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{shortcode-1843dd5137d2df7c51c1b84fffddbcce27b6c33b}n the months ahead of Cambridge’s municipal elections, postcards touting candidate slates find themselves in every resident’s mailbox. Thousands of yard signs pitch across the city as social media ads inundate residents’ feeds.

All of these are funded by the money that the Independent Expenditure Political Action Committees — better known as “superPACs” — raise throughout the year.

The three super PACs in the city — Cambridge Citizens Coalition, A Better Cambridge, and Cambridge Bicycle Safety — have become the biggest names not on the ballot. Through their fundraising campaigns and endorsements, the groups have molded discussions around hot-button issues over the last six years.

“95 percent of the work we do is not on housing or bike lanes, but those are the two issues that are really quite important to residents,” Burhan Azeem, a current city councilor, said. “Those are the two areas where Cambridge has to take a stance — and then all these PACs form around, almost entirely.”

Though strictly prohibited from coordinating their spending with candidates, super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts. Cambridge’s three super PACs collectively raised and spent more than $60,000 in the last election.

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Their impact is noticeable. Every current city councilor received an endorsement from at least one of the city’s three super PACs.

But the super PACs that bankroll Cambridge politics are not just fundraising arms. They take polarizing issues, a unique electoral process, and limitless contributions and turn them into rival political identities.

Election ‘Impossible’ Without Endorsements

Cambridge has used a ranked-choice system for its municipal elections since 1939. As the system forces candidates to vie for support beyond their solidified bases, they have tapped into super PACs to reach voters in recent years.

Cambridge has long been home to a slew of Political Action Committees — groups that have the ability to coordinate fundraising with candidates directly, and can accept up to $500 from an individual in annual donations.

But Cambridge’s three super PACs operate differently. Without the constraints of a contribution limit, the groups have larger spending power in the elections. But this comes at the cost of not being able to make direct donations to candidates.

Regardless of the constraints, current and former Councilors said the super PACs are uniquely positioned to help candidates by establishing a slate of endorsements for voters to rely on as they go to the ballot box.

“There’s actually very few people who win who are not on either of the slates,” Azeem said.

The current council reflects the power of a super PAC endorsement — as well as their ideological divisions.

Councilors Patricia M. “Patty” Nolan ’80, Paul F. Toner, and Catherine “Cathie” Zusy all took CCC endorsements in the last election, their voting records often aligning with the PAC’s reservations around the city’s ambitious housing reforms.

Meanwhile, Azeem, Sumbul Siddiqui, Jivan G. Sobrinho-Wheeler, Vice Mayor Marc C. McGovern, and Mayor E. Denise Simmons were all endorsed by ABC, pushing for increased housing development throughout their terms. Ayesha M. Wilson was the only current councilor to accept endorsements from both groups.

Cambridge Bike Safety endorses any candidate who signs their pledge —adding Azeem, McGovern, Nolan, Siddiqui, and Sobrinho-Wheeler to their 2023 slate.

Quinton Y. Zondervan, who served on the Council from 2018 to 2023, was the last candidate to be elected without the backing of one of the super PACs. And though he attributes his reelection to his incumbency, the growing influence of the super PACs has made it difficult for newcomers to break the ice.

“I think for new candidates, it was definitely impossible to get elected without being endorsed by one or the other,” Zondervan said, referring to CCC and ABC.

‘Two Political Parties’

As super PACS have come to dominate elections across the city, the ideological divides which catalyzed their development have taken center stage for the Council.

Cambridge’s 2019 election cycle was driven by debate over the Affordable Housing Overlay — a controversial policy that gave rise to super PACs on both sides of the aisle.

The AHO, passed by the Council in 2020, allows developers to bypass existing zoning restrictions to build developments containing 100 percent affordable units with more density and height than is typically allowed.

In the AHO’s wake, residents formed the CCC’s super PAC in 2021 to platform concerns about the rapid pace of development in the city. At the same time, ABC established their own super PAC — seeking to maximize the impact of their pro-development housing advocacy.

