Enter Bill Guenther '72, who lives across the hall from DiCara. Last year people used to joke about the Quincy triumvirate of politicians-Guenther, DiCara, and Ki?by Wilcox '70. DiCara has chosen Guenther as his campaign manager. "He's one of the few people who can criticize me and get me to listen," DiCara explained Sunday. "That's damn, I mean darn, important."
One student, upon learning of Guenther's role in the campaign, remarked, "It's like FDR running a campaign for James Farley."
Guenther fits neatly into the group DiCara mockingly labels limousine liberals. DiCara carries the Coop's little black appointment book; Guenther carries the New York Times. DiCara lives at 86 Codman Hill Avenue in South Dorchestr; Guenther lives at 1088 Park Avenue, New York.
His political career began when he was chasing a girl who became involved in the McCarthy campaign three years ago. He quit after a week. At the time Guenther was a senior at St. George's School in Rhode Island. He jumped into student government at Harvard, despite never having dabbled in it at St. George's. Guenther was on the Freshman Council and then the HUC, but now his interest is in working in other persons' campaigns.
He is eager to work in DiCara's organization and confident that he can do the job properly despite his comparative inexperience. "You can splash around in your own little pond in a campaign this size," he pointed out Tuesday night. "The only way you're going to win is to get your name around and get press, and to get press you have to deal with hard issues. I think his chances are very good."
DiCara will run as an urban-populist. His issues will be housing, public transportation, and the restructuring of city government: DiCara will try to contract himself with present members of the Council, whom he considers unresponsive. "The City Council is an office a man should aspire to, not retire to," DiCara loves to say.
DiCara also loves to think of himself when he repeats Murray Kempton's description of New York Mayor John V. Lindsay: "He's fresh, and everyone else is tired." Guenther calls his candidate the "first young, vibrant Italian to come along in quite a while," DiCara will attempt to disassociate himself from the established city politicians, who he feels have little freedom of movement. "I have no ties," DiCara emphasized. "My hands are as clean as the day is long." This is the DiCara rhetoric.
He's got an added obstacle right now-a polop on his vocal cords. DiCara strained his voice a few months ago and can no longer project the voice as he did in the old days. He will have an operation within a month, but then won't be able to talk for a week. "I fear I'll have to leave the Boston area," DiCara reflected.
Guenther is only one of the Harvard persons in the campaign hierarchy. Arrold Waters '71 is the head fund raiser, while Alan Gerlach '71 is chief statistician. "Gerlach's one of the few persons I wouldn't challenge to a political nonsense contest," DiCara said Monday, extending a rare compliment. Chip Moore '72 will also have a big role this summer. Cindy Johnston, who will do a poll for DiCara, is a Wellesley student. But DiCara claims to have less aristocratic types working at the important grassroots level.
The uniqueness of the enterprise has caught the attention of one well-known Boston publisher, which so far has responded favorably to DiCara's suggestion that he write a book about it all. Every night he talks into his tape recorder about what he did that day. He smiled while playing back parts of it last weekend in his room. Above him on the wall was a painting of John and Robert Kennedy. In two places were "Kennedy in '72" stickers, even though DiCara guarantees that Teddy won't run. On the bureau, another picture of John Kenn?dy, flanked by identical photographs of Richard Cardinal Cushing, DiCara was once an altar boy.
Even DiCara's book collection is dominated by writings on or by the Kennedys. Among the others are Horan's The Right Image and Shadeg's How to Win an Election. He hasn't read them, but it's nice to know they're there.
Amidst all the talk of the possibility of victory, there is the realization that Larry DiCara may not get the call in November, if he makes it that far. He's got alternate plans. DiCara can work full time for the Robert F. Kennedy Action Corps, a community development program he works two full days a week for right now. DiCara also likes to think there's a law school in his future and will apply to Boston's top institutions for admission in 1972.
"If he wins, we'll be glad." DiCara's father says matter-of-factly, "and if he doesn't, he's still young." He and Mrs. DiCara had "mixed feelings" about their son's decision to run, but were not surprised. "There are lots of pitfalls," Mr. DiCara continued. "You can get buffeted around." He and his wife remember the threatening calls after their son picked lottery numbers. And it was only a few summers ago, according to DiCara, that he was threatened by knife-wielding youths who, he said, thought he was being too kind to blacks at a Dorchester playground.
"My parents don't like politics very much," DiCara said. "They'd much rather have me take the easy route-go to law school, work for Ropes and Gray, and live in Milton." On the other hand, his grandmother, who lives on the bottom floor of their two-family house, is more enthusiastic. "She's just a great old gal," DiCara smiled, "I think she gets a kick out of telling her friends about it."
Thomas Connolly '72 and Paul Jarvie '71, both former Boston Latin students who have watched DiCara's political career, assert that even if he loses this year, he may come back to win the next time, as other young candidates have done in the past.
But DiCara and his people like to think of such cautious thinking as unnecessary. As he put it himself Thursday night, "When Larry DiCara runs for Boston City Council, he doesn't fool around."