Tim Schofield :: On the trail for Boston City Council

Even if his mother had answered the door, Tim Schofield couldn't have made a better impression as a candidate for Boston City Council than when he knocked on the door of the Allston home of Susan Poor on a steamy evening last week.

It was just the second stop on his canvas of Allston-Brighton's Ward 22, Precinct 2, and Poor, a petite, middle-aged woman with bobbed hair, answered the door with her clarinet in hand, which explained the rich, woody music that wafted through her front yard moments before. Schofield, dressed casually in sneakers, khakis and a blue polo shirt, introduced himself as a Council candidate and after some chatter, launched into his spiel. "I'd love to have your vote, I'm a lawyer here in town," he said, to which Poor instantly replied, "You're automatically a good guy if you're a lawyer." Even Schofield is taken aback, laughingly noting that lawyers don't often get such good references.

As it turns out, Poor's husband is a lawyer with the city's Inspectional Services Department. Then, as Bob LaRocca, Schofield's clipboard-wielding campaign manager, watches silently from the bottom of the front stairs, Schofield and Poor bond over other common experiences: Poor is a mother of seven, Schofield is the youngest of eight. Poor played clarinet in the U.S. Army band, Schofield was an Army cook who served during the Gulf War. It wasn't long before Poor was introducing Schofield to her youngest son, a tow-headed, tie-dye-wearing 7-and-a-half year old named David. So easy was the banter, if Poor wasn't a married mother of seven and Schofield not a gay man, you would have half-expected them to make a date.

It was a more promising change of pace from a candidate forum earlier that afternoon in the auditorium of the Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly (JCHE), where candidates and audience members alike sipped on their choice of two beverages: ginger ale and diet ginger ale. The Wallingford Road complex is home to a bloc of 400-500 Russian voters that has reached legendary status for its purported ability to swing Allston-Brighton races. The complex also houses a large Asian population; in fact, the entire forum was translated into Russian, Mandarin and Cantonese by two translators standing at microphones alongside the stage on which the candidates sat. Schofield clearly had ceded the Russian voters in the audience, perhaps because among his opponents are Mark Ciommo, the executive director of the Veronica B. Smith Senior Center who was backed by the Russians when he made an unsuccessful bid for the seat in 2002, and Greg Glennon, an aide to former state Rep. Brian Golden, who had their support when he ran against Schofield in a special election for Golden's seat after the pol stepped down in 2005. (Mike Moran defeated both of them.)

Never mind the fact that a Boston Phoenix article that hit the streets that morning quoted an unnamed observer saying that Schofield "will never get the Russian vote" in part because he's gay and too progressive. So while Glennon name-checked his old boss, a social conservative who was beloved by the Russians, Schofield played to the Asian crowd by emphasizing several times his endorsement by At-large City Councilor Sam Yoon, the Council's only Asian-American member. "I promise that I will work hard at City Hall with my friend Sam Yoon and with the mayor and the other city councilors to insure that our community is well-represented," he said in response to a question from the floor about whether the candidates would keep all of their campaign promises if elected.

Regardless of Wallingford Road's political leanings, Schofield is a strong candidate in the race. Which make him the most viable openly gay candidate to run for Boston City Council since the now-disgraced David Scondras was elected to the District 8 seat for the first of five terms back in 1983, the only openly gay person ever to serve on the Council. Openly gay candidates have surfaced since then, but none has gained traction in the LGBT community or, more importantly, at the ballot box. For instance, former Scondras aide Gary Dotterman ran for the District 9 seat that Schofield now seeks back in 2002, following the unexpected death of Councilor Brian Honan. Dotterman, who campaigned as a Communist Party USA candidate, finished eighth in a special preliminary election that featured nine candidates. And in 2005, Michael Cote mustered just 19 percent of the vote in a largely-ignored campaign to oust Councilor Maureen Feeney, who enjoys strong support from the LGBT community, from her District 3 Dorchester seat. Cote is challenging Feeney again this fall, but since her election as Council president last January, the odds of unseating her are probably longer than they were two years ago.

By contrast, since placing a close second to Moran in the 2005 special legislative election - he lost by just 64 votes - Schofield, who was all but unknown in Allston-Brighton prior to that campaign, has positioned himself well for another bid at elective office. He opened a Brighton law practice with Cathi Campbell, a well-known neighborhood activist (the practice now includes partner John Connolly, who is making his second run for an at-large Council seat), got elected chair of the Ward 21 Democratic committee and is co-chair of the Brighton-Allston Bicenntenial Committee, which organized a year-long slate of events celebrating the neighborhood's birthday. Schofield's work on the committee has resulted in some valuable endorsements from the likes of Theresa Hynes, a longtime neighborhood activist and member of the Brighton-Allston Improvement Association who recently had a park named in her honor, and former City Councilor Brian McLaughlin. Schofield, who was endorsed by MassEquality in the 2005 race, also stayed engaged in the marriage equality battle, delivering testimony alongside GLAD's Mary Bonauto against the anti-gay marriage amendment at the State House last year. And as he did in his last campaign, Schofield stresses the importance of grassroots organization. "A campaign like this is really about identifying and getting your voters out to the polls," he says.

None of this is to say that Schofield doesn't have some stiff competition in the Sept. 25 preliminary election for the seat now held by Jerry McDermott, who is moving out of the city. His most serious opponents are Ciommo, Glennon and Rosie Hanlon, the program director of Brighton Main Streets who also ran for the seat in 2002 and 1997, all of whom are running aggressively and have significant roots in the district. (First-time candidates James Jenner, a political activist, and Alex Selvig, a local business owner known for carrying boxing gloves on the campaign trail, as a symbol of his willingness to fight for the district, appear a little less formidable.)

