Johnson said she has a good chance of winning, despite running as a Green Party candidate in a Democratic stronghold.

“She has a chance of winning if she’s able to get her name out there,” said Stephen H. Milder ’04, member of the Harvard College Greens. “Alice [Wolf] has been in office for quite awhile. It will be tough. There is no reason to presume [Johnson] will win.”

Burke said that the arena for Green Party success rests in local, not national, politics because many voters are still angry about how Ralph Nader tilted the 2000 presidential election toward Bush.

Johnson plans on applying to graduate school and working to help herself get by if her bid for office fails.

“If elected, it’d be nice ’cause I’d be helping others get by,” Johnson said. “Plus, it’d be a great first job.”

—Staff writer Robin M. Peguero can be reached at peguero@fas.harvard.edu.