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READING THE TEA LEAVES
A referendum on Finneran?
BY SUSAN RYAN-VOLLMAR

Did voters send a message to House Speaker Tom Finneran on Tuesday? Maybe. In the Eighth Suffolk House District (Back Bay and Cambridge), incumbent state representative Paul Demakis trounced Cambridge city councilor Marjorie Decker. It was the first real opposition Demakis had faced since his election, and it came largely because his district was redrawn to include a chunk of Cambridge. Many observers saw this as payback from Finneran, long fed up with Demakis’s opposition. But Demakis easily beat back the challenge.

In the bitterly contested Essex, Middlesex, and Suffolk Senate District (Chelsea, Cambridge, Revere, Everett), State Representative Jarrett Barrios defeated Cambridge city councilor Anthony Galluccio. During the campaign, Finneran lieutenants backed Galluccio over their House colleague, Barrios. That didn’t seem to do much for Galluccio at the polls, however. In the 23rd Middlesex District (Arlington), Jim Marzilli, one of Finneran’s outspoken opponents, easily defeated challenger Richard Arena. And in the 11th Norfolk House District (Dedham), Finneran deputy Maryanne Lewis was defeated by Robert Coughlin. Coughlin made Lewis’s alliances with Finneran, who visited the district during the campaign, an issue.

But does this mean voters sent Finneran a message? Not really. Decker, after all, had turned her campaign promise to become " Finneran’s worst nightmare " into something of a campaign slogan, and it went nowhere. In the 18th Suffolk House District (Brighton), State Representative Brian Golden, a Finneran ally, defeated challenger Dave Friedman, who ran on a reform agenda.

If voters are truly interested in sending a message to Finneran, who ran unopposed in the primary, it will have to come via a Democratic governor — someone who will have enough power on Beacon Hill to circumvent the Speaker.

Issue Date: September 19 - 26, 2002
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