In each election since 2021, the CCC and ABC have endorsed candidates based on their responses to a questionnaire. They generally pick a slate of at least nine, publicizing the candidates’ stances on hot button issues, from housing development to zoning reform.

“There were people that were willing to go out and talk to residents at their doorsteps about why they were supporting such a pro-housing candidate slate and actually how to vote,” Alanna M. Mallon, a former three-term Councilor, said.

But some have criticized the super PACs for hyperpolarizing Cambridge’s political discourse as ABC and CCC wage competing campaigns.

“You treat everything as a binary — as black or white, and with or against you — and the PAC encourages that type of behavior,” Ilan Levy, a four-time City Council candidate, said.

He added that the two slates embody “two political parties” in the city — the old guard of longtime residents and newcomers brought to Cambridge for professional and academic opportunities.

“Old Cambridge wants its money and has a certain agenda, and it’s rooted in a much more conservative frame of mind, in general,” he said. “On the other side, the new people are here, and they’ve been living here and enjoying a certain quality of life and the benefit that Cambridge has to offer — and want to make sure that that remains a possibility.”

While Zondervan said the super PACs can offer a “certain complexity and richness in the conversation” by clearly articulating a plurality of resident viewpoints, McGovern believes that they have contributed to a divisive attitude around city policy discussions.

“Unfortunately, even on a local level, politics is a little bit of a dirty business,” McGovern said.

“We’re all local people who are trying to do what we think is in the best interest of the city, and that may differ. We may differ from each other on that, but nobody is a bad person. And I think sometimes these groups try to portray people as bad people,” he added.

Following the Money

As the impacts of super PACs in city politics increase, they have relied on their extensive fundraising to market their slates — amplifying their distinct vision for Cambridge’s future.

Cambridge’s super PACs have gathered and spent more than $150,000 collectively since the 2021 election cycle, drawing funding from across the city and the country.

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While the CCC primarily sources its funding from West Cambridge households, ABC sees financial support from across the city and the nation. Levy, the former Council candidate, said this is in line with CCC’s targeted advocacy around local development.

“It was born out of West Cambridge, because they had issues with development, and they realized that if community groups didn’t come together, then they wouldn’t have the leverage,” he said.

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Levy said that ABC, conversely, has a more “policy-driven agenda” that draws in a broader coalition of donors.

ABC attributes their donations from across the country to social media. As members of the group posted about housing issues in Cambridge, they began to see donations from outside of Cambridge, according to Neil Miller, a volunteer organizer with ABC’s super PAC.

“ABC was one of the earliest successful pro-housing groups in America, and sometimes some of our members would post about housing politics in Cambridge and the success that we’re having, and say that people should donate to ABC to help,” Miller said.

In each election, the groups spend nearly as much as they raise. Since February 2021, CCC has spent nearly $70,000 and ABC has spent nearly $34,000. Bike Safety has spent almost $40,000 of the nearly $53,000 they raised.

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For ABC and CCC, around 80 percent of their expenditures went to what voters see — yard signs, flyers, postcards, and digital campaigns — key to communicating their endorsed slates of candidates to residents.

What voters don’t see is the other 20 percent. Among the super PACs, between $1,000 and $4,000 go to donation processing, with other costs reflecting different priorities.

Compared to ABC and CCC, Bike Safety spends less on printing and digital promotion — just under 70 percent — and more on volunteers for fundraising events and canvassing.

CCC is unique among the super PACs in its expenditure on legal fees, which it logs as “campaign management” and “political consulting,” and on “voter data analysis.” Bike Safety, similarly to CCC, spent money on obtaining voter registration information, while ABC did not log any such fees as part of their expenditures.

As each super PAC cultivates its own fundraising strategy, spending habits, and ideological mission, the organizations have embedded themselves within the fabric of Cambridge’s government for the foreseeable future.

“Democracy is a living thing. So, out of the setup and the rules that we have put together, what emanates and what drives us to the top is the PACs,” Levy said.

—Staff writer Stephanie Dragoi can be reached at stephanie.dragoi@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Jack B. Reardon can be reached at jack.reardon@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @JackBReardon.

—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart