School Committee Race Official After 4 Days and 13 Counts

After four days and 13 rounds of vote counting, election officials last night announced final results in the Cambridge School Committee race.

The final tally confirms earlier results a high showed a shift in the balance of power toward Independent and non-affiliated candidates.

Although two challengers backed by the liberal Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) led the field, four of the six incumbents, all Independents, were victorious, disrupting the previous balance of three CCA affiliates to three Independents.

The results do not necessarily indicate a conservative shift because one of the non-affiliated victors, Glen S Koocher '71, shares the CCA's liberal platform. Political differences led to Koocher's disendorsement by the organization last year.

Frances H. Cooper, one of the elected CCA challengers, said yesterday that despite the candidates affiliation. "There is a possibility for coalition because there is a lot of common ground between us on issues."

Besides Cooper and Koocher, the candidates elected were CCA-backed Rena Leib and Independent incumbents Alfred B. Fantini, Jane F. Sullivan, and Joseph E. Maynard.

Experts had predicted the finish from the first count, but the final results were delayed by Cambridge's antiquated system of proportional representation. Under this system, voters rank candidates in order of preference, and candidates are elected when they reach a quota or percentage of all votes. Their surplus votes and the votes of eliminated candidates are redistributed to the next person listed on each ballot.

Cooper was the only candidate to reach the quota in the first round of voting Cooper, who was anxious to give credit "to all those people who trooped out to ring door bells and miss their dinners for me," urged Harvard students to take an interest in public education.

Rena Leib was the second candidate to reach quota. "It was a pretty good showing for a first time candidate and that feels good," she said yesterday, adding that she hoped the school committee would "focus on setting policy and holding administration to it, rather than wasting time on trivial grievances."

Connolly

The second candidate to be eliminated from the 16-person field was Winthrop House resident David B. Connolly '85.

Connolly yesterday blamed his defeat on age, his relative political anonymity and a small campaign budget. Connolly said he was hurt because many Harvard ballots were disallowed because they were marked with an "X" by his name instead of the obligatory number. Connolly said he is "proud" of his showing, adding that he definitely plans to run again in the future.