It sounds like a campaigning cliche, but in Cambridge, one vote really does count.

Thanks to Cambridge's unique system of proportional representation (PR) voting (please see sidebar), it can take as few as 1,688 votes to get a seat on the City Council, as it did in 1997.

And that's not because of poor turnout, either--that was 1,688 of a total of 17,229 votes.

Candidates are well aware of this as the Nov. 2 elections draw closer, and are trying to cull support from community groups, neighborhoods, and wherever they can find an extra vote.

The way to go, candidates agree, is to target specific groups rather than trying to reach a broad base of citizens.

Seven incumbents, all of whom have at least two terms of experience, are running for reelection Nov. 2, while 17 challengers are also running in a tough race for the nine spots on the council.

Glenn S. Koocher '72, one of the hosts of the Cambridge cable TV political program "Cambridge Inside Out" and a former School Committee member, says that only Cambridge candidates know how to vie for the crucial number one votes.

"It's not like you're mining number- one votes, you're fighting for them," Koocher says.

In the Neighborhood

Overall, Cambridge's neighborhood voters seem to play the most pivotal role in the City Council elections. From East Cambridge in the old industrial section of the city, to Cambridgeport's residential streets, to the more affluent area of West Cambridge, loyal neighborhood voters serve as important bases of support for both candidates and incumbent councillors alike.

"They are historically more faithful voters," Koocher says.

Some councillors can trace their longevity in the council to specific neighborhoods--Timothy J. Toomey in East Cambridge, for example, or Henrietta Davis in Cambridgeport or Kathleen L. Born in Porter Square.

"I don't think there's a candidate with a stronger neighborhood base than Kathy Born," Koocher says.

With two council heavyweights--Mayor Francis H. Duehay '55 and former mayor Sheila T. Russell--retiring after this year, many longtime number one votes that traditionally went to them will be up for grabs.

And candidates are trying their best to snag those votes.

Former Cambridge mayor Barbara Ackermann, also a host of "Inside Out", says that Russell's strong base of support in the northwest section of the city means that vice-mayor Anthony D. Galluccio and candidates David P. Maher and Bob Goodwin will benefit the most from her absence.

"Those are the people who are looking for Sheila's vote," Ackermann says.

"They're scrambling to pick it up."

Koocher agreed that Maher and Goodwin will benefit the most from Russell's exit, but added that Galluccio and incumbent Michael A. Sullivan will benefit as well from the bevy of Russell's "old neighborhood" supporters who tend to support incumbents.

With Duehay gone, Koocher expects Born to receive many of Duehay's votes. She received the majority of Duehay's surplus votes in the 1997 election.

"That white middle-aged crowd tends to stick with the white middle-aged candidates," Koocher says.

Personal preferences like these may overcome neighborhood-base voting, Ackermann says, as Cambridge politics become more broadly based than before.

"It's not as geographical as it used to be," Ackermann says.

The Personal Touch

With that in mind, candidates and analysts predict most of the candidates' votes will come from old-fashioned, person-to-person campaigning.

Davis says she relies on "door-knocking," coffees and other functions across the city to meet new people and garner votes.

"In Cambridge the best way you get votes under PR is through personal contact," she says.

Former mayor and current councillor Reeves repeated the Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill maxim, "All politics is local," adding that Cambridge politics is a one-on-one, incremental process.

"That's how you come to know your voters and your voters come to know you," Reeves says.

One by One

Still, with Cambridge's fragmented population, several candidates are trying to win over entire ethnic or ideological groups.

Geneva P. Malenfant, vice-president of the Cambridge Civic Association (CCA), one of Cambridge's political parties, sees two types of candidate. One type, like Maher or Toomey, gets support from neighborhoods; the other from community groups.

A few cover both areas: Malenfant says Reeves "runs equally well citywide" and "Katherine Triantafillou gets a wide band of support."

Reeves points to his top finishes in the 1993 and 1995 elections and wide base of support.

That record "speaks for itself," he says.

Demographic groups--such as liberals, senior citizens, affordable housing stalwarts and students--play an important role in the municipal elections as well.

"The candidates have high regard for the senior citizen vote," says Leroy L. Cragwell, vice president of Cambridge's Council on Aging, citing the big senior picnics put on each year by candidates.

"They're constantly wooing and trying to do their best for the seniors," he says.

Cragwell says an incumbent who shows that he is sensitive to the concerns of seniors will have an advantage over challengers.

"I think incumbents benefit from the senior vote," he says. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating, right?"

According to analysts, Sullivan, Galluccio, Toomey and Russell are those most popular among the seniors.

One candidate this year is trying to mobilize a different group of seniors: students. MIT senior Erik Snowberg's campaign has been registering students at MIT and Harvard through volunteers at both universities, according to Eric J. Plosky, Snowberg's campaign manager.

"We've been focusing on areas of common concern to students and residents," Plosky says, adding that Snowberg's campaign hasn't been targeting students exclusively.

Through "door-to-door, dorm-to-dorm" voter registration, Plosky says he expects a total of 1000 students to have been registered by the end of their campaign.

"That's a pretty big difference," Plosky says. Especially considering that the number of votes needed for election in 1997 was only 1,688, according to the Election Commission.

Civic Organization

For a city that is 60 percent Democratic, liberals of course play a crucial role in the election.

The CCA, created in 1945 for "good government," has since played a leading role in Cantabrigian politics.

"The CCA has basically screened [candidates for] progressive or liberal voters," Koocher says.

This year, the CCA endorsed Born, Davis, Braude, Snowberg and Robert Winters; Marjorie C. Decker declined its endorsement. The idea is to present a full slate of qualified candidates.

But what use are the endorsements?

Koocher, for one, says he thinks the CCA's influence is waning.

"Even though the CCA is a shell of its former self, I think voters trust it to keep idiots off its slate card," he says.

Still, Koocher says some still place importance on the CCA endorsement.

"The CCA endorsement remains valuable because for a couple of generations of voters, it's been a pretty reliable indicator of who stands for the platform of the CCA," Koocher says.

Malenfant, however, says the CCA presents one of the only full slates,influencing voters significantly. The Alliance for Change--traditionally supporters of the more conservative Independent members of the council--is not endorsing this year.

"If you're the only organization that's endorsing anybody, it's bound

to have more impact," Malenfant says.

She added that the Lavender Alliance, the National Organization for Women and labor unions endorse individuals, but the CCA endorses an entire slate, thus leading to important transfers of votes between CCA candidates.

The endorsement helped at lesat one candidate so far: the heretofore dark horse Snowberg.

"That helped legitimate our campaign in the eyes of people who wouldn't have thought much of it [before]," Plosky says.

Change in the Air

According to the Election Commission, 40,257 active voters were registered for this year's election as of Sept. 2. However, many new voters--Malenfant estimated about 10,000--have registered since the 1997 election, as the city's population undergoes large amounts of change and housing prices rocket upwards.

"One has to assume that the bulk of the voters who have registered since two years ago in October...are likely to be younger voters than older, more highly educated than less, and are likely to have moved here because of job opportunities," she says.

That's making affordable housing one of the central issues of the campaign, as Ackermann points out. "It's a less mixed society [now]," she says.

Because small numbers of voters can so influence the elections, the results of this year's City Council election are, as ever, hard to predict.

Mobilized groups of voters can elect one candidate all by themselves, or one person can squeak by and get elected through the intricacies of the transfer system.

"Any 10 percent can elect one person if they are together about it," Ackermann says.

"Certainly because of PR voters don't write anybody off," Koocher says. "It's like trying to pick which of your friends you like the best."