Candidates Gather Final Election Support

At 7:45 a.m. yesterday morning, the sidewalks and median strips on the edge of Harvard Square were the hot places for City Council candidates to be.

One day before the election, incumbent Kathleen L. Born had set up shop by the Church Street T stop and was handing out leaflets to Cantabrigians on their way to work. Candidate David P. Maher was standing with a bright blue campaign sign amidst a sea of supporters on the median strip near the corner of Garden Street and Mass. Ave. Nearby was incumbent Anthony D. Galluccio, cheerily waving and yelling "How are ya?" to people in cars as they passed by.

"Anthony's probably the only one who puts himself into the traffic," joked Amy S. Smith, one of his volunteers.

Campaigning early in the morning at this prime spot is a pre-election tradition, according to Smith.

Maher said this type of visibility showed voters the candidates were working hard.

"This is a wonderful way to show people that you're working," Maher said.

This morning's gathering is only one of many ways candidates are trying to win voters at the last minute. Under Cambridge's proportional representation voting system, candidates fight for number one votes to try to meet the quota needed for election.

Councillor Henrietta Davis said that it is important for candidates to remind voters who they are right before the election.

"The hope is that some people might remember you even if they met you a month ago," Davis said.

To that end, she walked with about 15 supporters on Mass. Ave. from the Arlington line to M.I.T. on Saturday.

"It was really uplifting to make the walk from one end of the town to the other," Davis said.

Another campaign event was held at M.I.T. on Saturday, as M.I.T. student and candidate Erik C. Snowberg held a rally attended by 1,000 students, according to Eric J. Plosky, his campaign manager.

"It was fairly amazing," Plosky said.

Snowberg's campaign has covered the campus in posters, Plosky said, and volunteers and professors will be encouraging students to vote today.

On the Harvard campus, students under the direction of Jeff A. Letalien '01 are leafletting and encouraging Republican voters to vote for David Trumbull, chair of the Cambridge Republican City Committee.

"We've been going after Republicans and unaffiliates in the Harvard Square area," Letalien said.

Some candidates, however, said they have toned down their campaigning before the election.

"It's in the hands of the voters at this stage," said candidate Robert Winters, who added that he doesn't have the money to send out citywide leaflets to voters.

"I don't have the resources of big-money candidates...so I just have to take my chances," said Winters, who is also a mathematics preceptor at Harvard.

Candidate Marjorie C. Decker said her campaign is calling and writing to voters in the last few days before the election but that "there's nothing magical at this point."

She said that she has been campaigning since mid-January, during which time she has door-knocked on 3,000 doors and gone to 55 house parties.

"It's been a wonderful process, a wonderful journey," Decker said, who added that she thinks she's gathered a lot of support.

"We'll find out how much of that support turns out on Tuesday," she added.

Some Predictions

In general, local political observers say they expect all seven incumbents--Born, Galluccio, Kenneth E. Reeves '72, Michael A. Sullivan, Timothy J. Toomey Jr., Katherine Triantafillou, and Davis--to be re-elected, though Davis's position is tenuous. In 1997, she was the ninth councillor to be elected.

"Henrietta Davis will survive a threat," said Glenn S. Koocher '71, host of the political talk show "Cambridge Inside Out."

"I think all the incumbents will be re-elected," added Barbara Ackermann, a former mayor and Koocher's co-host.

In the 1997 election, all nine councillors were re-elected. This year, at least two new councillors will be elected due to the impending retirements of Mayor Francis H. Duehay '55 and Sheila T. Russell.

Among the challengers, Decker, Maher, Braude and Goodwin should have the strongest showing.

Thomas S. Rafferty, also a host of "Inside Out," said that Decker has crossed a lot of racial and class lines in her campaign.

"I think Marjorie Decker has run an awfully impressive campaign as a challenger," Rafferty said.

Rafferty added that people may recognize Braude's name--he has been active in political campaigns and labor unions--and vote for him.

"There's a certain wild-card advantage that Jim Braude enjoys," he said.

Koocher said he thinks Decker is better than Braude at "retail campaigning"--the art of winning voters one-by-one--and thus voters may rank her above Braude.

Who Will Turn Out to Vote?

But who the next council is made of depends on who turns out to vote today.

"I think David Trumbull is the real dark horse," said Frank A. Pedro, chair of the Cambridge Democratic City Committee.

"He has found a constituency...if they come out to vote, he could possibly get elected," Pedro added.

Letalien, for one, thinks the Republican Trumbull has a "great chance" of being elected.

"When you only need 10 percent, it's a turn out game," he said.

Teresa S. Neighbor, executive director of the Election Commission, said that absentee voting "has been on the low side" but that she didn't want to speculate on voter turnout tomorrow any further.

For candidate profiles and continuing election coverage, please visit The Crimson's Web site at www.thecrimson.com/specials/election99.asp.