Cooper has begun walking the neighborhood, politicking at T stations, and handing out literature, but he’s working on a tight budget: he has only $1000 so far, though he’s optimistic that more will come in. He’s out to win, but he especially wants to raise awareness about the importance of participating in the electoral process. "A lot of people feel that when they vote, it doesn’t make a difference, and that’s something that needs to change," he says. Indeed, last Thursday morning at the Ashmont T stop, he almost sounded like Socrates on the hustings. He started grilling a woman sitting on the steps outside. "Are you a registered voter? Do you think it’s important to vote? Why do you think more people don’t vote? If I were the city councilor, is it important to you that you be able to call me about housing issues?" The woman answered yes, yes, yes — and though the whole exchange seemed a little too pedagogical, the woman was impressed at the end of it. "You sound like a man who can get the job done," she concluded.

One potential weakness for Cooper is that Codman Square, the area in which he’s been most active, is only partially in Feeney’s district. (The rest is council president Charles Yancey’s turf.) Cooper insists he’s been active not just in Codman Square, but throughout the neighborhood and the city with such groups as the Black and Jewish Economic Roundtable. He also points to his former stint as a Boston Neighborhood Network local-access reporter. Cooper is hoping his campaign efforts, including marching in the Dorchester Day Parade and attending the popular St. Mark’s National Night Out celebration, will help get his name out there. But, as he notes, "I never say anything about voting for me; I talk about voting. It’s whether they trust me. Then maybe they’ll give me their vote, because honestly, when they step in that booth I have no control."

Another, lesser-known candidate vying for Feeney’s seat is Gerard Paul Brophy, an Irish immigrant who’s lived in the district for 10 years. An employee of the Boston Public Health Commission, where he serves as the assistant coordinator of a transitional-housing program for homeless people, the 38-year-old Brophy got a taste of politics through the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, focusing on housing and immigrant issues. GBIO "opened me up for how it’s possible for one person to make a difference," he says. "I was always of the opinion, ‘What can I do?’ I was the invisible workaday Joe; I lived my life and put up with things. But this group opened up inner doors for me."

He stresses that he’s not a GBIO candidate and that he plans to take a leave of absence from the group’s strategy team. GBIO lead organizer Lew Finfer, meanwhile, says the group doesn’t endorse candidates, and doesn’t plan to start doing so. But the organization’s liberal, faith-based ethos clearly informs Brophy’s desire to improve the neighborhood’s quality of life, including his proposals to increase the presence of community police officers and hold weekly "accountability meetings" in different neighborhoods to answer questions and explain the work of the preceding seven days. Notes Bill Forry, editor of the Dorchester Reporter, "I think Brophy’s candidacy may be the most interesting one because it presents a coalition — immigrants and the GBIO.... Its emergence may signal that the group is making a shift from being almost an anti-establishment group, and making the transition into seeking to oust the establishment and become elected officials themselves."

Two other candidates, Joseph Ureneck and John Comerford, are relatively unknown and aren’t considered electorally viable. Notes one Dorchester political observer, "I don’t know why they’re running; no one knows them." Doogan agrees: "[Juaire] and Cooper are known; the others aren’t." Both candidates refused to comment for this article, and their campaign activities are said to be extremely limited.

FEENEY SHOULDN’T have any problems in the primary, though the crowded race has "ruined her summer," says Walczak. But, as Doogan notes, "I think it’d be one of the biggest shocks in political history if Maureen didn’t make it to the final." Juaire, Cooper, and (to a lesser extent) Brophy will duke it out to see who gets to go one-on-one with her in November. Even then, the odds will be stacked against them: only a handful of incumbents have been defeated since the district system was implemented in 1983. Tom Keane knocked off Back Bay councilor David Scondras in 1993 as Scondras grappled with embarrassing personal problems, including a scuffle with a homeless friend at his house that resulted in a call to the police. That same year, Roxbury councilor Anthony Crayton was defeated by Gareth Saunders after he bucked his progressive base and voted for Tom Menino as council president. And in a surprise defeat, Paul Scapicchio bested Diane Modica of East Boston in 1997. Beyond that, incumbents have been virtually untouchable.

In the meantime, even with Dorchester’s increasing diversity, the Irish-American old guard still makes up the majority of voters. And, notes DiCara, "Maureen’s strength has always been folks in the traditional neighborhoods, strong neighborhoods with large families." But Feeney’s base stretches even beyond that — by dint of both her incumbency and her personal charm, she has some degree of support in all the communities her major opponents represent (gay men and lesbians, African-Americans, and immigrants).

The 2001 race for the District Three slot may ultimately be less about who wins — if history is any guide, it’s almost certainly going to be Feeney — and more about laying the groundwork for a new political landscape in Dorchester, where disenfranchised communities are finally claiming their piece of the pie. "They may not win this time," says Pillsbury, "but it could be a starting point for a future bid. They might win should Maureen decide to move on in the future." It’s always hard to take on an incumbent. But the fact that five people in Dorchester are willing to do so, despite the long odds, shows that the area’s cultural diversity is finally being reflected in its politics.