Sporting a scruffy, graying beard and a short ponytail, Cambridge City Council candidate James M. Williamson does not have the clean-cut look of a typical politician—something he takes pride in.

“I see myself as a serious candidate, but I don’t see myself as a professional politician,” Williamson says. “While my objective is to get number one votes, my chief objective is not to get elected at all costs.”

Describing himself instead as a “citizen candidate,” Williamson says that while he hopes to get votes in next Tuesday’s election, he has no illusions about being elected.

He is not going door to door campaigning or seeking endorsements, and he is not doing any fundraising for his candidacy.

Instead, he says he is running to build on his last campaign two years ago, staying with the political priniciples that have kept him involved in Cambridge for more than 30 years.

“I want to help foster alternative politics and alternative solutions to problems we face in society,” Williamson says. “I’ve always been involved, one way or the other, in what people call civic engagement.”

Williamson says he has always served as a public interest advocate, even if it means not having a steady income. He is currently working to help organize a Ralph Nader rally to be held Nov. 10 in Boston.

“The things that most interest me I’m, unfortunately, not always getting paid for,” Williamson says.

Criticizing The Council

While Wiliamson does not expect to be elected, he still holds strong opinionsabout the council and how the city operates, saying the main issue facing the city is the loss of citizen control of the government.

Williamson says the council often simply pays “lip service” to the public, putting forth “reams of documents every week purporting public involvement” in the council’s actions, and then using the majority of council time to “go on for hours saying nothing, grandstanding or pontificating.”

He says the council does not listen to residents during the public comment period of each week’s meeting, which he no longer attends because he says they left him feeling “empty and angry.”

“They’re not listening, they’re talking to each other, they’re in the backroom eating,” Williamson said. “It’s a farcical exercise.”

Williamson also criticizes the council as overpaid and undeserving of the 22 percent pay raise they voted for themselves last year.

“It’s as if it’s a private club that’s having a private party at our expense, and we’re not invited,” Williamson says.