On Tuesday, the Charles River Regional Chamber hosted a forum with the two Democrats running in the 10th Middlesex state representative primary—incumbent State Rep. John Lawn and Newton City Councilor Alison Leary, who’s challenging him for that seat—and it was hostile to say the least.

A lot of time was spent talking about housing, which moderator Max Woolf noted was the “number one economic development issue in our region.”

Two years ago, Gov. Maura Healey signed the largest housing bill in the state’s history into law, overriding local zoning ordinances to foster more housing at higher density across the commonwealth. But the state isn’t done yet. The state Senate is set to pass a bill superceding local zoning to allow duplexes to be built statewide, and the House just passed a bill allowing churches and other faith-based organizations to build housing by-right.

Leary has made a name for herself as a housing advocate and, in fact, she spent much of her professional career securing low-income housing for families.

Abundant Housing—a nonprofit group dedicated to promoting more housing and greater variety of it—has endorsed Leary. Lawn called that endorsement “fraudulent.”

Lawn voted for the church housing bill (dubbed the “Yes in God’s Back Yard” bill)

“I do believe we have so many religious institutions that own an enormous amount of property that if it was to develop housing it would provide a lot of relief for our housing,” he said.

But with overriding local zoning, Lawn said he is a little more hesitant.

“I do think we have to be thoughtful that not every neighborhood is the same,” he continued. “With single-family zoning, there’s some areas where it’s appropriate and some areas it’s not. And I think we have to have some local control of where duplexes should be in a single-family zone, where some neighborhoods’ characters could really change.”

Leary supports both pieces of legislation and said the state should actually intervene more to advance housing development.

“I was supportive of the MBTA Communities law and also our own Village Center Overlay Districts that were done in Newton to get a little more density individualized to each village center,” Leary continued.

Six villages were removed from the VCOD in 2023, including Nonantum—which sits in the 10th Middlesex district—after residents threatened to bring a ballot question forward undoing the VCOD entirely the following year, which would have put the city out of compliance with the MBTA Communities Act.

“I do think that every community should have opportunities for multifamily housing and more diverse housing options, and if they’re not doing it, I think the state needs to step in,” she said. She added that while there could be “rare exceptions” to allow single-family-only zoning (thereby not allowing duplexes by-right), she disagrees that duplexes can change a neighborhood’s character.

Lawn said he favors more housing as well, and when asked if he wants to see more multifamily development in Nonantum, Lawn replied with a definitive “absolutely.”

“And if you look at my district in Watertown when I was on the City Council, my district has built more housing than anywhere in the area—thousands of units,” he said.

It’s worth noting that, historically, Nonantum has been home to the greatest concentration of multifamilies in Newton.

“I think sometimes in Newton, everything gets kind of dumped down on Nonantum and I think we need to protect the village area. But there are areas along the Charles River manufacturing areas that are very appropriate for housing.”

Then things got more heated.

Leary called Lawn out for removing his name from a list of officials who supported dense housing in Auburndale, and Lawn replied that his name was on the list mistakenly, as Auburndale is not in his district.

Abundant Housing Massachusetts—a nonprofit that promotes more housing and a greater diversity of it—has endorsed Leary. On Tuesday, Lawn called their endorsement “fraudulent.”

“The people who actually voted on it [the endorsement] are supporting Alison’s campaign and are donating to Alison’s campaign,” Lawn said. “I’ve asked for the names of who actually endorsed and they refused to do it. So I don’t find that to be a very transparent process and I think we probably should publish both of our questionnaires to show my accomplishments in housing versus hers.”

Speaking of transparency, when the two were asked about efficiency and transparency on Beacon Hill, Leary called for making all legislators’ votes public and accused Lawn of hiding some of his.

Leary accused Lawn, who is chair of the Joint Healthcare Financing Committee, of not reporting most of his votes with that committee.

“And once again, he’s in violation of campaign finance laws,” she continued. “He has not filed anything about what he’s spending and who’s contributing to his campaign since March 30. And I understand he can file quarterly, but the deadline was yesterday and there’s still nothing there.”

Lawn insisted that he adheres to campaign finance law and mentioned that Leary had paid for a boat club membership with campaign funds. Leary said that was a mistake and that she reimbursed her campaign committee for the expense.

“So mistakes happen?” Lawn interjected.

“Yes, mistakes happen, but they happen to you a lot,” Leary shot back.

Lawn also  accused Leary of using campaign committee funds to pay for a bill relating to her vehicle, which she denied. Campaign finance filings show an expenditure for an auto shop bill, labeled as an erroneous payment to be reimbursed.

Leary said erroneous payments are from mixing up credit cards.

Later in the forum, Lawn chastised Leary for skipping Nonantum’s Village Day last month, and Leary replied that she had a death in the family.

“You did see me two days ago, at the [Nonantum] festival and at the parade,” Leary said.

“I go to a lot of events and I’m involved in the community. And the people that you are serving in Nonantum,  I know all those people. I work with all those people. They don’t want housing. They don’t want immigrants. Many of them are Republicans.”

Lawn immediately seized on that last comment to call out Leary for the characterization.

“You owe the people of Nonantum an apology,” Lawn said.

“I do not,” Leary replied. “I love the Nonantum people. What I said is they don’t share my values. They don’t share my politics.”

The hour-long forum included talk about small businesses, climate action and more. Check out the full Chamber forum online.