Cariglia chides rival's `outsider' backers; O'Day defends campaign tactics.

Byline: Richard Nangle

Joseph Cariglia yesterday charged his Democratic legislative opponent, James O'Day, with importing out-of-district supporters who were promising voters free tuition benefits for undocumented students.

Mr. Cariglia criticized the campaigners with the grass-roots political organization Neighbor to Neighbor, saying they used Spanish interpreters to promise voters that if Mr. O'Day was elected to the 14th Worcester District seat the work requirement for welfare benefits would be eased.

Mr. O'Day credited Neighbor to Neighbor with playing a major role in his primary victory last month, in which he bested three opponents from Worcester.

"They bused in hundreds of nontraditional low-income voters to Great Brook Valley and Lincoln Village, and O'Day got 90 percent of the vote," Mr. Cariglia said.

Mr. Cariglia, 43, said he was motivated to speak out after reading a story in yesterday's Telegram & Gazette about the fact that he has not cast a vote in an election in several years. He said the story downplayed his longtime ties to the district, where he said he has lived for 22 years, and he wanted to contrast his life and work in the community with what he called Mr. O'Day's alleged use of campaigners from outside the district.

Neighbor to Neighbor's Worcester organizing director, Allison Kennedy, said canvassing on behalf of the O'Day campaign was done by about 50 local members of the group.

"We are a local grass-roots organization," Ms. Kennedy said. "We've been here for nearly 10 years and our office is downtown across from City Hall. We have over 2,000 members here. So we're a local organization."

She said Mr. Cariglia's charges about tuition and welfare requirements mischaracterize the legislation that the group is supporting. Mr. O'Day agreed, saying Mr. Cariglia must be misinformed.

"The pending legislation is not about giving free tuition to anybody," Ms. Kennedy said. "It's about making sure children of undocumented workers get the same rates for in-state tuition that all state residents get."

As for welfare, she said, "we're talking about parents of disabled children and pregnant women in the third trimester that are bound to the work requirement, and that it's nearly impossible for them to meet that standard. We're not talking about people who are able to work."

Neighbor to Neighbor has found, for the most part, that "those are not the issues people are talking about. They're talking about health care and affordable housing and child care and improving our schools and preventing school closings in the future. That's why we're supporting Jim O'Day," Ms. Kennedy said, "because we want a strong voice to represent the people of the 14th District on those issues."

"Neighbor to Neighbor is as local to Worcester as, I guess, Joe Cariglia is," Mr. O'Day said. "I'm happy to go door-to-door with Neighbor to Neighbor. They are all local volunteers from the Neighbor to Neighbor office here in Worcester."

In the primary, Neighbor to Neighbor volunteers scoured Great Brook Valley and helped Mr. O'Day amass 183 votes in Ward 2, Precinct 5, compared to 14 for Worcester District 2 City Councilor Philip P. Palmieri, 10 for Paul J. Shea, and six for Tammy Vescera. In Ward 2, Precinct 4, home to the Lincoln Village complex, Mr. O'Day won 187 votes, compared to 77 for Mr. Palmieri, 52 for Mr. Shea, and eight for Ms. Vescera.

The 14th Worcester District is made up of West Boylston and Ward 2, Precinct 5 of Ward 1, and Precincts 1, 3 and 5 of Ward 3 in Worcester.

Mr. Cariglia, an unenrolled candidate, said voters should know he attended Worcester public schools and graduated from St. John's High School in Shrewsbury in 1981. He received a degree in criminology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

He served as an intern at the Worcester Juvenile Court in 1984 and was employed with the Key program, which counsels and transports troubled youths to and from courts and programs. He is owner and operator of King Real Estate and JC Auto, both of Worcester.

He said he has lived in the district for 22 years.

According to records on file with the city, Mr. Cariglia in January changed his voting address from 31 Elizabeth St., which is in Worcester but not in the 14th District, to 84 West Boylston St., which is in the district.

Mr. Cariglia said he has lived at 84 West Boylston St. since December 2005, and lived at 31 Elizabeth St. for several years before that.

The city of Worcester, which has kept electronic voter registration records since 1996, has no record of Mr. Cariglia as a registered voter.

Mr. O'Day, 52, regional vice president for the Department of Social Services union Local 509, lives in West Boylston and hails from the Greendale section of Worcester. He is co-chairman of the West Boylston Democratic Town Committee and has been involved in various local activities over the years.

Tuesday's special election was called to fill the seat once held by Democrat James B. Leary, who left in November to become chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray.