Cambridge Civic Association
This page is written for the Cambridge Civic Journal, not to be confused with the Cambridge Civic Association.
Its purpose is to offer some history and current information about the CCA.
It should not be interpreted as an official statement by the CCA.

The CCA in 2003 

The Cambridge Civic Association today is a 58 year old civic organization committed to electing responsive government officials who are dedicated to increasing affordable housing and open space; managing development; promoting excellence in every school; competently overseeing City finances; providing responsive city services; and making City government more open and accessible to all residents. 

In contrast to the widespread civic activism of decades ago or the highly charged atmosphere of Cambridge's rent control era, the prominence of the CCA has faded to some degree. Declining civic participation is a national problem and Cambridge is not immune to these apathetic times. CCA membership is down and the activity of the Civic Association has decreased greatly over the past decade. Nonetheless, the CCA’s role in “seeking and supporting the candidacy of competent men and women in public office” is still highly valued within the CCA membership and among many Cambridge voters. 

Consequently, the CCA in 2003 has chosen, as it has done for six decades, to endorse candidates for the Cambridge City Council and Cambridge School Committee. All candidates for City Council and School Committee were contacted during August regarding their interest in seeking CCA endorsement in this year’s election. Candidate interviews took place between Sept 4 and Sept 9 and endorsement decision were made on Sept 10. The CCA plans to accompany its endorsements with broad distribution of information about its endorsed candidates and/or slate cards for voters to take to the polls on Election Day.

The CCA believes strongly that its endorsed candidates should be ranked highest on the ballots of all Cambridge voters. It recognizes, however, that there is room for disagreement among honest people, and therefore promises to cooperate fully with any elected non-endorsed candidates.

The CCA 2003 Platforms for City Council and School Committee are included here. 
For more information, visit the CCA's official website at http://www.cambridgecivic.org.

The Origins of the CCA 
The Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) was formed in July 1945 when its predecessor organizations, the Committee for Plan E (formed in 1938), the Cambridge Citizens Committee, and the Cambridge Taxpayers Association merged. At that time, a separate nonpolitical entity known as the Cambridge Research Association was also formed. The Plan E Committee endorsed candidates in the 1941 and 1943 elections and the role of candidate endorsements passed to the newly formed CCA in 1945.
Read the Cambridge Chronicle articles (July 12, 1945) on the formation of the CCA.

An article, probably dating to about 1951 (author unknown, for the moment), described the origins of the CCA as follows:

When the CCA was formed in 1945, it announced itself as “a political association dedicated to promoting honest and efficient local government through the support of the council-manager plan, working for and supporting competency in the office of city manager, working for and improving the school system of the city, and freeing the school system from all influences other than those which will provide the best possible education for the children of Cambridge, and seeking and supporting the candidacy of competent men and women in public office.”

The CCA would carry on the practice of the Plan E Committee in urging “competent persons” to run for office, in investigating the qualifications of all candidates, in interviewing candidates who wished to be interviewed, and in selecting a slate of endorsed candidates whose campaigns it would finance and support. The Research Association was to be a non-political, public service investigative agency. It is the Civic Association which has since 1945 been identified by both friend and foe as the growing force standing behind Plan E government in Cambridge. That there was in 1945 a kernel of truth lying behind the suspicions and charges of inhabitants and councillors from the “lower wards” that the CCA was a group representing “Taxpayers-Republicans-Money-Brattle Street-Harvard” is suggested by a glance of its board of directors of the organization as it stood at the time of its formation. In ensuing years, steps have been taken to improve the representative character of this board. Furthermore, endorsements of candidates have reflected attention to spreading support among all wards and nationality and religious groups. Indeed, the prominent role in the Plan E movement played by a number of citizens of Irish descent; the strong and almost consistent support of the CCA program given by Edward A. Crane, an Irish democrat, son of a former police officer, and the council’s leading vote-getter; the similar support of Joseph A. DeGuglielmo who gets much of the Italian vote in the community group in Ward 1; and even the religion and national party affiliations of the city manager, have made it impossible for the opposition to make its charges stick with effective force.

The new organization of Plan E support has worked far more effectively than the old. Larger sums of money have been obtained spent for campaign expenditures for CCA-endorsed candidates, for periodic bulletins on civic affairs, and for other activities aimed at promoting Plan E government. Membership has grown from 880 in December 1945 to 1200 a year later and to 2200 in December 1949. The CCA stands as an organized political force ready to work for efficient government, a source of great strength for the city manager and for the councillors and school committeemen whom it endorses and who remain loyal to its objectives.

– excerpted from materials, circa 1951, provided by Glenn Koocher

The Origins of the Plan E Charter 
The Mass. Legislature in 1938 approved a fifth charter option for cities, the Plan E Charter, which allowed for a city manager form of government and proportional representation elections. After an unsuccessful attempt in 1938, Cambridge in 1940 became the first Massachusetts city to adopt the Plan E charter. Most cities and towns in the United States now have a city manager or a town manager, but Cambridge is the only city in the US that retains both of the prime features of the original Plan E charter, namely a city manager form of government and proportional representation elections.

Background material on the origins of Plan E by David Goode, Eliot Spalding 

Observations on Cambridge City Government under Plan E,  by former Mayor Edward A. Crane  
(from Cambridge Historical Society Proceedings, 1976-1979)

The True Experience of Proportional Representation in American Cities - by Kathleen Barber

Cambridge Civic Journal