"You can't compromise," he said last night. "Unless you do something like this, it's never going to get the [tenants] to the table."

Lester P. Lee Jr., SOCC campaign chair, vowed that the fledgling group would stick together and wage a legislative and judicial war.

"This battle does not end," Lee declared at the SOCC gathering. "We're going to keep on fighting till its over. We will march on legislators' homes. We will go to the city councils. We will not allow them to take our homes away from us."

But the Supreme Judicial Court this summer confirmed the constitutionality of the referendum. "The home-rule issue has already been settled by the SJC," said Salim E. Kabawat, MHC treasurer.

As for the legislative battle, "we hope that the legislature will go with the will of the people," Kabawat said.

By all accounts, the campaign was influenced by the sharp disparity in fundraising. According to treasurer Donald H. Veach, SOCC raised only $160,000 for its campaign, compared to the $650,000 raised by MHC.

"We didn't have enough money," Lee admitted last night. "We nickeled-and-dimed this campaign."

"We fought the big moneys," Lee added. He said that several large contributors, notably the Greater Boston Real Estate Board and the National Association of Realtors, had been key to Question 9's passage.

Kabawat acknowledged that the more than $650,000 in cash and $75,000 in loans raised by the coalition were crucial to its victory on several fronts. Several Question 9 opponents said they will have to move if their rents are raised. "I'd move," said Tom Martin, a seven-year Cambridge tenant who voted no on Question 9. "I anticipated that my rent would probably double."

Currently, the average rent on a controlled apartment is $283. The average rent on a market-rate unit is $891, according to the Cambridge Rent Board. The passage of Question 9 will also probably lead to the elimination of Cambridge's rent control board, with an annual budget of $1.