The wave of voter discontent that will likely turn the U.S. House red won’t have quite the same impact on the state House of Representatives, not with a still-lopsided one-party majority. But there are 26 open seats in the House, leaving plenty of room in the chamber for more reformers, more reliable fiscal conservatives.natutal viagra has no side effect of viagra And sometimes it’s just about fresh blood, about challenging the old State House way of doing business.

…

While there are regrettably few contested races in Boston, one candidate with a clear path – community activist Carlos Tony Henriquez of Dorchester, who challenged Chuck Turner twice for City Council and is running in the 5th Suffolk – actually deserves it.

That’s a tiny cross-section, but every new candidate has a Web site, every incumbent should be made to answer for his record, and voters should educate themselves about their choices.

Original Article: http://news.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view/20101024our_house_picks___

As a kid growing up near Dudley Square in Roxbury, Carlos Henriquez was a bit unusual.

Hanging around the offices of the Dudley Square Neighborhood Initiative, a nonprofit his father helped found, his pet project, at age 14, was to try to design a community center for the neighborhood.

Nearly two decades later, thanks to the largesse of a San Diego billionaire, something like what he envisioned is close to opening.

“They’re building my dream,’’ said Henriquez. “Actually, they’re exceeding my dream.’’

The Kroc Center is closing in on completion, and there’s nothing in Boston like it. It will contain classrooms for after-school tutoring, meeting places for seniors, a kitchen for culinary classes, a gym, and a pool, complete with a waterslide that would look at home in an amusement park. Planners expect it to serve about 1,000 residents a day.

The person who made it possible, posthumously, was Joan Kroc, the widow of McDonald’s magnate Ray Kroc.

When Kroc died in 2003, she gave a lot of money to people who weren’t necessarily expecting it.Federal tax refund calculator2011 federal tax refund calculator2012 federal tax refund calculatorFederal tax refund calculator 2011Federal tax refund calculator 2012free tax return calculator 2011free tax return calculator 2012estimate tax refund 2011estimate tax refund 2012quick tax refund calculator 2011quick tax refund calculator 2012income tax refund estimator 2011income tax refund estimator 2012calculate tax refund 2011calculate tax refund 2012income tax refund calculator 20122012 refund estimator For instance, she left $225 million to the good people at National Public Radio, $50 million each to two colleges, and $10 million to the San Diego Zoo.

But her biggest bequest, a whopping $1.6 billion, went to the Salvation Army. Part of that money was to set up a string of community centers across the country. To qualify, communities had to pledge to raise $30 million in order to get $85 million from Kroc’s bequest, according to Drew Forster, who will manage the center.

There are now nine Kroc Centers open around the country, with 15 or so in various stages of development. In the midst of a deep recession, about $28 million was raked in from a combination of corporations, foundations, and small donors.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino has been a booster from the start.cialis He got a look at the place a couple of weeks ago and came away impressed.

“I think what it does is bring newness and vitality to an area in desperate need of it,’’ Menino said. “It’s a neighborhood that for so many years has had some issues. This will give people in Dudley a chance to say they’re proud of living there.’’

As Menino pointed out, Dudley is already home to a couple of community centers. But it doesn’t take much to see that this will operate on a completely different scale.

“Right now, kids are playing basketball in the Uphams Corner gym,’’ he said. “It’s an old and rickety building. This will give them new life.’’

While the building won’t be ready for occupants until November, it is easy at this point to visualize the finished product.

On a recent tour, the classrooms were taking shape, as well as the culinary area and the recreational facility. An architect probably told a tour group more than they wanted to know about the decisions that had gone into the planning of every room.

And without disparaging one of the city’s most vibrant neighborhoods, Dudley can use some good news. The crime and gang situation is far from calm, and places for neighborhood residents to come together are far too few. Between Uphams Corner and Dudley Square, there really isn’t anything that could be called an anchor. Changing that will make a difference. Sometimes an infusion of cash can be an infusion of hope.

Henriquez, 33, is still deeply involved in Dudley: chairing the board of the Neighborhood Initiative and running for state representative.

“It will have a huge effect on the neighborhood for generations to come,’’ he said. “We could probably use one more.’’

Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Leroy was raised in the heart of our district in Dorchester’s Bowdoin/Geneva neighborhood – Boston’s ground zero of violence. Like many growing up, Leroy was raised by loving parents. But in tough neighborhoods like Bowdoin/Geneva, where drugs and gun violence are a daily occurrence, love is not enough.