The doorknocking excursion with Schofield reveals that voters are most concerned about local issues that cut across party lines and political ideology: the ever-encroaching campuses of Boston College, Harvard and Boston University, better neighborhood schools and public safety, to name the big ones. But Ciommo for one, isn't ceding the progressive mantle or LGBT support that Schofield cultivated to great effect in his state representative race and continues to court through the endorsements of Yoon, At-large Councilor Felix Arroyo, openly gay state Rep. Carl Sciortino and the Gay and Lesbian Labor Activist Network (GALLAN). Ciommo has talked up his support for marriage equality in a post on the progressive blog BlueMassGroup, his campaign manager, Michael McLaughlin, is a former MassEquality canvasser and his website prominently touts the support of Dale Mitchell, the executive director of the LGBT Aging Project. In an interview Ciommo said he emphasized Mitchell's endorsement because he and Mitchell have worked together for 14 years and recently were founding members of the Boston Partnership of Older Adults. He added that, "Most people would automatically describe Tim as a progressive and I just wanted to let people know that my 20 years of public service, providing human services working for vulnerable populations such as the elderly ... I won't take second place to anybody on those credentials."

If that's the case, though, then Ciommo may have to account for a Boston Herald column on the 2002 final election, where Ciommo squared off against McDermott. Penned by columnist (and former city councilor) Tom Keane, the op-ed column, titled "Allston-Brighton Moving Rightward" noted Ciommo's opposition to domestic partnerships for gay couples. After all, while many pols have gotten a pass for not supporting full marriage rights for same-sex couples prior to the 2003 Goodridge decision, in 2002 even Mitt Romney supported domestic partnerships. Additionally, Ciommo's wife, Laura, signed her name to the anti-gay marriage amendment petition back in 2005, which might muddy the waters a little more, as it did when Romney's wife turned up on a similar petition back in 2002.

Ciommo maintains that the column wasn't an accurate reflection of his position at that time. "I don't know how that came about," he said. "I want to be clear: I've been a supporter of domestic partnership since it was introduced in the early 90s. I've been a supporter of marriage equality since it was passed by the SJC." Ciommo added that's he's been a supporter of gay and minority rights for his entire life and that's how he's raising his kids. "That's just who I am," he stated. Ciommo said that his position on domestic partnerships might have been misconstrued as opposition because he "might have said something like, I want to extend those benefits to siblings as well." Ciommo said his desire to extend DP benefits to relatives grew out of a need he saw among his elderly constituents. But extending domestic partnership benefits to spinster sisters or a son caring for his widowed mother is a tactic that has been used by gay rights opponents to water down or sink domestic partnerships bills in the past. As for his wife's signature on the petition, Ciommo said that she, as many others have alleged, was tricked into signing it. "She's not very political and she was duped," he said. "She doesn't remember where, when, why and how and she was devastated to think [that she signed it]."

Though he's as focused on the bread and butter issues as any of his competitors, Schofield is hoping the opportunity to put an openly gay person on the City Council after more than two decades without one will add some momentum to his campaign. "It is important in general to have a diversity of voices and experiences on the city council," he said. "I believe I will bring a perspective that will not only represent the gay community, but it is important that [being gay] is a part of who I am." And while he's earned the endorsement of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a national organization committed to putting openly LGBT people in elected office, not everyone's buying it. For instance, Cathy Greene, a lesbian lawyer who lives in the district, is passionate in her support of Hanlon, who she said is a whole-hearted supporter of gay rights in addition to having the best track record of serving the community. "I want, as a resident, the person who is most qualified," said Greene. "And I am not going to support [a candidate] whether it's a woman or a lesbian or gay man just because of their gender or their sexual orientation." Though Greene said she thinks Hanlon is best qualified to represent Allston-Brighton at City Hall, she added, "If this was a state rep. race, I would be with Tim." Greene said she believes that Schofield would be an ideal advocate at the State House, where the majority of LGBT issues are decided. While Hanlon will certainly be a voice for such issues on the City Council, said Greene, "ultimately she doesn't have the power as city councilor to pull those levers."

It's true that most legislation pertaining to LGBT rights has passed at the state level, although the City Council did pass an ordinance banning discrimination based on gender identity and expression in 2003. But Denis Dison, Victory Fund's vice president of communications, disputes the notion just because the Council doesn't regularly vote on LGBT issues, there's less need for an LGBT voice in the chamber. "You would never hear somebody say, 'Gee, the City Council doesn't really vote on women's issues so we don't need a woman,' or, the City Council doesn't really vote on African American civil rights issues so we don't need any black people on the council," said Dison.

Never mind the fact that, as has been pointed out on these pages before, today's city councilor is tomorrow's mayor - as in Mayor Tom Menino, who has been a powerful defender of Boston's LGBT community. Today's city councilor is also tomorrow's senate president, and holding sway over the LGBT community's hard won right to marry. Robert Travaglini, anyone?

Which brings us to the prospect of a surge for candidate Greg Glennon, the most socially conservative candidate in the race, who was vocal in his opposition to marriage equality during his 2005 state representative campaign, where he placed third behind Schofield. Glennon didn't respond to an inquiry about whether he still holds that position today and judging by the way he name-checked Golden, a social conservative who was also stridently opposed to marriage equality, at the candidate forum, it seems unlikely that he's changed his spots. Could a split of Allston-Brighton's liberal voters between Ciommo, Hanlon and Schofield clear a path for Glennon? It's a thought that's crossed Schofield's mind. With six candidates in the race, he said, "I think, frankly, anything can happen."

Indeed. We'll just have to wait to see what happens. The top two vote getters in the Sept. 25 preliminary election will advance to the final election Nov. 6. And there's a very good chance that if Glennon cracks the top two on Sept. 25, his opponent can win the final.