Candidates Campaign on Campus

Searching for every vote they can find, candidates for Cambridge City Council and the Cambridge School Committee are sending mass mailings and visiting Harvard to registered to vote in the November 7 city-wide elections.

"I've always gone door-to-door on the Harvard campus," said 12-term incumbent Councillor Francis H. Duehay '55. "This year should be no different."

City Councillor Anthony D. Galluccio held an informal meeting with approximately 20 students at Eliot House last Saturday, where he discussed election issues and held a voter registration drive.

"If we can pick up a dozen votes, it's worth it," Galluccio said. "Meeting personally with students gives them an incentive to vote."

Galluccio said he is also using student labor to disseminate information on campus.

Wayne Marshall '98, an Eliot House resident who lives in Cambridge, will be distributing leaflets and information packets to registered voters, he said.

Council candidate Jonathon D. Spampinato, 26, expects to mail 3000 campaign brochures to newly-registered voters--including 300 Harvard undergraduate and graduate students--sometime next week, according to campaign chair Michael T. Duffy.

"As a recent college graduate from Northeastern University, Jonathon can identify with the concerns of college students," Duffy said.

One problem for candidates is that students' addresses change every year and many fail to report the changes to election officials, making it difficult to locate voters.

"I would love to do more at Harvard, but it's tough to find where students are," council candidate Marty Connor said.

In addition to courting individual students, some council hopefuls are turning to similarly-minded political groups for help in getting their message to students.

The Harvard-Radcliffe Republican Alliance has invited some contenders to speak at Harvard and has pledged to provide volunteer labor to their campaigns.

"[We] will be helping Cambridge City Council candidate Jonathon Spampinato in his quest for a seat," said William D. Zerhouni '98, vice-president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Republican Alliance. "We'd like to help Republican candidates get elected across Massachusetts."

Other candidates are communicating specifically concentrating on issues which directly affect Harvard University.

Efforts by Harvard to acquire property in Cambridge, and thereby remove the land from city property tax rolls, has been a continual topic of debate among politicians.

Since the abolishment of rent control, a 25-year ordinance which observers say hampered Harvard's efforts to purchase property, the University has drawn fire for its recent proposal to convert some 600 apartment units owned by Harvard into student-affiliated housing.

Several candidates are concerned that the new development would lead to a influx of students and a destabilization of traditional neighborhoods within the city.

"Over half of Cambridge is in private hands, and to increase that...leaves us in a situation where there is less and less room for residents," council candidate Lester P. Lee Jr. said.

Campaign officials for candidate Spampinato said he will be focusing on securing increased police presence in Harvard Square and fighting proposed federal cuts in student financial aid.

Harvard students are joined by some 40,000 Cantabrigians on the voters' list. Students interested in voting must register no later than Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.

"Traditionally, there has not been a high turnout among Harvard students," said Cambridge Election Commission Executive Director Joseph H. Kaplan. "Hopefully this year will be different."