When Eric L. Davin ran for the school committee two years ago, he was a "closet socialist." Now he's running for the city council on the Cambridge Convention slate, but this time is an "out-front" socialist, trying to promote radical change.

Davin describes himself as a "working class kid from Arizona who was lucky he was able to afford finishing high school." He moved to Cambridge seven years ago to study drama at the Loeb and stayed. He now lives in a commune in North Cambridge "surrounded by the middle class."

"I don't want capitalism to work again," he says. "I want a new social order, a society both politically and economically democratic, free of racism and sexism."

His political marriage with Cambridge Convention is mainly one of pragmatism. He feels that the proportional representation system of voting favors slates, and since CC'75 shares his primary concern--the retention of rent control--he is willing to be part of it.

Davin would also like to see an increase in public ownership of the utilities in the city--"a return to the 1930s concept of municipal socialism."

While Davin is "running to win" and gives himself a fair chance of being elected, he admits that there are "educational" aspects to his candidacy. "I want people to realize that socialists are not evil green monsters who eat children, but are normal concerned citizens working for change."

Francis H. Duehay *+

When the smoke cleared from last year's long ballot counting, Francis H. Duehay '55, had just managed to eke out a seat on the Cambridge City Council. The small margin--just a few more than 90 votes--came as a surprise to an incumbent and one-time leader in Cambridge School Committee voting.

This year Duehay has been campaigning actively, and it is something that the former dean of admissions for the Graduate School of Education isn't used to doing.

"I don't often get the headlines," Duehay said about his role as a city councilor. Because he is not outrageously right or left of the political spectrum, Duehay feels that the role he has played in building the liberal coalition has been minimized. But the Cambridge-bred Duehay has been a binding force in the liberals' quest for a good government city manager.

When flashed, Duehay's credentials lean heavily towards the liberal end of the council. A leader in the fight to maintain what he calls the "livability" of Cambridge neighborhoods (downzoning, anti-fast food, controlled development) Duehay has also been in the forefront of city fiscal management, playing a key role in keeping the Cambridge budget trim. And of all the councilors, Duehay has been the first and most active in making sure that Harvard doesn't receive more than its fair share of the city's benefits.

Lawrence W. Frisoli

More than any other, the question of public disclosure of the affairs of city councilors has been the symbolic, if not the central, focus of Lawrence W. Frisoli's campaign. For bundled up in that one concern, Frisoli has found an entire array of political issues, ranging from the way councilors act to the way they're elected. And he has earned himself some press in the process.

On September 31, Frisoli appeared at a council meeting with his proposal that all councilors be required to file detailed records of their personal finances, as well as civil and criminal dockets, with the city clerk. The council had been recently debating whether a similar requirement could be made on a city treasurer who had somehow run up more than $25,000 worth of gambling debts. Frisoli was angered that the council members could require disclosure of one of their subordinates, but not of themselves. The meeting adjourned without even considering Frisoli's plan.

At the next meeting of the council, Frisoli distributed leaflets taking the councilors to task for their inaction and charging that "criminal activities" might be uncovered if his plan were imposed. This time, Frisoli left before he could present his case. But since then, the issue of disclosure has become part of the common currency of the election.