Kevin Crane '73, heir to the Edward Crane '37 political legend, ran just well enough across the city to insure his return to the council. He may not be building a constituency, but there are just enough voters in the city who recognize his name.
Like Crane, Leonard Russell, who has run for council seven times (twice successfully) had just enough friends. It isn't his moderate stand on the issues that wins Russell most of his support. Instead, voters chose him because he's friendly, well-kown, and has lots of connections when it comes to finding city jobs for his backers.
For the rest of the independents, it was a disastrous outing. Incumbent Lawrence A. Frisoli lost badly, finishing 13th in the original count. Frisoli tried to build an electoral base on non-existent soil--disenchanted condo owners. They either don't exist or didn't turn out to vote. Leaders of the Concerned Cambridge Citizens (CCC), a group that published no stands on issues but whose candidates were mostly opposed to rent control, found the same hard fact--the traditional city voting blocs, be they liberal or ethnic, are very hard to penetrate. The only candidates useful as barometers of the CCC's effectiveness are Douglas Okun and David Agee. They relied on the CCC to build a political foundation for them. Despite fairly active campaigns, the pair finished 17th and 19th in the 23-man field. The only bright spot in the CCC showing was the strong slate identity--almost all Okun and Agee votes transferred to other anti-rent control candidates.
The CCC, roundly denounced by liberals as an attempt to confuse CCA voters, was just one cloud in the campaign. The Cambridge Homeowners and Taxpayers (CHT), another new group largely discredited as a political force by their candidate Frisoli's poor showing, mailed condo owneres a letter listing the tax assessement on the homes of some "anti-condo" councilors. And the usual number of nasty rumors and charges circulated the city. Perhaps the most widely-voiced and least effective concerned David Sullivan. "Psssst," people would say, elbowing your ribs. "Did you know his name is really Solomon?" It isn't, at least according to his birth certificate. But none of the charges seemed to have had much effect on traditional voting patterns.
Unchanging candidates tend to veil some changes in liberal politics. David Sullivan's overwhelming vote is a sign that the issue (rent control) and the candidate (well-financed and an energetic campaigner) may be as important as the backing of the traditional liberal-power-broker (the CCA).
Among the independents, personal fiefdoms continue, but with total votes down in almost every case, the barbarians are at the door. The effort among some independents to unite in the CCC was no real salve to their political wounds. And as Frisoli, who had the support of the old-line Frisoli-DiGuglielmo political clan proved, it is very, very difficult to carve out a new personal base.
Cambridge politics may change more slowly than the city. But in two years, the ballots will be lying in piles around the elementary school gym again, and once more they'll tell a story of the city's history, of its divisions and unities, and perhaps, most murkily, of its future.