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HOME-COURT ADVANTAGE
Decker considers a House call
BY KRISTEN LOMBARDI

Paul Demakis takes great pride in his legislative record. After eight years on Beacon Hill, the liberal Back Bay state representative doesn’t stand out as an especially savvy, charismatic, or even talented politician. But give credit where credit is due: Demakis deserves kudos for his fight on such pet progressive causes as abortion rights, gay-and-lesbian rights, and government reform.

Yet legislative laurels probably won’t get Demakis very far in Cambridge, where he’s lately been stumping for votes. The long-time Boston pol, after all, remains a virtual unknown in the People’s Republic, a chunk of which has been incorporated into his Eighth Suffolk District. In the words of Cambridge politico Robert Winters, "The average [Cambridge] voter knows as much about Paul Demakis as I do — nothing. Nobody knows him here."

Here is where Marjorie Decker comes in. The two-term Cambridge city councilor happens to live in Demakis’s redrawn district, in the Cambridgeport neighborhood. Since she burst onto the local political scene in 1998, she has gained a reputation as a progressive’s progressive who has managed to cross the traditional townie-liberal divide. Now, she’s got her eye on the Eighth Suffolk House seat. "I’m contemplating a race against Demakis," she told the Phoenix last week. "I’m not announcing my candidacy. But I have every reason to believe that it’s worth pursuing."

Indeed. Decker is sure to make a formidable challenger. Beyond City Hall, where she has shown leadership on classic liberal causes like affordable housing and education, she boasts firsthand experience at the State House, gained during her stint as an aide to Cambridge state representative Alice Wolf. More recently, as the head of the Equal Justice Coalition advocacy group, she has lobbied lawmakers on legal-aid matters. "With my leadership," Decker says, "people won’t lose that commitment to progressive issues. But they’ll get someone who brings different things to the table."

One of those things, of course, is a Cambridge address. And for Cantabrigians, that might be her most persuasive argument against Demakis yet. As Winters bluntly puts it, "Marjorie is Cambridge born and bred. For most people, the question isn’t why vote for Marjorie, it’s why not?"

Issue Date: February 14 - 21, 2002
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