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In the race for Cambridge City Council, successful candidates had at least one thing in common: they led campaign fundraising in the 2025 election cycle.
The nine best-funded candidates in the local race each won seats on the Council in the Nov. 4 election, raising anywhere from $9.50 to $82.90 per vote they received.
According to data from the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance, the nine candidates elected to the Council this cycle — challengers Ayah Al-Zubi ’23 and Timothy R. Flaherty, and incumbents Marc C. McGovern, Sumbul Siddiqui, Burhan Azeem, Jivan G. Sobrinho-Wheeler, E. Denise Simmons, Patricia M. “Patty” Nolan ’80, and Catherine “Cathie” Zusy — were also the candidates whose campaigns made the deepest inroads among donors.
Cumulatively, the top nine candidates raised more than $428,000, while the 10 other candidates in the race raised less than a third of the electees.
Flaherty was the top fundraiser in the race, raising more than $150,000 to secure his seat in Sullivan Chamber. Of those elected, Siddiqui raised the least — about $27,000 — but began the season with more than $19,000 left over in her campaign account from previous races.
At the end of October, candidates had raised more than $538,000 for the election cycle. By election day, the candidates raised more than $560,000.
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That cash funded a fight for the more than 25,500 ballots cast in the City Council race — up from the roughly 23,000 ballots cast for Council in 2023.
Cambridge used a proportional representation system in elections, allowing voters to rank nine candidates in order of preference. A quota is set based on the number of ballots and if candidates reach the quota they earn a seat. The candidate with the lowest votes is eliminated from the race and their votes are redistributed according to their voters’ second choice, with the process continuing until all nine seats are filled.
This year, according to unofficial results published by the Cambridge Election Commission, Siddiqui and McGovern were elected on the first count. Siddiqui received 2,869 votes and McGovern received 2,863.
Simmons, Nolan, and Flaherty were the last to be elected, all earning seats in the fourteenth and final count.
While each of the nine top fundraisers won seats on the Council, the amount they fundraised per number one votes they received varied wildly. Siddiqui received the most votes, and raised the least per ballot — nearly $10 per vote. McGovern, who was within six votes of Siddiqui, raised $19 per vote he received.
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Flaherty’s hefty war chest totaled to nearly $83 per vote he received — more than double the second most, Simmons, with nearly $35 per vote. Al-Zubi, the other challenger elected, raised a fraction of Flaherty’s numbers, with a total of about $11 per vote, yet was elected earlier in the count.
The final election results will be announced Friday Nov. 14, though with only a small amount of ballots still uncounted, the Council electees are unlikely to change.
—Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at shawn.boehmer@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.
—Staff writer Jack B. Reardon can be reached at jack.reardon@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @JackBReardon.
