When City Councillor Francis H. Duehay '55 decided over the Presidents' Day weekend to withdraw from the mayoral race, he may not have known he was making history.

According to Cambridge pundit Glen S. Koocher '71, Duehay made local history by crossing over from the Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) and supporting Alliance candidate Sheila T. Russell, even though the Alliance for Change and the CCA candidates had four votes each.

"This is the first time a progressive majority candidate has seen one of its members cross over to support an independent candidate," Koocher said.

Even so, the situation must have felt somewhat familiar. In 1984, it was Duehay's crossover vote that gave the mayoral election to Independent Leonard J. Russell--the late husband of current Mayor Russell. And, four years before that, Leonard Russell had crossed party lines to give Duehay the election.

Duehay said he realized over a week before the election that he would not get the five votes to become mayor.

"It was my opinion that there was very little chance--at that time--of me getting a fifth vote from anybody," he said.

With the CCA and the Alliance dead-locked with four votes each, and the wild card independent Kenneth E. Reeves '72 making overtures to both parties, the race was anybody's guess.

So, versed in the art of the possible, Duehay opted for the next best possibility: taking charge of the decision making process.

"Katherine Triantafillou, Henrietta Davis and I had a meeting," Duehay said. "Katherine had called me, saying that the previous week, when Ken Reeves was voting for other people, we ought to get together."

At that time, Duehay said, the four CCA members brainstormed, talked to Geneva Malenfant, the head of the CCA, and came up with "about fifteen things" to discuss with Sheila T. Russell.

"They wanted to make sure I wouldn't go bonkers, I guess," Russell said.

Russell said that she had received an offer of support from Reeves, but had rejected it.

"Reeves had told me...he would vote for me if--and he gave me a list of conditions," she said.

Although Duehay was prepared to vote for Russell without the support of the other CCA councillors, he and Russell both wanted a to build a consensus.

Over the week of February 20, all of the CCA councillors met with Russell individually, and the weekend before the election the four councillors met together to discuss their meetings with Russell.