rooney lost their secretary, when Ashley Maagero was snatched up by the McCain headquarters in New Hampshire. “It’s our loss and McCain campaign’s gain,” she said. “She’s an energetic, young, vital person. This is why the ward committees exist.”
Rooney, who moved to the Ward 5 area in the 1980s, joined the ward committee to find a few fellow Republicans in a Democrat stronghold. “When you live in Beacon Hill, most of the people you interact with are Democrats, and every so often you want to be in your own committee. I wanted to be around other people who had the same ideas, and for an exchange of ideas. I believe in being active. If you support certain candidates, you should work for them. Rather than complain about the status quo, you should work to change it,” she said.
Rooney and her sister were raised in Wisconsin by a Republican father and a mother who leaned independent. “We were raised to decide for ourselves … to weigh the issues,” Rooney said, recalling debates over the dinner table. “It’s a family that likes to talk and has lots of ideas.”
She came to Boston in the 1980s, and appreciated its love of politics. “What’s fun about this city is we love politics. There’s lots of good-natured bantering. It’s a political town -- if I didn’t like that, I wouldn’t live here,” she said.
She was elected chair since Romney first ran in 2000. Lately, it hasn’t been as much fun, she said. “This particular year, it’s such an incendiary topic. Wherever I go when I step over a threshold, someone is sure to come up to me and start talking politics. People are so emotional about it this year, I try not to engage in those situations.”
The committee is active, just not in your face. “I just say, ‘Keep your head down and just get to work.’ That’s what most people are doing. Keep on phone banking, keep making those calls, identifying the vote. All volunteer efforts are going to raising money and identifying the vote,” she said.
On Election Day, the committee organizes rides to New Hampshire, and making calls to make sure people are getting out to vote. She thanked her committee and those from wards 4, 9 and 14 for their phone bank help. “There’s some hardworking people at the McCain campaign,” she said.
These past weeks, the committee members are traveling to New Hampshire in the final days to make one last push. The McCain-Palin Boston field director, James Green led Ward 5 members and other Boston Republicans on a car pool to New Hampshire this weekend, and will go next weekend through Monday, to go door-to-door for McCain-Palin. “The big effort is calling voters and asking them, ‘Have you voted yet?’” she said.
She’s not discouraged by the polls. “We just keep goin, going, going. The polls keep changing .. We’re a small neighborhood in a Blue state, and it’s a big country. I do know there’s a lot of anger out there, a lot of emotion out there. People are worried about finances. We’re all impacted, we’re all going to see what happens,” she said.

Sushi rock star at Uni

Youji Iwakura, the chef de cuisine at the modern-Japanese Uni Sashimi Bar, grew up in Japan and came to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music, as a singer. He first studied funk, and lately he’s doing some Stevie Wonder on the piano.

But at the sushi bar, he’s more of a jazz artist.

Many graduate from Berklee and become waiters. He became a Sushi Chef at Ginza in Brookline. He tried the front of the house for a while, bartending at Troquet and then a general manager at a few local Asian spots. In 2004, he returned to the “back of the house” at Ken Oringer’s Uni sashimi bar at the Eliot Hotel, and in 2005 it was named Boston Magazine’s Best of Boston: Best seafood.

But to further hone his skills, he returned to Japan for two years at an upscale Japanese brasserie. When he came back to Uni, he was named Chef de Cuisine, and continues to wow his customers.

Including one customer, as detailed in a recent Boston Magazine article, who was especially curious about his recipes, even taking notes. Some of Iwakura’s techniques allegedly made its way into the customer’s own sushi bar, O Ya.

The former music major said the chef flattered him, just as Prince emulates James Brown. “To create something, to compose music, you have to learn the style of soul music, not just imitate it.

“Someone can try to get a recipe out of here. But in just two months it will change again…A recipe is only 10 percent. Philosophy is more important.”

Iwakura is not the sushi chef who slices up a few pieces of raw fish and lays them on a wasabi’d finger of rice. The menu reflects what ’s fresh and available, especially what’s flown in daily from Japan.

