Democrat Peter Kocot and Green party
candidate Michael Aleo, both of Northampton, for the second time
this year are the contestants in the 1st Hampshire state
representative district.
Kocot won the 1st Hampshire House seat in a
special election April 9 by a 62 percent to 38 percent margin over
Aleo.
The
two are once again on Tuesday's ballot in Northampton, Hatfield,
Southampton, Westhampton, and Montgomery.
Kocot, 46, was the longtime aide to former
Rep. William P. Nagle Jr. Nagle, who had served the district for
more than 26 years.
During his six months in office, Kocot has
been an advocate for the 1st Hampshire District and an outspoken
opponent of the way rank-and-file legislators are often left out of
the decision-making process on Beacon Hill.
Aleo, 29, has continued to be a visible
presence in the district and is one of fewer than 10 legislative
candidates statewide to have qualified for Clean Elections funding.
Kocot tried to qualify for the public funding system by collecting
200 or more contributions of between $5 and $100, but not all of the
paperwork was filled out correctly and he was disqualified.
Aleo
said having more than $16,000 in Clean Elections funding to campaign
with has been one of the biggest differences between this campaign
and his campaign in the special election. The first time around, he
had only $6,500 to spend compared to Kocot's $24,000.
"The
Clean Elections funding allows my campaign to do more in terms of
getting the word out. We'll run a few (newspaper) ads; we've had an
easier time printing flyers," Aleo said.
And
this time, Aleo said, "People know my name, which is really, really
important."
But
perhaps the biggest differencea between this election and the April
election, Aleo said, are that "a war is brewing and there is a
governor's race and serious ballot questions."
Like
Aleo, Kocot has been campaigning against ballot Questions 1 and 2,
which would eliminate the personal income tax and bilingual
education, respectively.
Unlike most incumbent state legislators,
Kocot has also campaigned for Question 3, which asks voters whether
they approve of spending taxpayers' money on campaigns.
Aleo
and Kocot met with failed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Warren
Tolman - the only one to have qualified for Clean Elections - at a
rally in Northampton Wednesday.
Kocot and Aleo also have joined in supporting
Question 5 in the 1st Hampshire District, which asks voters whether
they support the electoral reform known as instant runoff, or
preferential voting.
The
two candidates are in agreement on almost every issue facing the
district and the state, in fact. Both are for gay marriage and
against the death penalty. Both consider increasing affordable
housing and strengthening the state's social services safety nets as
priorities.
In
recent weeks, Kocot and Aleo, who are both opposed to a pre-emptive,
unilateral war on Iraq, also got together for breakfast to discuss
ways of publicizing the high cost such a war would have in the
district.
Aleo
maintains, however, that the Legislature needs Green Party members
to push Democrats to adopt more progressive laws. The two most
immediate reforms he would like to see are full funding of Clean
Elections and the adoption of instant runoff voting. "Without a
progressive third party in the Legislature, we're never going to see
true reform," he said.
But,
Aleo added, "I do think it's a victory when we have progressive
legislators like Peter. It also creates a circumstance in this
election where you have a no lose-no lose situation."
