"[Wolf] has been non-responsive to the fact that 100 tenants have been pushed out."

Security Guard Under Fire

The race in the 28th Middlesex District, which contains Central Square and the eastern portion of the Harvard campus, including Leverett House, is a fiery one as well, with three candidates challenging Democratic incumbent Rep. Alvin E. Thompson.

Thompson, a part-time security guard in Pforzheimer House, has been in office for ten years.

Opponents Jarrett T. Barrios '90, Dennis A. Benzan and David Hoicka, say it's time for Thompson to be replaced.

Koocher says the race in the 28th district will be a close one. "This is really hard to predict," he says.

Thompson has historically benefited from multiple-candidate primaries, but Koocher says in this race he faces "two very articulate, highly respected progressives [Barrios and Benzan]" and Hoicka, a visible community organizer.

The four Democratic candidates have similar views on most of the issues, making it even more challenging for one candidate to win over a majority of the Cambridge voters.

Koocher says Benzan gets most of his support from the black and Latino communities, while Barrios attracts "the who's who of the liberal glitteratti.

Meanwhile Hoicka "mops up the radicals and the other fringe elements," Koocher says.

Despite his incumbency, Thompson does not have a strong hold on the voters.

In the last election, he beat Benzan, who was running as an independent, by a very narrow margin.

Barrios, a former Adams House resident, is an attorney at the Boston law firm Hill & Barlow.

A second-generation Cuban-American, Barrios was named the 1997 Pro Bono Attorney of the Year for representation of immigrants and is an active advocate for a number of social reform issues.

He says some of the major issues in this campaign are affordable housing, the environment and choice in issues affecting women, such as welfare and employment.