Bay Windows - Local News, September 23, 1999
Scott A. Giordano, Bay Windows staff

Richard Freedman ù who is aligned with a conservative Newton-based group called Stand Up Newton ù received 237 votes compared with 1,217 votes for his November opponent, Nancy Levine. The two candidates both defeated candidate Aaron M. Plitt, who received 91 votes and had unofficially dropped out of the race.

The Sept. 14 election was meant to weave down the three candidates to only two winners who will face each other in the November general election. Ward 4 incumbent Richard Alfred is not running for re-election.

Newton resident and lesbian activist Holly Gunner said she was astonished and pleased to learn that Levine received such a strong showing. She is among those who have endorsed Levine in the race.

"Nancy Levine is great. She has spent many years working in the public schools, and she is a teacher herself at the college level. And she has been very active as a parent representative on the PTA councils, and she has been on PTA boards," Gunner said. "I am interested by the fact that Nancy Levine did even better than two incumbents in the other wards that had run-off elections [Wards 7 and 8].

"The other thing I think is interesting is since Richard Freedman is closely associated with Stand Up Newton and Brian Camenker, it's likely that that group did their best to get the vote out for him. I think the number of votes he got roughly tells us the most votes they can get out, which is unbelievably low. Richard Freedman's showing is really very, very poor," Gunner added.

"Clearly, I have to get a bigger drive going. I wasn't really unleashing all of my efforts for the preliminary election because the third candidate had officially withdrawn, so I wanted to stir up my supporters for November," Freedman responded.

Contradictory statements

Gay activists suspect Freedman may be an anti-gay candidate because of his strong opposition to Newton's proposed domestic-partnership measure last year when it was debated by the Newton Board of Alderman. Also, several of his public statements to Bay Windows conflict with his written responses to similar questions posed by the Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance of Massachusetts when he unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Massachusetts state House of Representatives last fall.

For instance, Freedman told Bay Windows that he supports the establishment and state funding of gay/straight student alliances (GSAs) as long as other student groups receive similar support, and he also supports condom distribution and sex education that includes talk of HIV/AIDS in the Newton Public Schools. But in the Alliance questionnaire, he said he doesn't support condom distribution in public schools and he was not sure whether he supports GSAs but he "would not support programs that promote thought control, or that require students to repudiate their religious beliefs."

Freedman told Bay Windows last week that his views have evolved since he left the Republican Party and became a Libertarian.

"I don't like the idea about [condoms] being given out freely and I don't like the idea of classes demonstrating how to use them because that is too much encouragement of that use. But I think you ought to be able to go the health department and ask for those," he said.

Just last month, Freedman provided Bay Windows with a prepared "Position Statement on Gay Rights," in which he even expresses support for the right of same-sex couples to marry.

"I am a Libertarian. I am neither a Republican nor a conservative. ... I therefore support a limited government, a government that does not have the power to restrict freedom of choice," Freedman says in his statement. "My position on freedom of choice extends to all areas of personal life, including ... the individual's right to choose a life partner according to one's own preferences; the individual's right to choose how and whom he or she will marry ... the right NOT to be discriminated against because one's particular lifestyle does not fall within arbitrary standards set by the government."

Yet Freedman answered "NO,' when asked by the Alliance last fall whether he would "support legislation that would extend the right of civil marriages to same-gender couples who are in committed relationships?" Freedman told Bay Windows last week that the issue of civil marriage and religious marriage are different, and that he thinks churches that choose to recognize same-sex marriages should be able to do so, but the government should not recognize them because it should have no business in regulating marriages of any kind.

Yet, that very response contradicts his response to another question last fall. When asked last fall whether he would "oppose legislation which would prohibit same-gender civil marriages in Massachusetts," Freedman responded "NO."

When Bay Windows asked him that same question last week, Freedman replied, "It is not a clear-cut issue." When further questioned about why he would consider supporting the government's right to prohibit anyone from being married if he didn't believe the government should regulate marriages, he would only say the matter required further thought and more discussion.

Freedman said he is not seeking any endorsements in his School Committee race.

"I prefer to win over voters by explaining to them why I am a better candidate," he said. .

In Ward 7, Verne Vance will face Jeffrey Lewis in November, and Anne Swingle Borg will face Thomas A. Grossman for the Ward 8 seat. None of those candidates raised any red flags for Newton gay activists.t
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