Candidate Profile: Craig Kelley

“Marines tend to be harder-edged, more mission- and goal-oriented,” says Cambridge City Councilor Craig Kelley as he reflects on his experience in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Though Kelley is no longer in military service, he applies this mission-centered mentality to his current political campaign. The incumbent candidate, who has been on the City Council for six years, boasts a wide-reaching agenda for Cambridge, including plans to strengthen the relationship between the school system and local government and to increase safety for pedestrians and bikers.

Overall, Kelley unites his platform by framing his proposals as a new vision for Cambridge.

“We need to figure out how to have a one-theme view of forming a citizen,” he says. “We can’t make the world a perfect place, but we can be deliberate about our words and behavior.”

Focused initiatives and intentionality characterize Kelley’s approach to local issues. After serving in the Marine Corps for almost five years, the Wellesley, Mass. native shifted his attention to environmental concerns and worked for Greenpeace. He then pursued his interest in sustainability at Boston College Law School by joining the Environmental Law Society.

Since 2008, Kelley has worked as an environmental compliance specialist at Innovar Consulting.

In November 2005, Kelley successfully ran for a seat on the Cambridge City Council, and with another election now approaching, he acknowledges the wide range of problems facing Cambridge.

“We reflect a lot of society’s issues,” he says. “This is the place in the world to be someone making policy decisions.”

During his time in office, Kelley has worked on the transportation committee and helped develop a traffic enforcement and management tool for the police department. The new system is used to process queries about motor vehicle violations and compare activity at different intersections.

“This allows us to be more intentional,” Kelley says.

Additionally, he has led efforts to itemize funding in the schools’ transportation budget.

“We can’t give away money and have no idea what it means,” Kelley says. “We need to have discussions about spending.”

Education has played a major role in Kelley’s political career and is a key component of his current campaign platform.

“Cambridge is making the future,” he says. “These kids will be cosmopolitan leaders.” Nonetheless, Kelley notes that residents are leaving the Cambridge public school system for various reasons, including the lack of academic rigor, poor classroom management, and the need for improved training for teachers.

Kelley added that while watching the graduation ceremony at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in June, he observed that “most of the kids that had National Honor Society certifications looked like me.”

In order to boost the MCAS scores and academic performance of minority groups, Kelley has pushed for increased access to academic resources such as the library system.

“We’re failing,” he says. “We need to do a lot more reaching out.”

Kelley identifies similar problems within the criminal justice system. “We’re jailing young black men—it’s a terrible statistic.”

To combat local crime, Kelley aims to create a stronger partnership between the public and the police to deter criminal activity and encourage more consistent enforcement of laws. “We need to be intentional and be honest without being judgmental,” he says.

In discussions of the social and economic problems within Cambridge, Kelley constantly returns to his wish to transform the city by creating “well-formed citizens.”

“We need to figure out how Cambridge can form an environment where you don’t react by shooting,” says Kelley. “We need to create a new culture and environment for how we treat each other.”

At the same time, Kelley understands that his ability to improve Cambridge is limited. “The danger is that I’m the white Irish guy and my societal norms may not be yours. We need to be cautious.”

Since Kelley took office, he has frequently attracted controversy. Often casting the sole dissenting vote, the incumbent candidate has disagreed with other City Council members on various proposals, most recently on the North Cambridge zoning law and affordable housing formula.

“I’m known as Mr. 8 to 1,” says Kelley. “But that’s life. I like to think that they are opportunities for me to help the Council recalibrate its thinking.”

Kelley also has openly disagreed with Cambridge City Manager Robert W. Healy, writing in a statement that Cambridge needs a city manager with “a long range vision for our City rather than a time-sensitive, reflexive ‘stay the course’ response.”

Nonetheless, Kelley says that whether or not he is reelected, he will find ways to execute the changes he envisions.

“I’m not losing a leg or an arm over this,” he says. “If I believe something is wrong, I will fix it.”

Kelley currently lags behind the other incumbent candidates in campaign donations, with contributions totaling $275 as of late September.

Kelley maintains his hope that Cambridge become a “world where people can access all of the opportunities.”

“It’s tough for a white guy from Wellesley to come and change the world,” Kelley says. “But it’s also hard for him to be quiet.”