The other four votes initially went to Councillor Henrietta Davis, who served as vice mayor last term. Davis sat on the school committee for four years before her election to the council in 1995.
“I’m disappointed,” Davis said. “I had hoped to have the opportunity to work particularly with the school committee on the schools, but it was not to be.”
Councillors Brian P. Murphy ’86-’87 and E. Denise Simmons changed their votes from Davis to Reeves—who himself served two consecutive terms as mayor from 1992-1995—but none of the other councillors changed their votes, and it did not affect the outcome.
Both Galluccio and Decker said after the meeting that they had wanted to be mayor themselves, but put their support behind Sullivan after deciding they would not have the votes necessary to win.
“I felt that Michael was in the best position to bring the type of continuity and leadership that we need right now,” said Galluccio, who preceded Sullivan as mayor and also sought re-election last term.
Though Sullivan was not actively looking to be re-elected, he said he told other councillors he would be willing to serve again if asked.
In an interview he said he was aware of several other councillors’ desires to be mayor, but hoped they would be able to put aside any hard feelings and work together.
“It has not always been a pretty process,” Sullivan said of the mayoral elections. “Today was not a pretty process.”
Davis said she had been unable to predict going into the election whether she had the votes to win.
“These elections are always difficult,” she said. “I was elected by the people of the city to serve them and my focus is to carry on and do that.”
After the meeting, several councillors criticized the process by which the mayor is chosen.
“Too bad there isn’t a more civilized way to do this,” said Councillor David P. Maher, who voted for Davis.
Galluccio blamed the process for producing “unpredictable and undemocratic and unfair results.” He pledged to work on changing the system so the mayor is elected directly by Cambridge voters.
—Staff writer Jessica R. Rubin-Wills can be reached at rubinwil@fas.harvard.edu.