At only 16, Leroy lost two of his older brothers to gun violence because of drugs and gangs. With the lack of jobs, under-performing schools, drugs and gang violence around every corner, Leroy was destined to follow in their footsteps.Norman B. Rice, Seattle’s first African-American mayor, once said, “Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light.” I reached out my hand into the darkness to pull Leroy’s hand into the light by finding him a job and being a mentor to him.автобазар Without it, he may have ended up like his brothers.

But what keeps me up at night is the knowledge that there are hundreds of kids out there just like Leroy. They need a lifeline, deserve a future, and that is why I am running.

We as a community can no longer afford to respond to situations after they happen, we must be preventive, as I was with Leroy, and strike at the root of the hopelessness and violence that has engulfed our neighborhood:

• More Jobs With unemployment still hovering around nine percent in the state of Massachusetts, and in the 5th Suffolk District even higher, too many of our families have been unemployed for far too long. When people lack job opportunities, they often turn to a life of crime to support themselves and their families. As state representative, I will work to retain existing jobs while creating new ones, extend unemployment benefits to those who have lost their job through no fault of their own, and invest in training programs for the jobs of tomorrow.

• Quality Schools In 2009, Sheriff Andrea Cabral testified to Congress that “…approximately 50 percent of Suffolk County House of Corrections inmates are high school dropouts.” Too many of our young people continue to drop out of school. Without an education they find themselves locked out from the American dream. As your state representative, I will work to ensure every child has access to a quality education by demanding more accountability, expanding vocational training, and increasing the number of mentors available to youth – before, during and after school.

• Safe Streets According to a recent program on WBUR, “drug cases take up much of the docket” at Dorchester Court. Whether smashing a window to grab a GPS unit or shooting someone for selling drugs on their turf, substance abuse is behind much of the violence we see on our streets. As your state representative, I will work to preserve funding for substance abuse prevention and recovery street workers and summer and year round jobs for youth.

As a community organizer and activist, youth worker and as a former City Hall aide, I have witnessed too many kids like Leroy who stand at a crossroads. I have been a teen in these neighborhoods faced with these same issues and I know what works. We cannot turn our backs on them or turn back the clock when it comes to the violence that has occurred. We must move forward with a renewed vision and a pledge to address these problems as a community and for the community.

- Carlos Henriquez is a candidate for State Representative in the Fifth Suffolk District.

Copyright 2010, Boston Neighborhood News, Inc.

Former City Hall aide Carlos Henriquez Tuesday night won the Fifth Suffolk seat held by Marie St. Fleur.

Barry Lawton, who came in 41 votes behind Henriquez in September’s Democratic primary and waged a write-in campaign in the general election, conceded shortly after the polls closed. Lawton, an East Boston High School teacher, appeared at Henriquez’s victory part at Restaurante Cesaria.

With 12 out of 19 precincts reporting, Henriquez was leading Lawton, winning 87.5 percent of the vote.

Roy Owens, a perennial candidate, was also waging a write-in campaign.

St. Fleur left the seat earlier this year to take a government relations job with the Menino administration.

Original Article: http://www.dotnews.com/2010/henriquez-wins-state-rep-race-lawton-concedes

When we last looked at the Fifth Suffolk state representative race, community activist Carlos Henriquez had won the unofficial ballot count by 41 votes and high school teacher and former Beacon Hill aide Barry Lawton sent a text message to editors saying, “It’s not over.”

Carlos Henriquez addressing supporters at his campaign launch. Eric Esteves photo

On Thursday morning Lawton told the Reporter: “We’re weighing all options right now.” Those options include requesting a recount (which would require signature-gathering to commence) as well as a write-in candidacy in the general election.

“I want to have a few days from it,” he said of the primary.

Pressed on whether he would wage a write-in campaign, Lawton said, “I think conditions will be different in the general election.”

Should Lawton ask for a recount, here’s how the process goes, according to the Secretary of State’s website: He must gather signatures, 50 from each ward in the district, from registered voters who must have been enrolled in a party – in this case the Democratic Party – on or before the last day to register to vote in that primary.

The day to submit the signatures must be filed by Monday 5 p.m. A recount would then be scheduled within six days after Monday.

It was around 11 p.m. Tuesday when the city’s Elections Department finally posted the final tally in the Fifth Suffolk District: Henriquez had triumphed over Lawton by 41 votes, according to the unofficial count of all 19 precincts.

