Incumbent candidate David P. Maher is reusing signs from his last election this year, saying that he is more about issues than campaigns.

Five days after negotiating a multi-million dollar zoning agreement between Harvard and Cambridge’s Riverside neighborhood, City Councillor David P. Maher kicks off his day by waving at the traffic for two hours.

“This is the public humiliation phase of the campaign,” he said from the center of the Fresh Pond rotary. “No one wants to be waving at cars.”

A policy wonk known for negotiating complicated and lengthy zoning agreements—and for winning elections by a razor-thin margin—Maher says politicking is not his forte.

Nevertheless, flanked by half a dozen supporters, the 45-year-old incumbent put on his best smile to greet thousands of cars, which rush by the rotary.

“When they see you out working hard it actually makes them feel better about who they’re voting for,” he says.

Cambridge Mayor Michael A. Sullivan toots his horn and waves as he whirls around the rotary in his SUV.

Like Maher, Sullivan is one of nine incumbent city councillors seeking re-election in today’s election. Eleven challengers are also vying for spots on the council.

Maher draws his strongest support from West and North Cambridge, and his base includes a lot of firefighters, police officers and teachers. His elementary school gym teacher joined him on the rotary to hold a sign for two hours.

Cambridge’s “proportional representation” election system means that every vote counts.

Voters rank their choices, and when a candidate gets enough top votes to achieve “quota”—10 percent of the vote—the rest of their ballots are credited to the next candidate on the ballot.

This year’s election has been very quiet so far, Maher says.

Maher still glows when he talks about the compromise he helped engineer between Harvard and Riverside. Under the final agreement, passed at a marathon meeting last Monday, Harvard will give the neighborhood a public park and 30-34 units of affordable housing. In exchange, the University will be able to develop its property in the area.

Like most city council incumbents, Maher claims credit for the agreement, which he calls a “huge accomplishment.”

“When you think about the naturally tense relationship—the huge University in a very small city and encroachment it involves—it is the first time in that relationship that city council took a proactive role and got more than before,” he says.

But as Maher went door-to-door on the other side of Cambridge, retracing the steps the previous night’s trick-or-treaters, the Riverside deal seemed distant to voters.