But it’s not just about the fresh fish. He stocks his sushi bar with a huge spectrum of flavor. His sea urchin, undulled with preservatives, is served on his homemade warm tofu, seasoned with 7 spice Togarashi and roasted white sesami seeds, served in Warishita, traditional soy-dashi sauce, topped with Chardonnay gelee, Tomburi, a vegan caviar, and Youji's green shiso yuzu kosho vinaigrette.

He beams over his warm tofu, the only one of its kind in town, a copy of a recipe he found in a Japanese brasserie in NYC. “I could serve this tofu in Japan,” he says proudly.

The menu also depends on his whims. Lately he’s on an apple kick, because fall means apples.

Uni has just 21 seats, a third of which are at the sushi bar, so you can watch him work his magic five out of seven days a week in the fall. His autumn menu will include savory items such as charcoal grilled duck and mushrooms, "sandwiched" like a Japanese panini into a hasami-yaki style, with layers of ingredients skewered together and grilled, then drizzled with sauce. This "deconstruction of a hasami-yaki" will be the last course of a 7-course tasting menu, for $85 including 1 dessert course.

Another popular sea urchin item on menu is "Uni Spoon", quail egg yolk topped with sea urchin and caviar, served on a soup spoon, one of classic menu item at Ken Oringer's Uni Sashimi Bar.

Favorites include his rather simple tuna ceviche. But within his tiny sushi counter are a full palette of sauces and squeezebottles for the items he creates on the fly.

The recipe he shows today is a bit complicated because it involves using a lot of sauces he’s already created ahead of time. But it’s fall, and a recipe like this is fun for couples who tend to stay home when it gets cold, he says.

He sets the scene: “You’re home all day, and you say, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll go to Russo’s and get these ingredients, listen to music, we’ll sing together… and your husband will say, ‘I like your cooking better, forget about Chef Youji.’”

Here’s a recipe, with lots of notes.

Smoked Wild Bluefin Otoro and Grilled Porcini with Kobe Fat Powder

4 servings

"This is the kind of thing for the season," he said. "You expect some smokiness in autumn. Like you would do for some spice in a gazpacho in summer," which was a popular item that "I do not put it up for the first thing on my list because it's not really in season anymore." This recipe is subject to be changed, like many of his creations that change or improvise time to time, but it's something he's going to be offering more this November. "People enjoy tasting seasonal flavor with it," he says.

The ingredients:

* 4 sashimi slices of smoked o-toro (cold smoke with applewood)
* A porcini mushroom, sliced into four pieces, grilled on charcoal
* kosher salt and black pepper for seasoning

First, you need a seasonal tuna in good quality. "It doesn't have to be bluefin. Any toro (fatty part of tuna) is fine," he says, suggesting calling ahead to Kotobukiya in Porter Square to see when they flew some in fresh that day. "Toro is probably not available every day." He says he often likes to use chu-toro, which he says tends to have more flavor than o-toro, “which just has straight-up fat.”

To smoke the o-toro, you put them in a smoker with applewood chips, that you can get at Russo's in Watertown, or Home Depot, with an underliner of ice tab so that the result will be cold smoke. The key is to keep the toro away from charcoal. “You just want to impart a smoke flavor into the fish,” he says.

To add a mushroom confit: place mushroom slices, canola, any herbs you like, such as thyme, in a cheesecloth, over top of flame over low 150-degree oven.

Saute a little garlic until brown, and set aside.

Just warm up o-toro slices in a toaster oven set at 200 degrees.

Slice the mushroom into four slices, sprinkle with kosher salt to prevent them from shrinking and to bring out their flavor. Place it on a small stovetop ceramic grill, known as Hida-Konro, Hibachi or Shichirin, slowly heated with oga-bincho, formed Japanese charcoal, or any other quality charcoal, in the ceramic, until you can hear it sizzle.

To make sauce:

* Start off with a small diced sweet onion seasoned with salt and pepper, heated up slowly in a little neutral oil (preferably an oil infused with porcini mushroom).
* Add half of crispy garlic, grilled mushroom, and 1 oz. dry sake.
* Add 2 to 3 ounces mushroom broth or vegetable broth.
* Add 4 tablespoons of Youji's yakiniku (see below for Korean-style Japanese steak sauce,) then simmer.
* Add 2 teaspoons of unsalted butter, then emulsify.





