Even among Alliance members, however, there isskepticism over the realism of the group's goals.
"In the long term no organization like theAlliance for Change, in the absence of a platform,can survive for long," Winters says. "Inevitably,certain common positions will eventually worktheir way into a platform. [The Alliance] has yetto really develop an identity."
Indeed, most Cambridge politicos says theAlliance is a group of conservative Democratsallied against the liberal Democrats of the CCA.
"I think it's more a question of the centerversus the left, with not a whole of right,"Winters says.
The CCA won its majority in 1989--and has heldit since--largely by benefiting from the city'svoting system, called proportional representation.
Voters rank up to nine candidates in order ofpreference, and the liberal group hastraditionally endorsed a slate. Thousands of cityvoters have followed the party line, in anoverwhelmingly Democratic city where traditionalDemocratic-Republican politics are mostlyirrelevant.
By endorsing a full slate of candidates eachelection cycle, even CCA-endorsed candidates wholost would benefit other CCA-endorsed candidates,because the votes of losing candidates aretransferred to the front runners.
Uncertain Future
Political pundit Glenn S. Koocher '71, a formerCCA-endorsed School Committee member who now hostsa political talk show, says the Alliance does havea platform. Its councillors have already tendedtoward pro-business, anti-regulation practices, hesays.
The Alliance, its leaders admit, was foundedprimarily to establish support for theIndependents.
"The Alliance for Change is trying to fill thegap for voters who want an honorable gapgovernment but who either can't tolerated enforcedpolitical correctness or local government that'sgone too far to the left," Koocher says.
O'Connell denies the conservative label too. "Ithink we're more centrist, but we're veryconcerned with bread-and-butter Democratic issues:jobs, affordable delivery of services and concernwith our tax base," he says, adding that localgovernment had gotten too big, with manycommissions filling redundant roles.
"Their general goals sound very similar tothose of the CCA," Dowds says. "We'll see to whatextent that actually attracts a politicalfollowing," he adds.