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The Referendum: Gauging City Sentiment

Voters in Cambridge will receive three ballots tomorrow: one for City Council, one for School Committee, and a third they might not even open, containing this year's six non-binding referendum questions. Below is a list of those referenda.

Health Insurance

Question 1. Should the Cambridge City Council support a national health service program which provides comprehensive care, including preventive, curative and occupational health services, is community-controlled, rationally organized, equitably financed, with no out-of-pocket charges; is universal in coverage and sensitive to the particular health needs of elderly, women, minorities and disabled persons?

Question 1 is almost identical to proposals by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.).

"Being in an allied profession, pharmacy, I can see how people are going to have to have something like this because the cost of health care is just running away from what the individual can play." Mayor Thomas W. Danehy says.

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City Councilor Alfred E. Vellucci says the elderly and lower income groups in Cambridge would appreciate help with rising costs and inadequate health care facilities for the poor. "That question should go over big with the working classes in Cambridge," he says.

Kennedy

Question 2. Shall Senator Edward Moore Kennedy be a candidate for President of the United States in 1980?

Velluci sponsored this question last June because he thinks the voters of Cambridge will give a truer picture of Kennedy's national support than any primary or poll.

The city's ethnic, racial and social diversity make it "in many ways a microcosm of the nation," he adds.

Kennedy has indicated he will announce his candidacy Wednesday at Faneuil Hall.

Energy

Question 3. Should the Cambridge City Council actively encourage building insulation, energy conservation and the use of solar power and other safe renewable energy sources in the city, thereby saving Cambridge residents money and creating new jobs, and request the state and federal governments not to license the construction or operation of any new nuclear power plants?

While both its advocates and opponents expect Question 3 to receive strong support, the controversy over this referendum focuses on the nuclear power portion rather than the undisputed conservation section.

Clifford A. Truesdell '66, one of the referendum's authors, says he originally wanted a purely anti-nuclear referendum, but decided an "unemotional" emphasis on alternatives to nuclear power would be more effective.

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