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Is Jill Stein headed back to the ballot?
BY DEIRDRE FULTON
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Jill Stein may have faded into political obscurity after her relatively successful run as a Green Party gubernatorial candidate in 2002. But she says the problems of the people — like health care, housing, and the environment — never left her radar. And now, the 50-year-old doctor is rising into the spotlight again, to tackle problems she hopes "we can do a better job of fixing." Encouraged by local support and media inquiries, the Lexington resident expects to make an "official" decision in the next several weeks on whether to run for state representative in the Ninth Middlesex District. But while she remains formally undeclared, Stein appears to have a healthy and growing campaign. The state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance shows that the Friends of Jill Stein raised over $7000 last year. (Stein is abiding by 1998’s now-defunct Clean Elections Law and is refusing contributions over $100.) This week, volunteers will be conducting a telephone opinion poll from Stein’s home to find out what issues are on the minds of local voters. And committees are being formed to deal with fundraising, media, volunteers, and policy. To win, Stein would have to unseat Democratic incumbent Thomas Stanley, who recently lost his bid for Waltham’s mayoral seat. (It’s an uphill battle, but Stein would be a formidable challenger. In her 2002 gubernatorial bid, she fared well in both Lexington and Waltham, gaining higher percentages of the vote in those communities — six and four percent, respectively — than her statewide average of three percent. Stanley won his last election to the State House by 54 percent, but lost badly in his run for mayor, garnering much less than half the vote.) In doing so, she would become the first Green Party candidate elected to the Massachusetts legislature. Serving in that body might be difficult at times, Stein admits. "There’s a challenge to being a progressive Democrat in the legislature now. There are challenges to real reform," she says, describing an adverse environment on Beacon Hill. "It serves us all to rise above party labels." Which is something Stein seems prepared to do. Her work as a doctor and professor of medicine at Simmons College Health Center, she explains, has exposed her to the issues she cares about in a "nonpartisan context" all her life. Says Stein, "That’s where my commitment is, long before politics."
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