Sources inside Lawton’s campaign said on election night that he was weighing a decision on requesting a recount. Lawton did not return calls seeking comment on Wednesday, but sent a three-word text message to editors: “It’s not over.”

Both Democrats, hoping to succeed former state Rep. Marie St. Fleur, were making their third bid for public office. Henriquez, who had worked for former City Councillor At-Large Michael Flaherty, had unsuccessfully run twice before against City Councillor Chuck Turner and Lawton, a former Beacon Hill aide, was making a third attempt for the Fifth Suffolk seat.

The unofficial totals were 33.13 percent for Henriquez; 31.24 percent for Lawton; 18.43 percent for former state Rep. Althea Garrison; and 10.41 percent for perennial candidate Roy Owens. With no Republicans on the ballot, the victor of the Democratic primary is virtually guaranteed a win in the Nov. 2 general election.

About 2,030 votes were cast in the district, which includes parts of Dorchester and Roxbury and Henriquez topped the ticket with 719 votes.

In a last minute move on Monday, St. Fleur endorsed Henriquez, recording a robo-call for him. She had declined to weigh in on the race earlier in the year after she took a top governmental relations job with Mayor Thomas Menino’s administration in June. Last week, Henriquez also snagged the endorsement of the popular Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral, a fellow Democrat.

Lawton had the backing of the Boston Teachers Union, the state AFL-CIO union, and the Boston firefighters’ union Local 718, among other supporters.
As results were recorded on the city’s website, see-sawing between Lawton and Henriquez, large platters of plantains and barbequed meat were being served at Roxbury’s Merengue restaurant. A bottle of champagne on one table remained unopened.

“I’m tired, overwhelmed, but I’m feeling good,” Henriquez said. “I think we felt pretty confident in the final days. We didn’t have any change in strategy but there was definitely a pick-up in external energy,” said Simone Miles, a Henriquez supporter. “It’s played out pretty well.”

At Lawton’s party, supporters appeared equal parts nervous and excited, with buttons on their shirts and a bullhorn sitting by the sheet of paper they were using to keep track of precincts as numbers came in. Asked how he was feeling while walking an elderly volunteer to her car, Lawton said simply, “Tired.”

Mark Stallworth, program director for Boston Praise Radio, a gospel station, met Lawton while he was door knocking, interviewed him on the air and became a supporter.

“Normally I stay out of politics, but after having Barry on my show a little less than a month ago I decided to support him,” Stallworth said. “He stands for the community and he’s part of the community. I like him because of his stance on youth violence. He’s a teacher, that’s his street right there,” he added, pointing to Mt. Ida Rd. “It’s been a roller coaster, one minute we’re up, now we’re down 13 votes.”

In fact, by night’s end, Lawton was short 41 votes and — although no one publicly declared victory in the Henriquez camp, the mood at Merengue was celebratory. Rounding out the field of four was former state Rep. Althea Garrison, who finished third with 400 votes or 18 percent. Bringing up the rear was Roy Owens, a perennial candidate, who tallied 226 votes— to finish with about 10 percent.

John Barros, a campaign advisor to Henriquez, said that Lawton did well in his home base of Meetinghouse Hill, but noted that Henriquez’s recent runs for the district 7 city council seat likely helped boost his numbers in the rest of the House seat.

“[Carlos] had a strong base already established from the past campaigns and clear name recognition. He tried to work hard in the wards and precincts where he didn’t have that same kind of recognition. Our numbers show he made headway and challenged Barry in his own backyard,” Barros said.

The endorsements by St. Fleur and Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral were helpful, Barros said.

“We’re excited that the sheriff took a stance as a political official and didn’t wait for the results,” Barros said.

Former Ward 15 Democratic Committee chairperson Judy Meredith, a health services lobbyist who remains active in the community, noted Lawton didn’t get the Ward 15 endorsement, among others.

“But he worked very hard. I was very impressed,” she said. “I thought he might pull it off. I hope his disappointment doesn’t turn into bitterness. He still has a big role to play in the state Democratic Committee.

As for Henriquez, she said, “I’m hoping he will really grow in this spot.”

Original Article: http://www.dotnews.com/2010/henriquez-squeezes-lawton-no-word-recount

“I’ve been trained for this position my entire life,’’ Henriquez, 33, said at a recent candidates’ forum. He absorbed lessons in community building from his father, a neighborhood activist, and his mother, now a senior housing official in the Obama administration. But he cut his own path as well, working in City Hall and making two courageous but unsuccessful runs against ethically tainted Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner. Henriquez is president of the board of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, one of the city’s most highly regarded housing and community groups. And he would be a powerful voice for protecting charter schools, which often do a terrific job of educating youngsters in the district.

