Incumbent Councillors Battle To Keep Seats

After a last frantic push of hand-shaking at supermarkets, sign-holding in Cambridge’s squares and weekend “coffees” with supporters, the 19 City Council candidates will learn their fates tomorrow.

Voters across the city will select nine councillors out of a pool of seven incumbents and 12 challengers.

The winners will determine the course of the city’s policies over the next two years, from dealing with urban planning in one of the country’s most densely populated cities, to refining working relationships with Harvard and MIT.

The incumbents have had a variety of accomplishments and goals over the past term, but they have one thing in common: they all want two more years on the council.

Henrietta Davis

Henrietta Davis is the only incumbent sponsored by the Cambridge Civic Association (CCA), Cambridge’s traditionally activist progressive party, and is basically considered a shoo-in for reelection. With reelection a near-certainty, Davis could even be a leading contender for mayor.

She prides herself for her work on quality-of-life issues—for example, she often mentions her work on getting schedules at bus stops. She leads the council on the number of policy orders for the last year, mostly focusing on small-scale improvements in the city.

Davis wants to continue focusing on transportation, housing, open space and the environment, she says.

“I want to continue making the city walkable and bikeable and improve the public transportation for us,” Davis says.

On the largest council agenda items, such as the comprehensive rezoning of the city done last February, Davis voted against the majority and for the more stringent, activist-favored plan.

“She has tried to distinguish herself by moving herself to the farther left,” Cambridge political pundit Glenn S. Koocher ’71 says.

Marjorie C. Decker

A first-term councillor, Marjorie C. Decker is a non-traditional progressive who nabbed a seat in 1999 after eight months of door-knocking.

“She was the first unabashed progressive to get elected to the City Council without the CCA endorsement,” Koocher says.

A Cambridge native, Decker positions herself as a neighborhood advocate on the council—meaning she frequently blasts Harvard.

Currently, Decker’s major issue is fighting for more protective measures for the nuclear reactor at MIT, although the city manager has said that the reactor is only for research and that city security should not be discussed in public council meetings. Last week, Decker pushed for an executive session at tonight’s council meeting to discuss the reactor’s safety.

Anthony D. Galluccio

Mayor Anthony D. Galluccio has received the most number one votes in the last two elections, and remains one of the most popular members of the council.

The youngest mayor in recent Cambridge memory, Galluccio has worked to cooperate with Harvard, even holding his first State of the City Address at the Kennedy School of Government’s ARCO Forum in February. He has tempered his votes on the council to reflect a more open attitude towards Harvard, such as casting the lone vote opposing the Riverside development moratorium last fall. Still, he occasionally rebukes Harvard regarding public relations gaffes.

As mayor, Galluccio keeps order at weekly council and School Committee meetings, aiming to keep councillors and visitors on the agenda.

David P. Maher

Although he’s from a well-known Cambridge family, Vice Mayor David P. Maher is probably “the most underrated of the councillors,” according to Koocher.

One of the few councillors who holds down an outside job—Maher works with the nonprofit Cambridge Family and Children’s Service—he also has had one of the toughest tasks on the council during the past term.

Other councillors credit Maher—in his role as co-chair of the Ordinance Committee— with hammering out details of Cambridge’s first comprehensive rezoning of the past 50 years.

“People who deal with David come away impressed with his knowledge,” Koocher says.

Kenneth E. Reeves ’72

Kenneth E. Reeves ’72—known for his long-winded speeches and his frequent anti-Harvard tirades—will be seeking to win his sixth term on the Cambridge City Council on Nov. 6.

The only Harvard graduate on the council, Reeves often blasts his alma mater for its policies, recently sponsoring an order with language that linked Harvard to Osama bin Laden. The order was modified by other council members to remove inflammatory language.

Reeves squeaked in to an eighth-place spot in the 19a9 election—so even though he is one of seven incumbents in the pool of 19 candidates seeking nine seats, he is the first to say that his seat is not completely safe.

Many have speculated that in this election, his voter base will transfer to the other front-running black candidates, E. Denise Simmons and Ethridge King.

But Koocher says Reeves doesn’t have much to worry about.

“Yes, there is a dwindling number of minority votes in the city,” Koocher says. “But still Reeves has a solid base of people.”

Michael A. Sullivan

Michael A. Sullivan comes from the legendary local Sullivan family, which Koocher describes as the “Kennedys of Cambridge.”

He is known for his work on constituent services, and leads the council in the number of “maintenance orders.”

“The Sullivans have defined constituent services in Cambridge politics,” Koocher says.

Sullivan outlines schools, affordable housing and “quality-of-life issues” as the key issues facing Cambridge over the next term, and particularly points to housing for senior citizens as being problematic.

“We have to make sure we’re giving seniors a variety of options,” Sullivan says—including affordable assisted living and nursing homes.

Timothy J. Toomey Jr.

Councillor and State Rep. Timothy J. Toomey Jr. is a fixture in Cambridge politics—he’s also from an old political family, and is currently seeking his seventh term on the council.

Toomey says he is not overwhelmed by his dual duties at the State House and City Hall.

“I’m proud to say I’ve never missed a regularly scheduled meeting of the Cambridge City Council in all my years,” Toomey says. “Clearly some weeks are more hectic than others. So far I’ve been able to maintain my sanity.”

He is best known for constituent services, and is one of the most frequent sponsors of council death resolutions, congratulations and event announcements.

While many credit him with making sure that affordable housing was created in East Cambridge—his constituent base—Toomey demurs.

“I’d have to give a lot of credit to the East Cambridge community,” Toomey says.

—To revisit The Crimson’s series of profiles on the challengers, go to www.thecrimson.com.

—Imtiyaz H. Delawala contributed to the reporting of this story.

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