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Swan to face challengers this fall

CHELAN BROWN
By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



NEWS ANALYSIS



SPRINGFIELD Chelan Brown has thrown down a gauntlet to both State Rep. Benjamin Swan and fellow candidate Lorenzo Gaines: she wants a clean campaign.

Brown made the remark last week during her official announcement to start her effort to unseat Swan who has been in office since 1994.

"No more politics as usual," Brown said. "The people are taking back the power."

Brown brought her candidacy literally to Swan's doorstep last week when she conducted a rally on the plaza in the center of Mason Square opposite Swan's office.

Brown told Reminder Publications after her speech she "wouldn't be surprised if there was a dirty campaign."

Her remarks came in the light of several controversies that have already emerged out of the new race. Brown recently charged that someone tampered with her Web site to make it appear as if she had plagiarized material from other sites. Her election Web site has been taken down and so far has not been restored. There have also been conflicts over residency issues for Brown and Gaines said a state ruling is expected by June 20 on whether or not Brown should be on the ballot for the district.

Brown's organization, AWAKE the non-profit group that she helped found which provides programs for youth at risk for violence or gang involvement also came under criticism earlier this year when one of its members, Desi O. Jackson, came to speak to students at Putnam Technical Vocational High School. Jackson is a registered Level Three sex offender and sex offenders are prohibited from all Springfield school property.

As he has in several other election years Swan will be facing a primary challenge from not one but two opponents. Swan's other challenger, high school teacher Lorenzo Gaines, announced his intentions earlier this year.

Gaines is a Springfield native who dropped out of high school, but obtained his GED and then earned degrees from Hampshire College and Columbia University. He has been a member of the Mayor's Violence Prevention Advisory Committee, a delegate to the 2007/08 Massachusetts Democratic State Convention and a member of the Black Men of Greater Springfield and the Upper Hill Neighborhood Council.

Gaines was recognized for projecting a positive image to youth as a member of the Key Players Project in 2007.

Gaines ran for City Council in 1997 and 2007.

About 50 supporters gathered to hear Brown speak. Hispanic community activist Gumersindo Gomez and former School Committee member Robert McCollum introduced her. Gomez charged the 11th Hampden District is 50 percent Hispanic, but those residents believe that State Rep. Cheryl Coakley Rivera represents them, not Swan.

"No one is representing the district and it needs to change, " Gomez said. He added he had decided to retire from political activism, but wanted to help Brown become elected.

McCollum, who has been involved in city politics for years, said he has intended to remain neutral, but that leadership "in this community has remained in neutral for too long."

Brown received considerable attention when she ran for mayor at age 18 in 1995, becoming the youngest candidate in the city's history. She became well known as well as a teen-age activist when Benjamin Schoolfield was shot by a Springfield police officer in 1994.

Brown said last week that she has been told, "it wasn't your time" to run for the state rep seat. She disagreed.

She described the district as being once a "thriving and safe place to live."

"It's fair to say the district is in bad shape," she added. "Enough is enough. We want change now and not later."

Describing herself as "a fighter," she said she "has a proven history of getting things done." She cited the lack of state funding to the New England Black Chamber of Commerce and the loss of a full service library in Mason Square as two of the problems she would work to rectify.