The summer and fall of last year were busy times for Jass Stewart. In July he got married, and in late September he announced he was running for mayor of Brockton. And that was a relatively quiet stretch for him. Back in 1999, Stewart bought a house, adopted a child, moved to Brockton, and started a multimedia production company there, all within several months.
A tall man with a shaven head, runner's physique, and a laidback charm, Stewart, 33, is the first aspirant to announce his candidacy for this year's mayoral race in the "City of Champions" (birthplace of boxing greats Rocky Marciano and Marvin Hagler). Mayor John Yunits, who has served since 1996, has announced that he will not seek another term, and City Council president James Harrington has said he will run. But if Stewart defies the odds-makers, the Democrat would represent two "firsts": He would be the first African-American mayor in Brockton's history and also its first openly gay mayor. But this may not be easy. Although Brockton's population is approaching 50 percent minority, it has elected one nonwhite public official in its history, and Stewart, his partner, Denzil Paul, and their 12-year-old son, Jajuan Stewart, make up a rare openly gay family in this blue-collar city of 94,000. [...]
| Continue Neil Miller's Boston Globe Magazine article "Change agent" (noticed via an e-mail from Bernard J. Tarver)
posted in articles on February 15, 2005 2:44 PM | t (0)
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