King Caucus

With only five days remaining until the preliminary Boston mayoral election, a group of Harvard students is gearing up to push Black candidate Melvin H. King into the lead.

The Black Students Association (BSA) last night held a special meeting to rally students for a voter mobilization effort in the city's poor and minority neighborhoods.

Harvard volunteers will join King supporters from Boston University. Northeastern, UMass, and other area universities in phoning voters and leafletting 49 Boston precincts, organizers said at the meeting.

"We're expecting to pull 40 students off this campus and as many as 1000 city wide." Cynthia Silva '84, a member of the BSA's Mel King Support Committee, said afterwards.

Voter turnout could be decisive, said King supporter Mark Warren '84, adding that students could make a difference by reaching voters who are less likely to go to the polls.

Along with the BSA, members of the Seymour Society and the Peace Alliance have raised funds and circulated King literature.

Over the summer, a small group of Harvard students also participated in Operation Big Vote a voting registration drive that helped to register between 50,000 and 60,000 new voters including upwards of 25,000 minorities, Warren said.

Other campaign headquarters contacted yesterday, however, reported minimal support from Harvard students.

A spokesman for candidate David I. Finnegan said that the Finnegan campaign hadn't solicited help at Harvard and didn't have a student representative here. The spokesman, Rick Noble, added that he "is very disappointed" that Finnegan has received no student support.

A spokesman for Lawrence S. DiCara '71 also reported no organized Harvard undergraduate support.

"Harvard students certainly haven't stuck out in our campaign," said DiCara press representative Claire O'Hara. "They have not been as supportive as we would have liked."

The two top finishers in Tuesday's voting will face-off in the general elections on November 15.