Seven out of the nine Cambridge City Council members elected yesterday had received endorsements from Cambridge Bike Safety, the volunteer organization that's working to improve bike infrastructure in the Commonwealth's fourth-biggest city.
Cambridge's entire City Council was up for reelection yesterday in one of the state's few ranked-choice voting races, which lets voters rank multiple candidates such that their ballots are re-allocated to their second or third choices if their first choice doesn't get enough votes.
Cambridge Bike Safety endorsed seven candidates – including four incumbents – as "bike champions," its strongest endorsement.
Five of those candidates – the incumbents Burhan Azeem, Marc McGovern, Sumbul Siddiqui, and Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, plus newcomer Ayah Al-Zubi – also won the most first-choice votes in yesterday's elections.
Cambridge Bike Safety also endorsed five other candidates as "bike supporters," candidates who also pledged to support the city's bike network plan, but gave more cautious responses in the group's candidate questionnaire.
Voters elected two of those candidates – Catherine Zusy and Patricia Nolan, who finished in eight and ninth place, respectively.
Only two candidates who did not receive any Cambridge Bike Safety endorsements won seats on the new City Council. They are longtime incumbent E. Denise Simmons, who's served on the Council since 2002, and Tim Flaherty, an attorney who's defending former Councilor Paul Toner from allegations that Toner paid for sex from a local brothel.
