The complicated and contentious 1998 mayoral election--in which Triantafillou received the necessary five votes for mayor before Galluccio, Sheila T. Russell, Duehay, Henrietta Davis and Kathleen L. Born changed their votes to Duehay, making him mayor--was particularly controversial.

"At 5:15 p.m. today, I told [Duehay] that I heard a rumor that my colleagues were going to do me in,"

Triantafillou told the Cambridge Chronicle at the time. "He looked me in the face and said, 'No. That's not going to happen.'"

In the same issue, Duehay defended the wheeling and dealing, which also resulted in Independent Galluccio being elected vice-mayor.

"It's very difficult to be completely candid in a situation like that, because everyone's strategies depend on what they think other people are going to do," Duehay told the Chronicle.

"There were a lot of people playing hardball behind the scenes, and, as it turned out, I had more secondary strength" he added.

After her mayoral loss, Triantafillou subsequently resigned from the CCA, leading to a further fracturing of the progressive bloc on the council. Reeves disassociated himself from the CCA while he was running for a second term as mayor in 1994, and newly elected councillor Decker refused the association's endorsement last summer.