Unsigned Condo Leaflet Attacks CCA

An anonymous leaflet accusing members of the city council of conducting a "reign of terror" in their efforts to slow condominium conversion in the city has been distributed to many Cambridge condominium owners in recent days, local politicians said yesterday.

The leaflet, which urges condominium owners to register to vote "in order to protect your basic rights" mentions one city councilor--David Sullivan--by name, and attacks as well the other members of the liberal Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) slate, claiming they have set up "investigation squads...in a witch hunt-like attempt to search out 'illegal homeowners.'"

CCA president Dean Johnson said last night that the organization would mail a leaflet of its own to all city condo owners before the election, stressing that it "feels a very strong commitment to all residents of the city, and that includes condo owners."

Johnson added that CCA officials had been meeting with representives of condo owners, and said he thought the "bulk of condo owners would be CCA voters."

The attacks made in the leaflet center on the controversial ordinance restricting condominium conversion which was drafted by Sullivan more than two years ago. Similar anonymous leaflets have appeared several times in the past few months, including one that accused Sullivan of misogyny.

Less than a month remains before the election, and candidates on both sides of the condominium issue said yesterday the anonymous leaflet might affect their campaigns.

Mary Allen Wilkes, who has billed herself as the "condo candidate" in the race, "will have to spend a lot of energy trying to tell people that she was not responsible" for the leaflet, a campaign worker, Wesley Clark, said yesterday.

"Mary Allen was amazed and appalled...We tried to put a stop to its anonymity," Clark added. Wilkes' campaign chairman Vince Dixon said "some of the things in there are true, and some seem just a little bit over-done." He added, however, that "any time someone is unwilling to put their name behind something, it's a cause for concern."

Sullivan, singled out for mention in the leaflet, said it was part of a campaign to keep condominium owners--a political constituency that has emerged as potentially important in just the last few years--from voting for the CCA slate.

"I think it might backfire, though," Sullivan said.