In 1974, Marie Howe was also sued by the Ralph Champa Construction Company for not paying a $986 bill after Champa constructed a stairway in her real estate office. Howe alleged that the late Champa promised the construction for free as an in-kind campaign contribution, a charge that Champa denied. "He was never involved in politics," says his son, Ralph Champa Jr. "He might give a contribution for $10, but he wouldn't give $1000 worth of construction for free." And Marie Howe now admits that Champa had never contributed to her political campaigns in the past.

Somerville District Court found Howe guilty, and Howe paid Champa $750 in damages. "When you're in business, these things happen," Howe explains.

In 1976, Hugh Gillen, a carpenter, sued Marie Howe for not paying him for $1700 worth of painting and wall-papering. Gillen says Howe at first told him to do an extensive remodeling job, but that halfway through--when he told her he had already done $1000 worth of construction--she told him it was too expensive. "After she told me [to cut back] I did the bare minimum, because if she didn't want me to do a lot, I didn't want to do it, either," Gillen says. But Howe said Gillen's work was shoddy, and she refused to pay the $1700.

Gillen's suit against Howe was successful, and she was ordered to pay Gillen for his work.

Political patronage is a way of life in Somerville, and the Howe family is no exception. All three of Marie's brothers appear to have profited by their sister's public office. Two of her brothers, William and Desmond, have jobs with the State Police. William was hired in 1966, the year after his sister first began to serve in the legislature; Desmond was hired three years later. Marie denies using her influence to get either of her two brothers jobs with the state police, a denial Somerville insiders find highly questionable considering the frequency of such patronage appointments.

Marie Howe also denies any impropriety in the hiring of Ralph Scott, son of her close personal friend Leonard Scott, as a page in the state legislature last summer. Howe says Scott was hired by House Speaker Thomas McGee, although she admits that "I may have put in a call to McGee" on Scott's behalf. Howe calls her companion's son "very capable. We were lucky to get him." Scott worked directly in Marie Howe's office.

It was while Marie Howe served on the House Rules Committee, the panel that dispenses patronage positions, that her brother John was hired by the MDC's Division of Environmental Quality, for his celebrated job as a "water-sampler," from which he was later suspended. Marie admits getting her brother his MDC job by making a "recommendation" to then-Governor Francis W. Sargent that her brother be hired.

Marie Howe says she "doesn't recall" what she said to Sargent in her recommendation of her brother, but she denies any unethical conduct on her part. "I have helped loads of people get jobs in this city," she says.

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Despite all of the indications of possible impropriety, the Howes retain just as strong a political stranglehold on Somerville as when they first came to power ten years ago. In September, Marie Howe survived a tough battle for re-nomination to the state legislature after her district lines were re-drawn, and she seems certain to be re-elected this Tuesday. John Howe, meanwhile, is safely anchored to his assessor's job for at least another year, until the next election.

That the Howe family is still powerful in Somerville is due at least inpart to their ability to avoid the subject of political corruption altogether. Marie Howe has for years been able to evade the question of personal ethics by making the issue one of ethnicity, accusing opposing Italian political families of "plots" and "vendettas" against her. In fact, she says, "It's an issue of the good people versus the bad people, with us being the good people.... They hate me because I'm totally uncorruptable."

John Howe's defense, characteristically, is more humble. "I haven't been summonsed yet," he says. "I'm still doing my job.... I'm still walking the streets."

Yet if Marie Howe has used her brother John for her own political ends, she has also been unafraid to engage in petty but questionable conduct of her own.