Henriquez faces a tough road against two perennial candidates — Althea Garrison and Roy Owens — and charismatic challenger Barry Lawton. But it is Henriquez who voters can count on to bring out the best in the district.

September 9, 2010

With less than a week to go before the primary that will decide the race, three of the four candidates competing for the Fifth Suffolk District’s open House seat vied to distinguish themselves during a forum at the Vine Street Community Center last night.

Carlos Henriquez, a former City Hall aide with high-ranking positions at the Kroc Community Center and the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, pointed out that he’d lived in Dorchester his entire life, and framed himself as a grassroots son of the district.

Barry Lawton said he was the only candidate with the experience necessary to take state office, and touted his long resume as a legislative aide, a personnel director under the Dukakis administration, a small business owner, and his 22-year stint as a Boston Public School teacher.

Roy Owens focused his message around his faith-based politics, identifying himself at the outset as the only anti-abortion, family values candidate.

All of the candidates have run for office before, but with no incumbent (Rep. Marie St. Fleur left office in June to work for the Mayor Thomas Menino as chief of advocacy and strategic development), the stakes are high. The district includes parts of Dorchester and Roxbury.

When asked about how he’d respond to neighborhood violence in light of the recent slaying of Richel Nova, Owens said the problem is that religious communities are “locked out of the process,” adding, “until the church gets involved, nothing’s ever going to change.”

Lawton said it was a problem with leadership, citing funding cuts to programs like early education and the Shannon grants, which he said he’d restore.

“I look at this community as a lawn. When there’s an egregious crime, the lawnmowers come out. They have the vigils, they have the press conferences, and nothing is produced after that. They cut the lawn, and create the impression that there’s tranquility,” Lawton said. “My plan is to have a short term plan to mow the grass, and a long-term plan to cut it off at the root.”

Henriquez cited education and lowering the dropout rate as ways to combat youth violence, and said he’d set up support and training programs for both students and their parents. He added that if elected, he’d reach out to schools, students, community centers and local Boston police district captains, to get their input.

For a question about education, Owens focused on curriculum, saying that gay identities were discussed openly in public schools, but that religious discussion was forbidden.

Lawton and Henriquez concentrated on funding. Lawton said he supports “any school that works,” including charter schools, pilot schools and public schools, and said that funding should go to successful institutions, “and not those schools that are producing mediocrity.”

Henriquez criticized this approach. “It’s scary for me to hear a candidate talk about funding for a school, and not be willing to fund a struggling school,” he said. “I feel we have to invest in all of our students.”

Henriquez and Lawton also clashed on promoting small businesses. Henriquez supports tax incentives that would encourage local hiring, while Lawton called the incentives “corporate welfare.”

Perhaps the most telling moment was at the end of the forum, when the candidates were invited to ask one another questions. Lawton asked his opponents if they knew how a law is made. Owens asked both candidates how they reconciled their support of abortion rights and gay marriage with their faith.

Minutes after Lawton had poked fun at Owens’ rhetoric and his suit, Henriquez asked him if he planned on ridiculing his constituents.

Owens and Lawton have competed for the seat before, and Henriquez unsuccessfully ran against long-time City Councilor Chuck Turner twice. Althea Garrison, who did not appear at last night’s hearing, held the seat for a term as a Republican, after successfully challenging the nomination papers of her Democratic rival, Nelson Merced, in 1992. This year, she’s running as a Democrat.

With no Republicans in the race, Tuesday’s primary will determine the victor.

Former state Rep. Nelson Merced is endorsing Carlos Henriquez in the Fifth Suffolk District race, Henriquez told Lit Drop on Thursday night.

Henriquez is a community activist and former City Hall aide who has run twice against City Councillor Chuck Turner.

Merced was the first Latino elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, serving for two terms. Althea Garrison, a frequent candidate for public office, knocked Merced off the Democratic ballot in 1992 by successfully challenging him on an electoral technicality. She would go on to serve one term in the House.

Henriquez also received the endorsement of the local chapter of the National Organization for Women and Oiste, a top Latino political group.

The other candidates include Garrison, Barry Lawton, an East Boston high school teacher, and perennial candidate Roy Owens.

Copyright 2010, Boston Neighborhood News, Inc.