To plate them

• Place warmed up smoked o-toro slices onto plate.

• Top with grilled porcini slices and sauce.

• Finish with remaining crispy garlic, chives and Kobe Fat Powder.

About that Kobe Fat Powder: since his restaurant uses real Wagyu beef, and it's a precious piece of meat, he tries not to waste any of it. So he'll take the fat cut from the Wagyu, melt it down, and blend it in a food processor with tapioca maltodextrin (the ratio is 5 parts tapioca to one part beef fat).

This wasn't part of the recipe he wrote out, but he can't help completing the dish without it:

• He adds apple chips as garnish: slice apples into thin chips, steep them in a simple syrup for a short time, then put them on a lightly sprayed tray, to make them easier to >remove. Dry them in an 180-degree oven for four-five hours.

• He also edges the plate with a lemon balsamic reduction and mulled apple cider puree.

"My imagination when finishing up this plate is like an Apple Crumble, with the crumb being the Kobe fat powder, onion, and crunchy garlic," he says. "I am always, always, thinking about the season."



If this recipe is a bit complicated, he says don’t worry about getting it exactly. More important is to understand your ingredients and to enjoy the process. Says Iwakura, "This recipe here is just an example. The most important thing in cooking is to maximize its flavor with each one of those ingredients. If you do, you are a chef."



Sidebar box:

Youji's Yakiniku Sauce

(makes one pint)

Part A:

Usukuchi soy sauce 8oz.

Water 1.5oz.

Mirin 1oz.

Sugar 70g

Glucose 1 tea spoon

Konbu 1 ea.

Apple 1/4

Lemon 1/4

Part B

Korean pepper paste 25g

Sesame oil 3oz.

Grated garlic 15g

The instructions:

* Bring Part A to simmer, for 5 minutes.
* Cool to room temperature, then strain.
* Mix with Part B in a large mixing bowl

Winston's ready to bloom again on Newbury

by Sandra Miller

In this day of programmed cell phones and Internet orders, who knew the renovation of a flower store would have left such a hole along Newbury Street, even when there was another Winston’s around the corner?
The flagship 131 Newbury Street store, which opened in 1944, hadn’t been renovated in more than 15 years, so it was closed since mid-June. Customers only had to travel to the Boylston Street store around the corner, but still, the Newbury Street shop was missed by the neighborhood and area merchants.
“So many people came in and said it was worth the wait,” said store manager Kelly Bonzani, who is thanking her customers for their patience during the renovations. “It really kind of made my day. One customer said she’s been coming since the ‘70s, said she saw every renovation, and told us what a good job we’ve done. Our customers agree that it looks amazing and that they are happy that this is in their neighborhood.”
Winston Flowers will show off its extreme makeover tonight at its open house. The store received a sophisticated new look by designers Kelly Monnahan Design and Studio F-Kia, along with Winston Flowers creative director Hilary Nylander.
Bonzani, who has been there for more than a year, oversaw the Boylston Street and Newbury Street shop transitions, with a goal to achieve a look that’s equal parts natural and modern design, to showcase floral and plant designs and products.
“While we are a company looking for a more modern direction aesthetically, it’s important we still want to look like a flower shop,” said Bonzani, who lives in the North End. “Instead of making the store so sleek, it was almost sterile, we made it a little warm yet modern, while still keeping the feeling of the Back Bay by keeping the exposed brick.”
We weren’t sure a flower shop could get any greener, but Winston’s is doing the best it can. It upgraded the windows for insulation and the staff’s comfort; installed energy-efficient lights, and will also be turning them off a half-hour after closing and before opening to save energy. They’re also focusing on buying flowers from local farms, said Bonzani.
The redesign of the front also brings more light into the basement level shop. “We cut the awning in half,” she said.
There’s also a new lawn, with five-foot-deep planters currently seeded with Lirope grass. “They will change with the seasons,” said Bonzani.
To say thanks, the shop is offering a limited-edition floral design, and complimentary delivery on "The Newbury" or any floral arrangement of $120 or more, until the end of the month.