By George P. Hassett and James Norton

Somerville now has three newspapers. Last week, The Powderhouse —- a “regular journal” covering West Somerville —- debuted with its first issue. The paper was eight pages, printed in black and white and gave prominent advertising and editorial space to progressive democrats running for city office.

The Powderhouse is owned and edited by Neil W. McCabe and funded, in part, by former lieutenant governor Thomas P. O’Neill III. O’Neill said he is one of three investors in the paper. In its first issue, the paper’s name is alternately spelled as one word and two. In an advertisement it is two words but at the top of its pages it is one. The West Somerville boulevard and square the paper shares its name with is spelled as Powder House.

McCabe was the editor of The Somerville News off and on from 2002 until 2005. He returned to the News for seven weeks in 2007 but was not the editor by March. He also owns and edits The Alewife, a monthly publication covering North Cambridge.

McCabe said the Powderhouse will be similar to the Alewife in style and voice. Reporters at the paper are not allowed to make first person analysis, observation or narrative but instead must rely heavily on attribution, he said. He said the market is ripe for a neighborhood journal like the Powderhouse.

“I think there is a niche there. The Somerville News and The Somerville Journal do a great job covering the entire city. We’re a neighborhood paper, it is like nano-journalism,” he said.

With The Alewife, McCabe attracted attention for his right wing endorsements and sparring with his competitor, The  Cambridge Chronicle. The two papers dueled endlessly on-line and in print over McCabe‚Äôs traffic arrest and The Alewife‚Äôs favorable coverage of Mayor Ken Reeves.

In the November 2006 edition of The Alewife, McCabe sparked a mutiny among the paper’s staff when he endorsed a slate of Republicans, compared stem-cell research to the work of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele and claimed pro-choice candidate Kerry Healey was just as willing to “kill babies” as her opponent Deval Patrick. The endorsements were written with the pronoun “we” but Alewife writers and reporters said they were never included in the discussion and vehemently disagreed with the choices and wording. Alewife columnist Roger Nicholson charged that McCabe used the monthly paper to push the agenda of the Republican Party and the Roman Catholic Church.

O’Neil, who describes himself as “a proud and lifelong” Democrat and served as lieutenant governor from 1975 to 1983, said McCabe’s conservative politics do not bother him.

“Neil’s politics do not have anything to do with the paper,” he said.

In the first edition of The Powderhouse, there is nothing in the advertisement or editorial sections indicating McCabe’s rabid Republican values. In fact, much space is given to candidates and office holders who belong to the decidedly liberal Progressive Democrats of Somerville (PDS). Ward 6 Alderman Rebekah Gewirtz, co-founder of PDS, has a large space on the front page congratulating the eight page newspaper on a “great publication.” And Rachel Heller, who is challenging Ward 7 Alderman Robert C. Trane and supported by PDS, is featured on page 2 with a long article in which she lays out her future plans, if elected. She also has an advertisement on page 3 touting her candidacy.

When asked why there was so much coverage of progressive democrats in the first issue of The Powderhouse, McCabe said, “Why are there so many progressives in West Somerville? If you run a paper in Japan, you have to cover the Japanese. If you run a paper in West Somerville, it is hard not to include progressives,” he said.

Nine months after his “Mengele” comments on stem cell research, McCabe got more attention when he landed on page 2 of his cross town rival, The Cambridge Chronicle, for his Aug. 20 arrest at 1:40 a.m. for being a habitual traffic offender. The Chronicle, which McCabe had criticized and challenged in print and on-line, wrote a 587-word piece on the arrest and called The Alewife “a neighborhood newsletter.” In the article’s closing sentences reporter Erin Smith wrote that McCabe had made The Alewife “a forum for criticism of the Cambridge Chronicle with much of its editorial material built around critiques of the news stories found in the Chronicle each week and attacks on the Chronicle staff.”

On their blog, Chronicle staff also attacked The Alewife as a paper that failed to ask elected officials tough questions and allowed politicians to “spin their way through” entire news stories.

McCabe also found controversy in his time with The Somerville News when, in May 2005 at the city‚Äôs Memorial Day parade, he refused a police officer‚Äôs request to take a sign down from The News‚Äô boat in the event. The sign read, ‚ÄúThis is not Frankie‚Äôs boat‚Äù a reference to Buildings and Grounds Superintendent Frank Santangelo who had recently been disciplined for storing his personal boat on city property. In a News article in which he quoted himself, McCabe said the order came from Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone. He eventually acquiesced to the officer‚Äôs request and took the sign down.