Later this month, the Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) will celebrate its 50th anniversary.

For many of those years--including the last six--this liberal political group has dominated Cambridge politics, offering a platform of "good government" and a slate of pro-rent control candidates for the city council and school board.

But events in the past two years have led many local; pundits to question the viability of the CCA.

After the 1993 municipal elections, Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves '72, who had been endorsed by the CCA, won a rare second consecutive term as mayor by earning the support of city councillors not endorsed by the organization.

And in perhaps the most significant blow to the organization, Massachusetts voters opted to end rent control in Cambridge last November, silencing the CCA's loudest rallying cry.

"It has been kind of floundering as an organization," former Cambridge Mayor Alice K. Wolf, who was endorsed by the CCA, said in February. "I think there's a certain amount of disarray now and I think that could have major implications for their politics. They've got to get their act together,"

Since April, however, the organization has gone through significant internal reform. Today, many politicians, both friends and foes of the CCA, believe the group will regain its strength--and perhaps become an even stronger, more unified organization.

New Blood

In early April, the CCA's nominating committee ousted the organization's president, R. Philip Dowds, replacing him with Cambridge port activist Geneva T. Malenfant.

Many CCA members say Dowds' combative personality was a significant factor in the CCA's loss of face over the past two years.

Robert Winters, who ran unsuccessfully for city council in 1993, says Dowds failed to keep in touch with many of the Organization's members.

"Since [I paid my CCA membership dues], I have gotten neither a newsletter, a phone call, nor a how-do-I-do" Winters says. "The organization has essentially been non-existent for the entire year."

And Howard Medwed, a former CCA vice president, says Dowds, While "an active, vigorous leader" of the CCA, made some enemies.

"I think there were some people who did not get along with Phil Dowds," Medwed says. "Most people within the CCA did,"

Local leaders say Malenfant, who has been known to follow a "grassroots" style of leadership, will likely improve the CCA significantly.