Fifth Suffolk candidate adds former City Council candidates to campaign Carlos Henriquez, one of the four candidates running to replace former state Rep. Marie St. Fleur, is bringing on a pair of veterans from last year’s City Council At-Large race.

Tomas Gonzalez and Andrew Kenneally, who both unsuccessfully ran for City Council last year, have joined the campaign to handle field operations and messaging, respectively.

All three are former City Hall aides: Kenneally and Henriquez both worked for former City Councillor At-Large Michael Flaherty. Gonzalez is the former chief of staff of the Commission on the Affairs of the Elderly and the former Latino liaison to Mayor Thomas Menino’s Office of Neighborhood Services.

Henriquez has also been receiving help from others who have worked for St. Fleur and former state Rep. Charlotte Golar Richie’s campaigns for the Fifth Suffolk District seat.

The other candidates in the race are high school teacher Barry Lawton, former state Rep. Althea Garrison, and perennial candidate Roy Owens.

Since all of them are running as Democrats, the winner of the Sept. 14 primary will likely cruise past the general election on Nov. 2 and take the seat in January.

St. Fleur announced in February she was not running for re-election after serving over a decade in the House. She took a top job with the Menino administration in June.

Copyright 2010, Boston Neighborhood News, Inc.

The Fifth Suffolk District is set for a race for its first open state House seat in over a decade, with a four-way Democratic primary that will decide who will replace retiring Rep. Marie St. Fleur. The campaign isn’t expected to heat up until this summer but the candidates are already trading barbs over personal finances and charges of opportunism.

The roster includes a Boston schoolteacher who’s campaigned for the seat twice before, a youth worker who has in the past run against City Councillor Chuck Turner and a pair of candidates who frequently run for elected offices within the area.

Political observers say the fight for support in the traditionally low-voting district will likely come down to Barry Lawton, a high school teacher from Meetinghouse Hill who has also worked for a variety of former lawmakers on Beacon Hill, and Carlos Henriquez, a youth worker from Uphams Corner. Roughly 2,500 voters are expected to go to the polls on Sept. 14.

With no Republican challenger – Ward 17 Republican Committee chair Sean Malloy pulled papers but was not able to gather enough signatures to get on the ballot – the winner of the Democratic primary will have a free path to the seat in November’s general election.

Both Lawton and Henriquez will face two perennial candidates: Althea Garrison and Roy Owens, running as Democrats. Garrison came out swinging this week against both and took a shot at Lawton’s finances in particular.

Lawton, who currently teaches at East Boston High and has previously worked at Jeremiah Burke High, and Madison Park High, says he plans to to highlight his experience and attempt to tap “new voters, disinterested voters and unidentified voters,” including in the Vietnamese and Cape Verdean communities.

Lawton’s campaign slogan is “Community First,” he said. He said he’ll have a stronger organization than he had in previous runs, and will tap 23 years worth of students that he has taught to help. He is also being helped by the Victory Group, a Beacon Hill consulting firm.

He also pointed to support from state Sen. Richard Moore, an Uxbridge Democrat who was a state representative when Lawton was an aide in the State House.

Lawton said he has “sufficient” funds for the race, but declined to go into details. According to the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, House candidates in 2008 on average spent $32,439.

“I guess I’m supporting Barry,” said longtime Ward 15 activist Judy Meredith. “I know he’s a hard worker and he will do a good job of representing our district.”

Lawton, 53, said he was thwarted several times from winning the seat, including when neighborhood activists backed Charlotte Golar Richie in 1994 and then St. Fleur, who is leaving for a job in City Hall in June, in a special election in 1999.

“It just seems that paradigm might be in play now again,” Lawton said, pointing to a number of people who worked on the campaigns of both Richie and St. Fleur who are backing Henriquez.

While calling Henriquez a “smart young man,” Lawton pointed to Henriquez first speaking with local activists as “opportunism.” “You don’t just do it after strangers convince you that you can win,” Lawton said over a dinner interview at the Blarney Stone in Fields Corner.

“This is the only office I’ve run for,” he added. “This is the only office I’ve trained for.”

Lawton also dismissed Henriquez’s name recognition in the district, garnered through his two runs against Turner. Lawton said Henriquez’s name recognition is highest in the Roxbury and Dudley Street area.

But Henriquez, in a separate sit-down, said there was more overlap between District 7 and the Fifth Suffolk District and noted that his parents had worked on Golar Richie’s campaign.

