City Councillor Alice K. Wolf announced yesterday that she will not be running for re-election to the City Council next fall.
And despite earlier reports to the contrary, Wolf said she would not run for Congress this term. "While there may be another day for me in elected politics, I have no immediate plans right now," she said.
Wolf, 59, has been involved with local politics for 20 years and served on the Cambridge school committee from 1973 to 1981. Although she lost her first bid for City Council in 1981, Wolf has served on the council since 1983 and as mayor during the 1990-1991 term.
Wolf said she would spend the remaining eight months of her term working on the city budget, implementing new employment training program, and developing a sexual harassment policy.
Wolf, who is on the executive board of the National League of Cities, said she will try to continue working with that organization, as well as the National Organization for Women (NOW).
Filling the Gap
The City Council currently consists of five councillors endorsed by the progressive Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) and four more conservative Independents. Wolf is currently endorsed by the CCA.
Since Wolf is not running for re-election, there will be equal numbers of CCA and Independent incumbents running for city council this year.
Wolf, who said she was first elected to the Council on an alternative slate, said she hoped the open spot on the council would encourage other progressive candidates, particularly women, to run. Some politicos have suggested that this may leave an opening for candidates endorsed by alternative civic groups.
"Where all incumbents run it's very difficult for any new candidates to get elected. Fewer people enter Winters is a member of the board of directors of the newly formed centrist group, Cambridge Alliance. However, Wolf's decision not to run will leave the progressive CCA without its strongest candidate. Wolf received the highest number of votes in the last City Council election, with about 18 percent of the "number one" votes, according to David R. Leslie '69, executive director of the CCA. Leslie said although he is disappointed to lose Wolf, he said her absence will not help the Cambridge Alliance. "I don't see that Cambridge Alliance candidates are going to get a lot of votes that Alice Wolf would have gotten," he said. Wolf is regarded as one of the city's most progressive councillors while the Cambridge Alliance is more conservative. Leslie said the votes which would have gone to Wolf will go to other candidates who share her political beliefs. "It opens up an opportunity for a lot of progressives in the city who have considered running for City Council," she said. Still, the CCA has experienced divisions lately. Two weeks ago, Councillor Edward N. Cyr and Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves '72, both endorsed by the CCA, voted with the more conservative Independents on the council to extend City Manager Robert W. Healy's contract. The CCA had voted not to support a contract extension. This caused some members of the CCA who supported Healy's contract to defect to the Cambridge Alliance. Winters, a former member of the board of directors of the CCA, has said that he was asked to leave the CCA because he supported Healy's contract. Leslie declined to say whether he expected Cyr and Reeves to be endorsed by the CCA in the next City Council election.
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