"The issue here is accessibility and availability," says Democratic nominee for state representative Alvin E. Thompson, arguing that his opponent, incumbent Saundra M. Graham, has too many other obligations to properly fill that post. "She couldn't serve two masters," he says, referring to her jobs as City Councillor and state representative.

Graham lost September's Democratic primary to Thompson by 49 votes. Her district, the 28th Middlesex, covers central Cambridge, including Peabody Terrace, Mather, Dunster, Adams and Leverett Houses, and the freshman Union dorms.

Although Graham has said she does not plan to seek re-election to the City Council next year, Thompson contends that there is "no question" that she will.

His behavior as a state representative will be "almost the same, but I will go to work and do the job," Thompson says.

Thompson now works as a safety specialist in the Cambridge school department. Graham press secretary Michael J. Albano also says Thompson works for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority affirmative action office at night.

Lester P. Lee '76, chair of Thompson's campaign, says "the man has always held two jobs," although he adds, "I don't know if he still does."

Though Thompson won the Democratic primary in September, Alice K. Wolf, a city councillor and member of the Democratic state committee, and the Ward Five Democratic committee have endorsed Graham.

Holway, who chairs the Ward Nine committee, called this a violation of the Massachussets Democratic party charter, which states that party officers must support the Democratic nominee.

Holway said Wolf and Ward Five committee members should "follow the charter or get off the committees." He added that Cambridge Democrats have spent "a great deal of time on a divisive [state representative] campaign, when we should be seeing that Mike Dukakis wins his home state."

Lee says Graham's campaign accuses Thompson of being "in the pocket of developers" and against rent control. Albano charges that Thompson supports Proposition 1-2-3, a 1989 municipal ballot question that would make it easier to take apartments off of rent control. But Thompson said he has oppossed the measure since he heard of it in September.

Sponsor Fred Meyer, owner of University Real Estate, says he has "never discussed 1-2-3 with Thompson," so he has no idea whether he will support it. He adds that he "will vote for Thompson" because he finds Graham "unaccessible, based on personal experience."

In any case, Thompson says the controversy is irrelevant because "there's no function for the state representative in terms of rent control." He says Graham wants to "cloud the issue of the state representative's function" by emphasizing her stands on rent control, he says, adding that rent control is not as big an issue as it once was.

Thompson said he worries that most of the developers in the Cambridge real estate market want to build commercial projects and condominiums, not apartments subject to rent control.

"No one's even talking about moderate-income housing here anymore," he said, adding that it is politically necessary for any Cambridge candidate to support rent control because of high rents and the housing shortage.

Thompson ran for City Council in 1979 with an endorsement from the Cambridge Civic Association (CCA). At that time, he told the Cambridge Chronicle, "I favor rent control and I'm against condominium conversion." But he qualified his position, adding, "I will seek to reform the procedures of the rent control board."