Massachusetts is so dominated by Democrats that primaries are often more contentious than general elections.

But this year, it appears that Alice Wolf's growl has scared off all of her opponents.

Wolf ran unopposed in yesterday's Democratic primary and will faces no Republican opponent in November's general election race for state representative for north and west Cambridge.

Wolf was first elected in 1996, when she fought now-Mayor Anthony D. Galluccio for the Democratic nomination--a race decided by just 90 votes.

And two years ago, Galluccio fought her again. This time, her margin was a bit more favorable. The 1998 victory was decided by roughly 900 votes.

This year, Galluccio, it seems, is content to hold his position as mayor.

Wolf, meanwhile, now seeks her third term as state representative for the district that produced two speakers of the House in Massachusetts: Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr.--who was later Speaker of the U.S. House--and Charles F. Flaherty, who resigned in 1996 after pleading guilty to tax fraud. Flaherty had held the district for three decades.

Wolf says she abides by the "all politics is local" philosophy, inherited from her famed predecessor, O'Neill. Before becoming a representative, Wolf was a four-time member of the Cambridge School Committee, five-time city councillor and mayor of the city.

Her district, the 27th Middlesex, includes well-off, progressive liberals and working-class people. It also has the only two high-rise public housing projects in Cambridge.

Wolf says her own background has helped her to appreciate the needs of immigrants and lower-class people.

At age five, Wolf fled with her family from Austria, fearing Nazi persecution. She grew up in a Boston boarding house and was the first in her family to go to college.

"My family fled persecution. That has made me concerned about having a climate where people can speak out," she says.

Wolf's first speech before the state House was to propose $40 million in funding to help immigrants, who had been cut off from social services by federal welfare reform in 1994.

"[Wolf] is very wrapped up with issues, anything important to this district," says Evan B. Rauch'92, chair of the Cambridge Democratic City Committee.

Among her pet issues is education, where she tried to oppose efforts to lower the standards for special education.

"She gets upset when she's losing something like [special education]," Rauch says. "It matters considerably more to her than to the average state representative."

Wolf says the skyrocketing cost of housing in Cambridge--and protecting funding for affordable housing--is another of her top priorities.

Among the problems, she says, is Harvard and MIT encroaching on the rest of Cambridge without thinking through the short-term consequences of expansion.

"The university has a 200- to 300-year outlook," she says. "The rest of us look at being dead in 200 or 300 years."

Tried and True

Wolf represents one of the most diverse districts in the state, filled with people from every race and walk of life, whose demographic is ever-changing. But the one thing in the district that never changes, the one sure bet, is that a Democrat will be elected as state representative.

In a district where winning the Democratic primary means winning the general election, the biggest threat comes from other Democrats.

When Wolf first ran for state representative in 1996, her primary battle with then-city councillor Galluccio split the 27th Middlesex in two.

Today, Wolf downplays the particulars of her tough-fought wins, calling it a "hard primary" and saying "we had some differences."

But in 1996 the contrasts were stark. A 29-year-old man who had lived in Cambridge all his life was running against a 63-year-old woman who had settled in Boston as an immigrant.

"It was pretty black and white," says Amy S. Smith, secretary of the Democratic City Committee and a Galluccio supporter.

Wolf was endorsed by the Cambridge Civic Association, the city's established liberal group. Galluccio appealed to independent voters and portrayed himself as the candidate for working people.

The two were close ideologically, both pro-choice and opposing the death penalty.

The race came down to personality, Smith says.

"I like the way he approaches problems," she says. "His approach is, what can he do for the person, not for the problems of the world."

Wolf faced Galluccio again in the 1998 primary. But by that time she was an incumbent and she won by a more comfortable 900 votes.

And in her first term, Wolf established herself as an advocate for working people as well as for well-to-do liberals.

The Carpenters Local 40 workers' union, which had endorsed Galluccio in 1996, switched to Wolf in 1998. And on Monday members of Local 40 appeared with Wolf at an event in Porter Square.

The union still supports Galluccio--now as mayor--but it has a policy of not opposing incumbents with solid labor records, said Joe Powers, the union's business representative. And Wolf's record had met that standard to the members' satisfaction.

"She's been very supportive on the living wage and social programs," Powers said.

This Year's Campaign

This year, Wolf says her campaign has "quite a bit lower" intensity but is still active.

"You always build for the next time," Wolf says.

Eric Pugatch, who is running her campaign for the first time, says Wolf is still knocking on doors regularly to keep herself visible.

The Wolf campaign's finances also suggest that she worries about the next Galluccio. The contested 1996 primary was expensive: Wolf spent $70,000 and Galluccio spent $55,000.

This year, Wolf has continued to collect contributions at a healthy pace.

So far, the campaign has received more than $48,000 in contributions in the year 2000, according to the pre-primary campaign finance report her office filed earlier this month. But the campaign has spent just $23,000 and its balance stands at $56,000.

On Monday, it was ice cream more than money that was building Wolf's following.

Later that morning, a school bus, apparently carrying a future Wolf supporter, drove by where she was standing with her campaign manager.

"A kid leaned out of the window and said, 'Alice, thanks for the ice cream,'" she says.

She says she turned to Pugatch and "I said, 'look, it makes an impact.'"

Among those of voting age, too, Wolf has become fortified as a prominent figure in Cambridge politics.

"Of course I'm going to vote for you," she recalls a supporter telling her after an appearance with Local 40 Monday morning. "You're an institution."

Wolf, who says she plans to remain a representative for the time being, says she does not mind being called an institution.

"Harvard has done pretty well," she says.