A Slate of Reformers

An old political tradition holds that the reformers can never reconcile their ideological differences or their moralistic fervor to form a practical and electable political coalition. Cambridge Convention '77, a slate of progressives committed to support a platform of specific reforms, would like to prove the skeptics wrong.

In the 1975 elections for the Cambridge City Council, the reformers fell short of a progressive majority by one councilor, partly because of some internal disagreement over Convention positions.

This year, if a spirited voter registration drive produces a large turnout and if the reformers' assurances of a united and cooperative Convention slate hold true, their goal of a council majority may be realized.

Cambridge's unusual voting system reinforces the need for a unified slate. Under proportional representation (P.R.), the voters rank all candidates in order of preference to prevent a majority from controlling all the seats. The votes are tabulated according to number one choices, with the result that any sizeable group may elect a representative. An organized slate of candidates is a good strategy under P.R. because the slate can pick up transfer votes--lower choices of a voter whose first choice candidate has already been elected or eliminated.

CC '77 is running eight candidates reflecting Cambridge's diversity: the slate contains an equal number of men and women, ages ranging from 25 to 73, and covering a wide spectrum of racial and social backgrounds.

The core of the Convention is a basic 15-point program that all candidates have pledged to support, centering on the issues of housing, professional city management, human services, civil rights, and increased citizen participation in city government.

Cambridge Convention incumbents and candidates all have histories of advocacy for these issues. The reformers, although they have not had a majority except from 1968 to 1973, claim credit for organizing coalitions within the city council that instituted a number of progressive reforms, including rent control. The reformers also claim responsibility for hiring City Manager James L. Sullivan, who has reduced the tax rate for three years running despite the lower tax base caused by rent control. Progressives also say they have reduced patronage jobs and hired professional administrators, as well as providing opportunities for citizen input in government.

Whatever the accomplishments of Cambridge reformers, the Convention's critics reject the whole idea of a slate. David Clem, independent candidate for city council, said last week the platform "locks the candidates into positions" without enabling them to respond to new evidence bearing on the issues. Clem, who ran with the CC '75 slate, says he wants to "maintain integrity and flexibility, and avoid restricting the city council into knee-jerk reactions."

City Councilor Walter J. Sullivan, Independent incumbent echoes the charges. He said last week of the slate: "These people are controlled, and should be acting on their own consciences."

Sullivan also derided the Convention efforts to eliminate patronage, calling it a political reality. He added that patronage appointees are not by definition unqualified.

Criticisms from political opponents aside, most Cambridge Convention candidates admit the anomaly of running a slate in which each member is at the same time fighting to get the number one vote for himself and to differentiate himself from the other slate members who support identical issues.

David Sullivan, a Law School graduate running for city council on the slate, said "the system is bad in that sense--it creates an incentive to find minor points of difference and then blow them up." Sullivan, as well as the other convention candidates, insists that although the tensions exist, the Convention unity can withstand them. Every Convention candidate interviewed said that he or she can work with any candidate on the slate.

One of the ties binding the Convention candidates together is their common position on general housing policy--rent control, the halting of condominium conversion and of vacancy decontrol. The reformers believe the continuation of rent control will help to preserve the distinct ethnic and social neighborhoods in Cambridge and to protect moderate and lower income residents from rent inflation caused by the desire of more affluent people--some of them Harvard-affiliated--to rent or buy property in Cambridge.

Critics of rent control like Walter J. Sullivan say flatly, "rent control is ruining cour city" by keeping the tax base low. Sullivan said last week the tax rate could be even lower and that rent control hurts landlords while supporting the students and faculty who can afford to pay higher rents.

David Sullivan has proposed alternative ways of lowering the tax rate without abolishing rent control. He supports a long-range effort to institute a city income tax, to persuade the state and federal governments to fund some of the city expenses and to continue the efforts of progressives on the council to increase administrative efficiency.

City Councilor Francis Duehay '55, running for re-election on the slate, said last week he has worked in his position as chairman of the Council Committee on Finance to cut city expenses by abolishing patronage jobs and to introduce professional accounting methods in city budgeting.

City Councilor Barbara Ackerman last week claimed partial responsibility for initiating rent control. As chairman of the council's Committee on Rent Control, she is supervising a report on rent control and its effects that will appear sometime next year.

Louis Solano '24 said last week he began agitating to stop condominium conversion when he received an eviction notice. Under condominium conversion, tenants receive the choice of buying their apartment as a condominium at extremely high prices or vacating the apartment to make way for more affluent tenants. Solano says he discovered tenants had the right of appeal, and the complex appeal process can halt conversion for at least a year.

City Councilor Saundra Graham has also supported rent control, but said last week that she has concentrated her efforts on working for down-zoning to stop "the encroaching high rise developments into neighborhoods" as well as on neighborhood rehabilitation programs. All the other Convention candidates also have strong records of community advocacy for rent control.

In addition to strong support for rent control, the candidates have developed other special areas of concern.