Cambridge's two political parties, the CCA and the AFC, also rose from debate over Plan E.
"The roots of the CCA were rooted back in the early part of the century with the more academic, elite parts of the city," says Winters.
The CCA advised adopting a proportional representation system. "They've been around as long as the city charter has been around, and in a certain sense, [they] represent it," Winters says.
"Originally, [the CCA] was formed to bring in all types of political opinion," says Samp. "The problem was that in a city in Mass, the Democrats control the range of government, and if you were to have partisan elections, all you would have would be the majority party electing somebody."
The AFC in this era was composed of Democrats from old Cambridge families "who felt that the way to keep their people in power was to elect them in a partisan way," Samp says.
Today, according to Trumbull, the CCA considers itself true to its origins as a "good government group," and has become identified with a somewhat radical group in the city; the AFC, meanwhile, is a more centrist liberal group.