The 37 year-old self-employed sales representative is married and has a four year-old daughter. This is his first bid for a seat on the city council.

Robert Winters says he caught the political bug in 1989 when he organized recycling programs for the city.

"Once you get into the habit of getting things done," Winters says, "It's hard to stop One the council, I'd have more authority to get things done more effectively."

Winters, who is 38 years old and lives in Mid-Cambridge on Broadway, says he divides his time between his professorship in mathematics at Wellesley College and his campaign.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities at Wellesley, Winters said he has been an section leader for Math 1a and 1b at Harvard.

Winters says he wishes Harvard and MIT students would become more involved in city politics.

"It's a terrible thing when students choose to vote only in national and state elections and ignore local elections," he says.

If elected, Winters says he would work to reform the city's rent control policy by instituting a "graduated system of rent controls" which would protect the city's smaller owners.

Manuel C. Barros, William C. Jones, Paul T. Kearns, and Randolph L. Lowet could not be reached for comment.