Winning, Losing and Taking Vacations

When Cambridge City Council candidates gather in the Kennedy School Forum tonight for a series of speeches, the evening will be a welcome rest.

Campaigning reached its most frenetic level last week, as the 22 city council candidates and 12 school committee contestants scoured the city in search of votes.

"Very little is going on besides trying to get reelected," council incumbent Mary Ellen Preusser said Thursday. "I had no idea what hard work this was going to be," Douglas Okun, a frazzled first-time challenger for a council seat, said.

Some candidates concentrated on preparing their election day machines to round up their voters and get them to the polls.

Other candidates had all they could handle just trying to figure out their campaign finances. Less than half of the city council candidates and only two of the 12 school board hopefuls met Monday's filing deadline for reports of all campaign debts, expenditures and donations.

"These things never come in as fast as you would hope," City Clerk Paul Healy explained resignedly. Among the candidates that did file, incumbent Francis Duehay and challenger David Sullivan, who spent several nights last week canvassing Harvard dorms, led all fund raisers with more than $10,000 in contributions.

"As soon as its all over, I'm taking a vacation," one council candidate said, echoing one of the few sentiments shared by all his colleagues.