BRIEF: Cambridge Remains Without Mayor as Council Members Split Votes

Cambridge City Council members were unable to reach a decision over the election of a new mayor at the Council's inaugural meeting on Monday.

The nine new council members' votes were divided among five candidates, but a council member must receive at least five votes in order to be elected as mayor for a two-year term.

"We need a mayor, and we need, collectively as a group, to choose a mayor," council member Sam Seidel said. "We will sort of stay at it and keep working at it until we [get] there."

The first re-vote for mayor will take place at the next City Council meeting on Jan. 11.

After Monday's deadlocked election, councilor David P. Maher lead with a total of three votes from fellow council members Sam Seidel and Timothy J. Toomey, as well as himself.

Councilors Marjorie C. Decker and Kenneth E. Reeves '72 tied with two votes each, with first-term council member and Harvard Kennedy School student Leland Cheung supporting Decker and council member Craig A. Kelley in favor of Reeves. Both Decker and Reeves also voted for themselves.

Outgoing Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons and councilor Henrietta Davis received only their own votes.

Seidel said that he was willing to repeat Monday's election process as many times as necessary.

"I'm ready to vote as often as I need to until we as a group can choose a mayor," he said. "It's going to take a lot more talking, and some more cups of coffee."

Cheung, on the other hand, said he is eager to move on to the council's "substantive work."

"It's not uncommon that there's no definitive vote on the first attempt," said Robert Winters, local pundit and editor of the Cambridge Civic Journal who also teaches at the Harvard Extension School.

Winters added that council members were also unable to decide upon a mayor at the first meeting of the year in 2007, 2005, as well as 2001.

"It's a very convoluted game of poker that goes on—rarely do any of the elected councilors want to show their hand publicly," Winters said. "Honestly, it's just a little extra cash and a little bit of honor over their colleagues."

—Staff writer Xi Yu can be reached at xyu@college.harvard.edu.