In Race for Boston Mayor, Former Addicts Back Candidate With a Past BOSTON - Tom White, who says he used to swig two six-packs of beer while driving home from work, has been sober for 25 years. Now, his Toyota Corolla has a vanity plate that reads "ONEDAY," a reference to the Alcoholics Anonymous slogan "one day at a time." On the rear windshield is a sticker for Martin J. Walsh, a candidate for mayor of Boston. Many people in recovery stay anonymous and protect the anonymity of others, and A.A. itself does not get involved in politics. But here, a candidate for the city's highest office is himself a recovering alcoholic. This has moved many former addicts - drinkers and drug users - to step out from the shadows and publicly support Mr. Walsh, 46, a state representative who still attends A.A. meetings after 18 years of sobriety. Some, like Mr. White, 61, have no formal connection with the campaign but promote Mr. Walsh through vehicle adornments and casual conversation. Others canvass door to door. Still others work on the campaign staff: one is a regional field director; another is policy coordinator. And some do nothing publicly, but privately they have given Mr. Walsh their medallions, the tokens that mark when they stopped drinking or using drugs. He keeps them in his pocket for good luck and says he will return them after the Nov. 5 election. "They gave them to me out of a sense of pride, a sense of accomplishment for the struggles we've all been through," Mr. Walsh said in an interview. Mr. Walsh finished first in a field of 12 candidates in the preliminary election in September and is now in a neck-and-neck runoff against John R. Connolly, 40, a city councilman, in the first competitive mayor's race here in three decades. The two men, both Irish Catholics and progressive Democrats, have few policy differences. Both support charter schools, want to increase public safety in underserved neighborhoods and increase diversity in the Police Department. Mr. Connolly, a former teacher, has made education the centerpiece of his campaign and casts Mr. Walsh, a longtime labor leader, as beholden to unions; Mr. Walsh emphasizes his blue-collar background and suggests that Mr. Connolly, who comes from a prominent political family and has worked as a corporate lawyer, is out of touch. Each is looking for anything that might provide an edge. The Connolly campaign, which won the endorsement of The Boston Herald on Tuesday, notes that among the groups it has organized are mothers of public school students. Of the former addicts working for Mr. Walsh, Mr. Connolly said, "Marty Walsh has done great work for many people in the recovery community, and I'm glad that he has been able to engage them in this important campaign for Boston's future." Mr. Walsh knows that his past alcoholism could hurt him with some voters, but he shrugged when asked if the support of former drinkers and drug users could help. The value of their support, he said, is personal, not political. "They give me the emotional strength to keep moving," he said. Politicians with addiction problems tend not to acknowledge them. One who did was former President George W. Bush, who gave up drinking on his 40th birthday, well before he entered politics. Mr. Walsh does not usually raise the subject on the campaign trail but responds when asked about it, usually in terms of being grateful for second chances. But he also speaks of driving drunk and blacking out, of showing up late, or not at all. "My drinking went from good to bad to ugly," he said in the interview, seated in the back of Old South Church after a campaign event. I was thrown out of a Bruins game, passed out at a bar. There was just guilt and shame and constant disappointment. Eventually, he got into detox and turned his life around, and now he helps others whenever he can, even as he campaigns. He keeps tabs on addicts to see if they are ready to accept help, knowing that he cannot force people into treatment if they are not ready. But what is especially unusual about his story is how his candidacy has motivated others in the wide universe of recovery to shed their anonymity to support him.