Word: cca
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...first option is to take the conservatives' traditional approach, building up personal coalitions relying on personality and a few wellknown positions as well as on the backing of the ever-powerful CCA. No liberal council candidate has ever run as well as David Sullivan, who appealed in large part to the new voters--students and tenants in particular. Sullivan waged a traditional campaign--pressing the flesh, ringing the doorbells--and he built up a large network of volunteers independent of the CCA. The trend is obvious down the line. Francis Duehay'55, who also ran a high-budget, high-profile...
THAT SCENARIO may be just one of many, but it points to the real need city liberals feel to establish a ruling liberal majority in the next election. Winning that fifth CCA seat won't be easy. To combat the single-minded determination of the city's conservative voters, who often pick their friend's son and bullet vote for him, liberals can choose from two different but compatible strategies...
...backroads of mid-Cambridge, where city progressives like to hang out. All that money, all that campaigning and all those liberal votes merely maintained the same number of progressives on the council. "No more, no less, we just tread water like every year," a disgusted CCA adherent complained as the final vote totals came in. And that means two more years of dependence on independent Alfred E. Vellucci for the fifth vote necessary to pass liberal programs, notably rent control...
Velluci's support is not likely to waver, although he may demand the mayor's office as a token of appreciation. But when Velluci, the senior member of the council, someday decides not to run again, his decision won't add his East Cambridge constituency to the CCA ranks. The Italian-surnamed successor that Vellucci-supporters are likely to find won't prove as liberal. Instead, a new neighborhood dynasty, like those built by other city conservatives, could rise, toppling the liberal coalition majority and with it rent control...
There is inherent danger in emphasizing personal tactics to the exclusion of the CCA. Under Cambridge's proportional representation system, the second preference votes often turn out to be crucial in deciding the last few council seats--for many years they gave the CCA a fourth seat. If personal dynasties become too powerful, unschooled liberal voters might bullet-vote regularly, robbing the progressive slate of support. This year's experience indicates that that problem can be overcome, however. Sullivan, who explained to voters in person and on his literature that a vote for him had to be backed up with...