Mr. DeBergalis Goes to City Hall?

DeBergalis’s campaign strategy flies in the face of Cambridge political convention. Students have long been ignored by local pols who know how low voter turnout is among the college crowd.

Only a small number of Harvard and MIT students are registered to vote in Cambridge, and of this group, a fraction actually goes to the polls on Election Day.

In the 2001 City Council race, 18 out of 226 registered students—8 percent—voted at the polling center on 29 Garden Street, which serves students living in the Yard.

The problem wasn’t limited to first-years. In the same year, 26 out of 423 students—6 percent—voted at Quincy House, which serves most of the River Houses.

But DeBergalis hopes to stem the tide of student apathy.

Volunteers in each of the Harvard Houses and MIT dormitories have also helped spread the word about his campaign.

Zachary B. Stone ’04, who met DeBergalis as a high schooler at an MIT summer program, is his representative in Quincy House.

“I’ve never been involved in a campaign,” Stone says. “I mean, I study physics and math, I’m not a politician, and I didn’t really know anything about how these things work.”

According to Stone, the DeBergalis campaign has registered 53 Quincy voters.

In addition to the voting base that he has identified and registered, DeBergalis also has at least one incumbent councillor pulling for him.

Councillor Brian P. Murphy ’86-’87 says he urges students to vote “me number one, and Matt number two” on the ballot.

The last City Council candidate to run on a student-oriented platform was Erik Snowberg, who ran in the 1999 City Council race while still a senior at MIT. Snowberg received 429 first-place votes, well below the necessary quota. DeBergalis, who says he asked Snowberg for campaign advice, is hoping for a better showing.

According to Robert Winters, a longtime Cambridge political observer, getting out the vote will be key to DeBergalis’s shot.

“Matt needs to bring his vote out. That’s what’s he needs to do if he’s going to make some inroads here,” Winters says.