There's a little place in East Cambridge--it used to be a synagogue--where Portuguese Americans whoop it up every Friday night. Ernie Souza's combo plays in one corner and a bar stretches along the back wall. As Al Vellucci enters, the noise and the laughter shifts towards the door.

"HEY, AL."

"HIYA BEEN, AL."

Ernie's band strikes up "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," and Vellucci weaves among the tables clasping hands and patting shoulders. He edges toward the microphone.

"The other day my wife and I were talking about our trip to Europe. I asked her where she'd like to go if she could return." Vellucci pauses momentarily to let the tension peak. "Quick-like she replied 'PORTUGAL.'" That snapped the silence and the shouting and clapping began again.

Al Vellucci, like his eight colleagues on the City Council, is taking inventory this year. Each surveys his own stock of votes: Vellucci in his East Cambridge strongholds, Thomas H. D. Mahoney (chairman of the history department at M.I.T.) at evening coffees and cocktail parties in the affluent Brattle Street neighborhood, and Dan Hayes in North Cambridge. When the ballots are counted on Nov. 2, each will know whether his assets are still negotiable.

Competition in the 1965 campaign market is tight. All the nine incumbents are seeking re-election, but there's a good chance that at least one of them will get bumped off. Though this may not seem very exciting, or even very tight, it is--and it could change the very ground rules of the city's politics.

Delicate Balance

Political power in the Council is on a delicately balanced scale. Councillors endorsed by the Cambridge Civic Association--a group largely composed of people from the Brattle Street area--hold four seats, including the mayor's chair. The independents--those unendorsed--have the other five.

"The one thing that's true about the independents," a common cliche goes, "is that they're independent of each other." Thus, although the mayor is elected by the Council, and although the independents have had 5-4 majorities for the last two sessions, they have been unable to elect one of their own to the job. One independent--it has been Al Vellucci both times--has always defected and voted for CCA-endorsed Edward A. Crane '35.

But 1965 offers the possibility that the independents will come up with six seats on the Council, and the talk in some political circles is that there will not only be a new mayor, but also a new city manager. That would be quite a change. There have been only two managers (the manager is a full-time professional who runs the city day to day) since Cambridge adopted this form of government in 1941. The present manager, John J. Curry '19, has held his job for nearly 15 years.

But talk is only talk, and the rumors of bold change by the independents assume two things: 1) that they will indeed get their sixth seat; and 2) that their larger majority will work together.

Proportional Representation

Frankly, many politicians are skeptical about both questions. But they will agree that it is the first--the sixth independent seat--that is most important, and here their doubt is greatest. The city's weird electoral system--proportional representation (PR)--simply works against the election of a sixth independent.

PR operates this way: a voter can vote for as many candidates as he pleases. He lists the candidates in order of preference (1. 2. 3...etc.). All the ballots are first given to the candidate who has the "number one vote." On the basis of total turnout, a quota (1/10 of the vote plus one) needed for election is determined. If any of the candidates has enough number one votes" to meet the quota (two or three men usually do), they are declared elected. Then any of their votes in excess of the quota are distributed to the person who is in the number two position on each ballot. Simultaneously, those candidates who have the lowest total of "number one votes" are eliminated, and their ballots are given to those in the number two position. The elimination of low-scoring candidates and redistribution of their votes continues until nine people have met the quota. The whole process takes days and has important implications for the nature of Cambridge politics.