King—who held ice cream socials at nearby Dana Park over the summer—knew what the little girl meant, and stopped to talk to her mother before he sat down for his meal.

“I like him, I like him!” the girl exclaimed, jumping up and down, as she left with her mother.

Over their fish and chips, the Kings disclosed their last minute game plan, which involved a “blitz” of 9,000 phone calls, sign-holding and leafletting in squares, and—today—strategically placing volunteers near polls to remind Cantabrigians to vote.

They hope that the weather will be on their side.

“If it rains, it’s going to be bad for new candidates,” Astrid King said. “Tomorrow’s supposed to be sunny and in the 50s.”

Although Ethridge King grew up in Cambridgeport, he is not hoping for the support of his childhood buddies because most of them left the neighborhood after rent control ended in 1995, King said.

“They’re all gone,” King said, “because of skyrocketing real estate costs and [the end of] rent control.”

One of King’s major issues is his opposition to the idea of rent control—which he dislikes because of the “dependency atmosphere” it created—preferring instead to push for more city-subsidized home ownership programs, he said.

After they leave the fish and chips shop, the Kings start campaigning on the street—Astrid taking the left and Ethridge taking the right.

Walking down the street, taping their leaflets to doors, Ethridge frequently outpaces his wife, turning his head often as if to check that she was still there.

They leaflet every house—even those with signs advertising other candidates. When one man called out from his upstairs window, “I don’t need that,” King hopped back up the doorsteps and removed the leaflet, which he put on the next door—seeming completely unperturbed.

And the afternoon had its brighter moments.

King ran into an old friend, Kevin, and the two shared a fairly elaborate handshake before King gave him a campaign flyer.

“You know you’ve got my vote, man,” Kevin called.

As the day wound on, King became more philosophical.

“You don’t know what really moves a voter to vote for you,” he said.

Astrid King admitted that the weather was beginning to get to her—but the couple continued to canvass through their neighborhood.

“Gotta keep on going,” she said. “One more day.”

—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.