BOSTON - On the eve of today's primary vote, Citizens for
Limited Taxation, or CLT, launched an advertising campaign in which the group chides several MetroWest lawmakers
for voting to freeze the state's income tax rollback.
In a half-page ad in yesterday's MetroWest Daily News, the
anti-tax group accuses state representatives Deborah Blumer, D-Framingham, Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, and Kay Khan,
D-Newton, of neglecting their constituents by voting for the freeze.
"Do Kay Khan, Karen Spilka, and Deborah Blumer represent
you?" the ad reads. "Or is their lack of respect for their constituents as obvious to you as it is to us?"
CLT also targeted Rep. Maryanne Lewis, D-Dedham, in a
virtually identical ad, which appeared in yesterday's Neponset Valley Daily News.
Lewis, a close ally of House Speaker Thomas Finneran, is
opposed in today's Democratic primary by Dedham Selectman Robert Coughlin.
"She's become a symbol of what's wrong on Beacon Hill,"
[Barbara] Anderson said.
Blumer and Spilka don't face challengers on the primary
ballot, but both will have Libertarian opponents in the November general election.
Khan, for her part, is opposed on the primary ballot by
Zygmunt Choroczy Jr., a Superior Court probation officer. Danny Fain, a Libertarian from Newton, also is running against
Khan.
Khan said she isn't concerned that the ad will cost her
votes.
"By and large, my constituents are progressive and interested in protecting our most
vulnerable citizens," she said. "I'm not a tax-and-spend liberal. We're all in this
together, trying to figure out how to solve the state's fiscal crisis."
Anderson said the group hopes to expand the ad campaign to
other parts of the state leading up to the general election.
Spilka, Blumer and Khan aren't the only House members from the western suburbs who
voted in favor of the freeze, leading Spilka to question why the group's ad didn't target other
MetroWest lawmakers.
"It was certainly eye-catching that it was just the three of
us," she said.
Anderson attributed the oversight to time constraints.
"This was not a well-coordinated plan," she conceded. "It
was a last-minute thing."
Return to top
