Lloyd Smith— For those of you who are tired of all the same stories going on over and over again, in the business of campaigns and politics, and have pretty much resigned to not voting because you don’t feel there is anything that includes you out there, I’m happy to introduce somebody who can make a big change to that experience for you. Not only do you have somebody representing you, but also somebody you can come out and work for, to see that her campaign is a success.

Carolina Johnson— I got very involved in politics right away after coming to Cambridge. I got involved in the Ralph Nader campaign for President in 2000, not so much because of Ralph Nader or his campaign, but because of the response to that campaign. Seeing and protesting against his exclusion from the corporate debates was a process of seeing how the corporate media, the corporate political parties operated, and how [they] pretty much terrified most people in the streets against hearing a third party, an outside voice.

That told me that I had to do something, that was a fight that had to be fought.… to break out of a two-party system that’s stagnating and going backward actually. There’s regression in American politics right now, going back to a politics of fear, of government control, of less social justice, tax structures that are increasingly less fair, an economic system where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and the middle ground is just disappearing….

So… the place to be politically is in the Green Party, the Green-Rainbow Party in Massachusetts.

The 25th Middlesex is considered a progressive, left district. In some precincts Ralph Nader got higher than Bush in the election of 2000. There is an appetite for change, an acknowledgment that something needs to change, that the District is in a point of crisis right now.

The center of Cambridge is being eroded. You’re having families being forced out of homes that they have been living in, people who can no longer live in Cambridge who have been working here for years.

We’re seeing an established government with an aversion to actually dealing with these issues, that doesn’t want to engage these critical points that are shaping people’s lives.

When I was approached by the Green-Rainbow Party last spring, I was thinking, "Who me run for office? But, I’m only graduating college this year, you don’t want to see someone only 21 years old running." Then I realized … [I’m] young and optimistic, not bogged down with a set of petty conflicts, and pessimism, experiences you have with things not working out, more commitments you get to other people in your life.

Lloyd— As I opened up tonight, about the feeling that there’s no choice, same old menu. You seem to present a change, something that is outside the power structure, not under the control of the inner club, depending on the power structure for its success, but rather on being able to reach people at home.

Carolina— The focus of the campaign hasn’t been on fund-raisers, media coverage, or putting out expensive magazines and brochures. What it’s been about is going out and trying to meet as many people as possible. It’s been a hard campaign…. My campaign manager and I are not independently wealthy. We’re both trying to work full-time or near full-time jobs. The campaign is an intense process. What it’s been is knocking on doors, saying hi and meeting voters face-to-face.

My opponent hasn’t had a contested election since 1998. She hasn’t done the kind of outreach that voters deserve. The voters deserve a representative who’s willing to go out and listen to their problems and talk to them. The response, I’m happy to say, has been overwhelmingly positive.

Lloyd— What are some of the things that are on voters’ minds, that they talk about? What message have you been giving them, and what’s been their response?

Carolina— I’ve been focusing on reaching out to people who aren’t being served by establishment politicians, and on people who would be new voters.… People admit they don’t know who their representatives or districts are and what their reps have been voting for. They ask, could I tell them what’s going on?

So a lot of it’s been working on registering people and educating people on the street, and also on educating people about the history of the district. With the redistricting that happened before the 2002 election, there are several precincts that have only just recently come into the district. They don’t know who their representative is. They just know that they’ve just checked off a box for an unopposed candidate in 2002.

A critical issue has been the housing crisis in Cambridge, especially since rent control was abolished. That’s become a primary issue of my campaign. How can we make it so that people can continue to live in their communities, that they have worked in, and have a history in, without being forced out to make way for an entirely different population without the same connections to the city?

One of the Green-Rainbow Party’s primary objectives is sustainable community development and fostering local business and local economy and making sure that people have a chance to live in their own communities.

Public transportation has been important in my campaign, not only because it’s good to have, but also because the Green-Rainbow Party and myself are committed to the concept of ecological wisdom, respect for our environment, that decisions today have to account for the future of the earth.

Right now, public transportation on the T, the subway, is only running until around midnight. 12:30 is the last train. That means everybody who wants to go out on a weekend or on a weekday night, later than that, doesn’t have a way to get back. Nightowl buses are less safe. And they raise the prices.

People who work late hours, and who can’t afford to live in the district where they work, have to commute in and out late. A waitress gets out of work late, say 12:30-1:00 am, and after standing on her feet for 10 hours, she’s not going to walk home when it’s dangerous. A cab costs $30, that’s no good. What are your options?

This ties into the issue of safety in the district. Women in particular…. Walking around Harvard Square all the time I was very aware of the assaults against women in the area. Cambridge put in a few more emergency call boxes. Pranksters [are always] pushing the buttons.… No one has made it a political issue in the state, that such a large chunk of the population can’t even feel comfortable walking after dark. My representatives haven’t been talking about that.

People shouldn’t have to go and say, I’m not feel safe, what can you do about it. I’m looking to… organizations like the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center to try to find out who has been saying something about this, how little anyone’s put any energy into it.

Lloyd— This is more of a political football that’s being used to appeal to people’s emotions, and to manipulate people in a way that brings political advantage, rather than dealing with the whole human aspect of it.

Carolina— One of the main focuses of my campaign has been this idea of being part of a movement. Our goal is to win office… but you have to be getting more out of the election than just a ‘yes or no’ on the ballot line. I am trying to build the strength of the Green-Rainbow Party in the district and in the state.

I’m very clear on this. This is the Green Rainbow Party doing this, I am a Green-Rainbow candidate, and this is the party you all want to be a part of.

My personal incentive to be in this race is because Massachusetts is a one-party state right now. Cambridge specifically is a one-party city, and that’s the problem. It’s a one-party state and city, yet so little meaningful gets done to improve people’s lives.

You have the Massachusetts Legislature which complains they can’t get anything done since they have a Republican governor. That’s a joke. He can say things that are silly and things that are smart, but it doesn’t have much of an impact on… the legislation that’s passed. The Legislature has an overwhelming majority of Democrats, enough— as we do see occasionally when Romney tries to push something through on his own— to override any veto, and to do whatever they want. Yet we see very little happening. We see a Legislature which, in large part because of a party leadership structure that is deeply flawed and deeply undemocratic, isn’t even able to get a budget passed until right before the deadline. The members don’t see the budget that they are going to be debating until a day before the deadline. That’s unacceptable.

It’s not the individual representatives except for a few cases…. Most of them are good people who want to make a difference. I think my opponent is a very good person who wants to make a difference but… doesn’t realize that placing your stock in that of the dominant established party is not the way to do it. All you get is a status quo that keeps itself safe, that does just enough to keep people from being too angry….

If I can’t get into the State House—which I dearly would like to do, this is not a token race—I’d like to be able to engage my opponent in a few debates as to these questions. As a third party candidate, for example, instant run-off voting is very important for me. [I would ask her]— Why haven’t you pushed harder for these things to happen?