How To Lose a City Council Race Once, but Probably Not Twice

The dreams of James M. McGovern Jr. '64 point upward--perhaps to Congress, perhaps to statewide office. But the ladder of ascending political ambition is a steep one, and McGovern has resolved to climb every rung, not hop, skip, and jump with the danger of dropping painfully to the bottom. His race three weeks ago for the Cambridge City Council was a losing one because he wasn't elected. But the 22-year-old candidate did not expect to win, and the events of the campaign did nothing to discourage his dreams.

In fact, McGovern's performance in the Council election surpassed most observers' expectations. He finished 12th in the race for nine seats, campaigned aggressively and, equally important, paid attention to details. For those as serious as McGovern, politics is almost a second profession (the first is teaching in a Newton junior high school), and he has already begun his 1967 Council race.

One of the things he will concentrate on immediately is creating an efficient organization. He didn't have one last time, and its absence hurt badly. A few days before the election, McGovern recalls, he received word that many people whose homes are threatened by the huge Inner Belt highway had informally decided not to vote. This was in an area where he had worked hard and anticipated strong support. "But there was no group of people I could call together and say, 'I've heard that people in your area are going to stay home. Is it true? Let's get something up to get these people out.'" So he was helpless.

Although he had volunteer workers including 40 or 50 relatives), McGovern couldn't depend on a block-by-block, apartment - by - apartment network of supporters. As a result, many important tasks went undone. "We should have had a card file with the name of every voter that had been contracted," he believes. "We should have known his position and been able to watch at the polls. If he didn't vote, we could have called him."

But McGovern found that people weren't eager to get involved. "Given my age, background, and chances of winning, I think you can see why," he says. "Last April no one knew who I was, and when they found out, they usually weren't too interested. But now we're in a different position. I can look back on this election and conclude: I was 22 and didn't have any background. I finished 12th. With a little help, I can get elected next time."

In the meantime he plans to work on some of Cambridge's problems. One he is interested in is juvenile delinquency and the need for youth programs. As his campaign closed, he started forming plans for Neighborhood Youth Centers throughout the City. The Centers may get teen-agers off the street by giving them a place to go at night and on weekends.

What McGovern envisions is using an empty storefront (or anything else available) for a pilot project. To be successful, he says, "you've got to have people with you in the area . . . You just don't put up a sign and say "Come and get it.'" He would like to have committees of both parents and teen-agers working with him, and his appointment to the City's advisory council on youth may provide the leverage to put his plans into effect.

Until he was a high-school senior, McGovern never dreamed of attending Harvard. But by going to the University and then accepting the endorsement of the Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) he inherited much of the historical anti-University sentiment in the City, and it was an important factor in the way he ran his campaign.

Although he stressed healing the town-gown split in the City's weal-thier sections, he played it down elsewhere. "I was caught in a bind," he explains. "I'm on record as dedicated to breaking down the resentment, but I want to get elected." For both politi- cal and ideological reasons he is unwilling to abandon CCA endorsement, yet friends say it hurt him significantly in the traditionally non-CCA areas in which he grew up or has strong ties. "No one was willing to tell me this before the election," he muses.

To help erase his identification with University power and affluence, McGovern is committed to a lot of quiet, personal campaigning in "independent" neighborhoods. He will attend public functions or any private meeting he's invited to. He will talk to anyone who will listen and try to persuade him of his capability and integrity. He tries to demonstrate not only that he is honest, but that he is free to make his own decisions.

As might have been expected, McGovern hasn't always gotten along well with his fellow CCA candidates. One problem is that he threatened to take "number-one" votes away from some of them -- especially from Thomas H. D. Mahoney, who was fighting hard for re-election after only one term on the Council. Even at the beginning of the campaign, Mahoney and McGovern never hit it off personally; by the end, they spoke to each other, but little more.

In a way, the CCA needs Jim McGovern, for CCA-endorsed Mayor Edward A. Crane '35 won't be around forever. Active in Cambridge politics for nearly three decades, the son of a policeman, Crane grew up in the City and attended Harvard; like McGovern, he draws strength from the duality of his background. When he leaves the Council, the CCA will have no one there with a broad base of support. McGovern has the history and the talent to replace Crane, and could have the chance to do so. But once he gains the first rung of the political ladder, it may be hard to stop Jim McGovern from going on to higher things