The CCA, however, has gotten up a referendum to disapprove of the appointments, but the Mayor managed to arrange the wording of the referendum so that a "yes" vote, most common on referenda, will indicate support for the Sullivanite position.
To counteract the CCA-inspired referendum, the Mayor, through the efforts of State Senator Francis X. McCann, has managed to put an anti-proportional representation referendum on the ballot. By getting a "yes" vote on this question, the Mayor hopes to win the school appointments referendum at the same time. The CCA, relying as it does on proportional representation to elect its candidates, hopes to turn its "no" votes on the school question into a defeat of the anti-PR referendum.
Origins of CCA
The CCA, born in June, 1945, during the fight for Plan E government in Cambridge, feels that PR is very nearly a matter of life and death. Under PR, the normally outvoted wards around Harvard Square have a chance to elect representatives of their own. If PR were repealed and a city-wide plurality election put in its stead, it is doubtful that the so-called "better elements" of Cambridge could have a voice in city administration. The CCA has in the past been composed mainly of these better elements--to Harvard students, the intelligentsia of the community.
Although the board of directors of the CCA is largely Democratic, its membership is to a great extent Republican. In Cambridge, however, these Republicans might have been Democrats, had not the Democratic party been largely a party controlled by Irish and Italian Catholics. An obvious parallel to the Cambridge situation is the earlier (Mayor Curleyera) Back Bay Republican reform element, which still spasmodically asserts itself in Boston politics.
The CCA, in this campaign, has broadened its scope somewhat, more from a feeling of expediency than of sincerity. Some, certainly not all of its candidates were recruited, instead of coming to seek support. Last spring Shaplin told a Harvard audience that the CCA, to gain a majority on the School Committee or the Council, would have to broaden its electoral base substantially. A conscious effort to achieve this goal can be seen in the CCA's 18 endorsees. Four are blessed with Italian names, two, and possibly a third, are of Irish ancestry, four have Jewish ties, one is a Negro, one is a Pole, three are women, and only four are blatantly Yankee. Almost all of them, however, have Harvard ties of one sort or another--degrees from the college or graduate schools, teaching positions, or children at Harvard or Radcliffe. Six are lawyers, two are educators, one is a journalist, two are local merchants, one an engineer, one a labor leader, two are former government employess, and the three women all have long records of community service and civic activity.
The others on the ballot are mainly Irish or Italian; most are veterans, few have not served as pillars of their church; and they are almost unanimously family men. Al Vellucci probably holds the record with eight children--two in the Coast Guard. A fairly typical candidate is Joseph Lund, one of the newcomers. At a candidates' rally recently he described his activities as founder of three drum and bugle corps, an usher at St. Mary's for "the past 15 years," and a fighter for veterans' rights. Lund charged that Cambridge veterans were getting a "raw deal" on their ratings for positions as teachers and on the waste involved in two city departments' handling of the War Memorial. Lund is running for School Committee.
Despite some of the comic touches (One of the Sullivanites complained that the squabble over the school appointments had left the hockey team without a coach for its Boston Garden appearance.), the campaign is deadly serious. The Mayor, for instance, means it when he says that the CCA is run by "carpetbaggers," and that he could do as well in getting out the votes if he had a ward and precinct organization financed by payoffs from Cambridge industries. CCA leaders, Shaplin in particular, are just as bitter about the Mayor and his treatment of them in the School Committee.
The CCA campaign revolves almost entirely around the School Committee issue, which to the reformers has come to signify the worst sort of politics in the schools. Although the CCA platform contains other planks--"advancement of the long-range city-wide building program, co-ordination of the building program with urban renewal and highway development, activation of a new school advisory committee, increased co-operation between the Recreation and School Departments encouragement and support of P.T.A.'s, and active citizens' consulting committees"--its school committee candidates concentrate their attack on the appointments made last December. Its City Council platform also contains many planks for improvement of the streets, libraries, hospitals, playgrounds, "totlots," for better housing conditions, urban renewal, and less wasteful administration. The CCA non-incumbent ticket, however, will stand or fall on the strength of the school issue.
To James Vorenberg, CCA ward and precinct director, a heavier vote will be a "reflection of anger" and consequently a benefit to the CCA. Although Vorenberg did not have figures on the results of the CCA's recent drive to register voters, he felt confident that more had registered and more would turn out to vote than in a normal year. Vorenberg said that his organization had obtained complete coverage in roughly one-half of the city. He felt that its efficiency was "amazingly good" considering the lack of political canvassing experience of most of the workers. In Ward 2 of East Cambridge, Vorenberg said, one meeting brought 25 to 30 workers to the CCA, and "for every worker there are many who for some reason can't come out and work, but are aroused enough to vote with us."
Sullivan Confident
Mayor Sullivan has another story to tell. Although his campaign has been relatively quiet in the sense that his speeches do not make headlines every day, he has been working very hard and is confident of victory, and with good reason. He even went so far as to say that Galluccio, who gave up CCA endorsement to vote for the patronage appointments, is "assured of re-election."
Eric Hanson, Executive Director of the CCA and a "carpetbagger" from Newton, thinks differently. Galluccio, he said, is "gone," proof that "you can't play both ends against the middle."
While Sullvan and his "independents" are relying almost entirely on personal appearances at rallies and non-political functions as well as on their own ward organizations, the CCA candidates are forced to hang together to a great extent The people who worked for the referendum petition against the school appointments have carried over into the present campaign and are the base of the organzation. Some candidates who have strong organizations of their own in normally non-CCA wards rely mainly on their own workers, but for the non-incumbents the CCA setup is vital.
In some cases, such as that of Robert G. Conley, a candidate for School Committee, the individual has appealed for outside help. Conley has gained the endorsement of the Harvard Joint Committee for Non-Partisan School Appointments, an organization in which the HYDC, The HYRC, and potentially the Eisenhower Club participate. Although the endorsement came only three weeks before election day, the Harvard students will be useful as canvassers and office workers. The CCA, itself, is planning to use the Harvard group to distribute information on election eve and to campaign at the polls on election day.
Vellucci Mellows
Ironically, even Al Vellucci, whose proposals that Harvard Yard be made into a parking lot and that Harvard become a separate state "like the Vatican" made him anathema in Crimson eyes, is asking for Harvard help. He said recently that he had told a caller that he had no objections to Harvard students forming an "Al Vellucci for Councillor" club. He continued that "help from Harvard students would go a long way in helping my re-election." Vellucci is now claiming that he helped Harvard create parking space for students and that he worked to keep Harvardians out of the clutches of the "Harvard Gestapo and the Cambridge gendarmes." He plans to see to it, if he wins, that police do not misuse their powers in ticketing students who parked their cars illegally because they had no alternative.
A campaign does strange things to people. A mild-mannered college dean turns into a platform demon, and a Harvard-baiter suddenly mellows. The issue of politics in the Cambridge schools may not seem important to a student, but it is vital to the men and women on both sides of the question. Whether the "good guys" or the "bad guys" win probably won't matter much to the Russian satellite or the trouble in the Middle East, but it is the stuff of American politics, and it is a phenomenon that no participant or spectator is likely to forget.