Writer, Yale graduate and Leverett Senior Common Room member David R. Slavitt will take on six-term incumbent State Rep. Timothy J. Toomey in the 26th Middlesex District, which includes East Cambridge and part of Somerville.
Toomey, also a member of the Cambridge City Council, is coming off a hotly contested Democratic primary in which he defeated local political consultant Avi Green.
While Slavitt is running as a Republican in a city known for its liberal leanings, he has emphasized his support for abortion—which Toomey opposes—and same-sex marriage.
After making calls to Republican and unaffiliated voters in the city, Slavitt said this weekend he had shifted his focus to female Democrats in precincts that favored Green, touting his endorsement from NARAL, an abortion-rights organization.
Toomey said he believes his constituents are aware of his position against abortion, and emphasized his support for family planning.
He also stressed that the differences between him and his opponent fall mainly along party lines, criticizing Slavitt’s plan to roll back the state income tax.
“I don’t think we can afford to do that right now with the financial situation of the state still being precarious,” Toomey said, adding that a tax cut would lead to reductions in funding for education, health care and other programs.
Slavitt said some Cambridge voters hung up on him when he told them his party affiliation, but he believes in the importance of a “lively, healthy opposition party.”
“I think [Toomey is] just out of touch,” Slavitt said. “But then Cambridge is out of touch. Cambridge and Berkeley, Calif., are the joke cities of America.”
Slavitt said that he placed his odds of winning at 15 to 1, but he still thinks victory is possible.
“If enough weird things happen, I could win,” he said. “I asked my wife, what would I do then, and she looked at me over her glasses balefully and said, ‘Then you have to go.’”
For his part, Toomey said he planned to campaign up until the very end of the race.
“I’ll relax when they declare the winner,” he said.
OTHER RACES
In the 24th Middlesex District, which includes North Cambridge, incumbent Democratic Rep. Anne M. Paulsen will take on Republican Kevin M. Cuddeback.
In the 8th Suffolk District, Democrat Marty Walz is running against Republican Richard L. Babson and America First Party candidate L. Thomas White for the state senate seat vacated by Paul C. Demakis ’75, who did not seek re-election. The district includes MIT, Cambridgeport and Area 4 as well as Boston’s Back Bay and Beacon Hill neighborhoods.
In the 2nd Suffolk and Middlesex District, Democrat Steven A. Tolman is running for re-election to the state Senate against Republican Robert P. Ferencsik.
On the national level, Democratic Congressman Michael E. Capuano, who represents Cambridge, is running unopposed in the election.
—Staff writer Jessica R. Rubin-Wills can be reached at rubinwil@fas.harvard.edu.