“It definitely wasn’t a group of strangers,” who spoke to him about running, Henriquez said. Several people he knows from his work with the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, a community planning and organizing nonprofit that covers the Roxbury and Dorchester area, he said.

“For me it’s about leadership. It’s not about the glitz and glamour of the seat,” he said, adding that he views the run for the seat as a “great opportunity to lead the community.”

The slogan for his campaign that Henriquez, who worked in City Hall for City Councillor At-Large Michael Flaherty, is leaning towards also includes the word “community”: “Committed to Community.”

He said that community members in both District 7 and the Fifth Suffolk District care about the same issues, such as education and crime. “I’ve been in the neighborhood when houses were being burnt to the ground, when the crack epidemic had just hit,” he said. “I didn’t leave the community.”

Henriquez, 33, is also making his third run for elected office. “We’re a lot more strategic,” he said when asked about the difference between his campaign for state representative and his two runs for City Council. “We’ll knock on every door, we’ll call every registered voter.”

Henriquez said he plans to kick off his campaign in mid-June. Lawton formally launched his campaign in March.

Henriquez, whose mother Sandra ran the Boston Housing Authority before joining the Obama administration, said he will be fundraising through the “grassroots,” similar to how President Barack Obama and Gov. Deval Patrick raised money for their respective campaigns. “We’re talking about getting a little bit from a lot of people,” he said.

John Barros, a Boston School Committee member who has worked with Henriquez at DSNI, is among those backing his candidacy. Barros was briefly and unsuccessfully courted to run for the seat himself.

For both Henriquez and Lawton, there will also the Garrison factor. “She waits for the top candidates to stumble and she is the one who stands to benefit,” noted one Fifth Suffolk observer.

Garrison held the Fifth Suffolk seat for one term as a Republican, after challenging the nomination signatures of former state Rep. Nelson Merced and pulling him off the Democratic ballot in 1992. (She also unsuccessfully challenged Henriquez’s signatures when both ran against Turner last year.)

Garrison refused to answer questions from the Reporter about her candidacy over the phone, citing a distrust of the media and demanding that questions be faxed to her. She faxed back her responses, riddled with spelling and syntax errors, and questioned whether Lawton still lived in the district, since his Mount Ida Road home had been foreclosed on and auctioned off several weeks ago.

Lawton confirmed that occurred, but said it is part of an ongoing divorce he is going through and he is in negotiations to repurchase the home. “I still live there and will remain there,” he said, adding that Garrison had been in a similar situation.

The district is familiar with candidates who struggle with personal financial issues: When St. Fleur was picked as Attorney General Thomas Reilly’s gubernatorial running mate in 2006, the Globe reported she was behind on taxes and student loans. She immediately dropped out of that race, but went on to handily win re-election later that year and in 2008.

Garrison wrote that Lawton and Henriquez were “ego tripping” in running for the seat. “I am a study-hand (sic) and fights to improve the conditions of the 5th Suffolk, constantly such as improving the frequency of Bus Route 15, 16, 17 which service mainly 5th Suffolk District residents,” she wrote.

She added: “I have earned the voters support and if I get re-elected to the 5th Suffolk seat I pledge to do great things for the 5th Suffolk District.”

“She’s having an identity crisis,” Lawton shot back, pointing to Garrison running in the past campaigns as a Republican, independent and a Democrat.

For his part, Henriquez welcomed Owens and Garrison to the race. “The more challengers you have, the more people are paying attention,” he said.

Then there is the potential impact of former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, who is facing federal corruption charges, on the race. She has pleaded not guilty and her trial starts this summer.

Both Lawton and Henriquez also have ties to Wilkerson, whom Republicans have touted as a symbol of Beacon Hill problems.

Lawton worked for her as a press secretary several times, and she made an appearance at Lawton’s kick-off at the Philips Old Colony House. Lawton said he considers her a friend, but added that he has criticized her in the past. “Once you’re my friend, I stick with you,” he said.

He added he wasn’t sure what the outcome of the trial will be. He hopes “she will be able to come back,” he said.

Henriquez said he and Wilkerson attend the same church – Morningstar Baptist Church in Mattapan.

He largely shied away from criticizing Turner last year over similar federal corruption charges. Turner has also pleaded not guilty and his trial is scheduled to start in October.

“They’re due their day in court,” Henriquez said. “I look at her as a human being first. Everybody has some trials and tribulations.”

Copyright 2010, Boston Neighborhood News, Inc.