By Jim O'Sullivan

In Dorchester and Mattapan's District Four, where the Yancey and Ezedi campaigns have pitched the tone to an ear-splitting screech of accusations and counters, both sides are pushing, publicly, their desires to bring the race's theme to the record. Yancey touts a litany of new municipal amenities constructed during his 20 years in office, while Ezedi charges that the achievements accrued independently of the councillor's advocacy.

"You're going to get a full-time commitment, not a part-time photo opportunity," Ezedi told the Great Hall crowd at an October 1 forum. "It's not about race, it's about results."

Mary Tuitt, a longtime resident of Four and mother of two teenagers, said she is backing Yancey as a nod to his experience.

"I'd rather support somebody I know has been out there fighting for me and my kids, because you need someone who's been out there," Tuitt said last week during the Great Hall forum.

Friction remains between the two camps over an incident that occurred on the eve of the September 23 preliminary election. A confrontation between Ezedi supporters and Yancey, his daughter, and another young Yancey supporter apparently left Yancey's 16-year-old daughter in tears, and prompting Yancey to charge that Ezedi's backers had "jeopardize[d] lives of young people," an allegation Ezedi has labeled "foolishness."

"I personally accept responsibility for anything that anybody in my campaign may have done," Ezedi told the Reporter last week.

Insiders point to Ezedi's failure to stun the incumbent in the preliminary as a sign that Yancey's support is too entrenched, particularly in Ward 14 - stretching from Quincy St. in the north to Walk Hill in the south, the district's largest - where Yancey tallied 63 percent of the vote, to Ezedi's 35 percent. Across the rest of the district - including Yancey's own precinct, where Ezedi topped him - the numbers were closer, with Yancey netting 54 percent of the overall vote, and Ezedi capturing 44 percent. Ezedi scored in Ward 17, where the highest percentage of eligible voters cast ballots, with an 11-point victory, and in low-voting Ward 15, with a three-point edge. Yancey held a 13-point lead in Mattapan's Ward 18.