After stretching for over seven hours and into the wee hours of the morning, and with votes changing by the hour, the Cambridge City Council finally elected a mayor for the city.

Shortly before 1:30 a.m., Anthony D. Galluccio was elected mayor of Cambridge by a 6-3 vote of the council, capping a wild night of secret negotiations and switched allegiances.

Earlier in the evening, the council had failed to elect a mayor on two separate occasions, driving the Valentine Day's meeting well beyond its expected length.

Unlike most municipalities, the council--rather than the people of Cambridge--selects the city's mayor. This year's mayoral battle had been going on since the new council was seated in January, with Kenneth E. Reeves '72 serving as acting mayor since he is the senior member of the council.

Complicating the mayoral vote was the unusually high amount of regular council business due to the cancellation of last week's meeting because of the Feb. 4 death of former mayor Thomas W. Danehy.

"We have two meetings in one," Reeves said. "There is a lot on the agenda."

In between its three rounds of voting for mayor, the council heard two hours of public testimony, deliberated for one hour on a "curb cut" on Kinnaird St. and unanimously approved a downzoning petition for the Linear Park area of North Cambridge.

But the highlight of the night was the dramatic maneuvering for the mayorship.