City Council Election Stays Undecided

In an election that is still very much up in the air, a mere dozen votes separate six-term Cambridge City Council incumbent Kenneth E. Reeves ’72 and neighborhood activist John Pitkin from winning the ninth—and final—spot on the council.

The unofficial results will be finalized today when the remaining “auxiliary” votes—ballots unread by the scanner because they were marked for a write-in candidate, creased, or simply left blank—will be added to the totals. In 1999, there were “roughly 200 valid” auxiliary votes, according to Election Commissioner Lynne Molnar.

“Many of them are blank, some of them are write-ins, but they could change the results,” said Teresa S. Neighbor, executive director of the Election Commission and director of “The Count,” which began last night at the Senior Citizen’s Center and will resume today at 9 a.m.

“We have two police officers here overnight watching the ballots,” Neighbor said.

Following the first round of tabulations, Reeves came in eighth, outpacing Pitkin by 40 number one votes, with Councillor David P. Maher in tenth, 77 behind him.

But Maher picked up many “transfer votes” from other candidates, particularly from Mayor Anthony D. Galluccio. The mayor came in roughly 1,450 votes above this year’s “quota” of 1,670, the number of votes needed for election under Cambridge’s proportional representation system.

“It’s very much what I expected,” Maher said, exuding calm. “The mayor and I do live in the same neighborhood.”

But while transfer votes comfortably put Maher over the top, the Pitkin campaign is waiting to hear the results of the auxiliary votes.

“We are not conceding,” said Pitkin’s campaign manager, Cecily McMillan ’79.

Pitkin pointed to the closeness of the number one votes as reason to believe that the results could change today.

“Based on the number ones, it’s got to be very close,” Pitkin said. “It looks like the campaign is over, but the suspense is not.”

As expected, first-time challenger candidates Brian Murphy ’86-’87 and E. Denise Simmons claimed the two spots vacated this year by fellow members of the progressive Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) Jim Braude and Kathleen L. Born.

Galluccio sailed into first place with 3,145 number one votes, and Murphy took the second spot with 1,693 top votes. It was the third consecutive first-place finish for Galluccio, who received 2,716 number one votes in 1999.

By the unofficial count, incumbents Henrietta Davis, Michael A. Sullivan, and Marjorie C. Decker claimed the third, fourth and fifth spots on the council, followed by Simmons and councillors Timothy J. Toomey, Jr. and Maher.

The three Republicans and the lone Libertarian candidate finished near the bottom, while the Green Party candidate, Steve Iskovitz, finished 12th out of the 19 candidates.

“I’m glad I’m not a candidate anymore,” Iskovitz said.

Simmons, who will join the council after 10 years on the School Committee, was smiling and hugging her supporters with tears in her eyes as she realized she had won a council seat.

“This is the culmination of 10 years working in the community,” Simmons said. “Democracy takes time.”

Simmons said she already has set her goals.

“I want to work with small businesseses, I want to work with affordable housing,” Simmons said. “It’s going to be hard work but I’m a hard worker.”

Jumping up in the air as she saw her daughter and faithful campaign volunteer Jada D. Simmons, the new councillor yelled, “I love this girl, I love her.”

“Cambridge deserves her,” Jada Simmons said of her mother.

The Pitkin campaign—hoping for official results to throw the election their way—kept the same upbeat tone.

“Everybody here feels it was a hell of an effort and nobody’s hanging their

heads,” Pitkin said.

—Andrew S. Holbrook contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.