Cambridge councilor’s gaffe has cost her name on ballot

Not to a veteran city councilor.

Not to a longtime civic leader.

Certainly not to Marjorie Decker.

For 10 years, Decker has been a force on the council, a vocal champion of unions, women, youth, and the elderly. But her council position appears to be in jeopardy after she recently missed a crucial deadline to get the 50 signatures needed for her name to appear on the November ballot.

Now the five-term city councilor is in a fight for her political life as she wages a write-in campaign to keep her seat - the first such effort in the city, according to the elections commission.

Decker faults a “campaign snafu’’ - there was a mix-up about when the signatures were due - and has accepted the blame.

“The truth is when I first found this out of course I was really upset. How could I not be?’’ Decker, 37, said in an interview recently. “But I’m also really energized by this. There is a bit of excitement here.’’

News of the campaign error has been fodder for opponents on YouTube and talk radio. Her failure to make the ballot has left her supporters scratching their heads; some wonder how a councilor with a successful campaign record would allow such a slip to happen.

Robert Winters, editor of the Cambridge Civil Journal, said it was a huge gaffe for someone as seasoned as Decker.

“I think there really was some serious disorganization in the campaign,’’ he said. “Nobody was minding the store. Virtually all candidates bring their nomination papers themselves.’’

But Decker said she is not down yet.

She knows about hard fights. She was the first in her family to graduate from high school, she said, and the first one to claw her way out of the projects. She’s been written off before and she’s vowing a comeback.

“There is just too much at stake here for me to waste my time and waste the time of my supporters if I didn’t think there was a clear shot here,’’ said Decker.

Cambridge has a proportional representation election system, which allows voters to rank the candidates in order of preference. The winners are determined through a complex scoring system designed to give smaller constituencies representation at the governing table.

This year, 20 candidates - including Decker - are vying for nine City Council seats, all at-large positions. To win, Decker will have to persuade people not just to write her name in or use a sticker that her campaign will provide, but to give her their highest ranking. That tactic gives candidates the best chance of winning.

“It’s a serious undertaking,’’ said Kathy Roberts, a former preschool director and ardent Decker supporter. “It’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of organization.’’

Supporters like Roberts are confident Decker will keep her seat this November.

“It’s unfortunate’’ about the ballot problem, said Brad Tenney, a former president of the Cambridge Firefighters Union who worked with Decker on labor issues. “I wish she were on the ballot. But this will force her friends and supporters to just work harder’’ for her.

But Decker also has her critics, who would prefer she not return to the council.

Henry Irving, chairman of the Cambridge Republican City Committee, criticized Decker for what he called “far-left, fringe-thinking’’ views. He pointed to a Decker proposal that would have given Harvard hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal stimulus money to keep more than a dozen workers from being laid off.

“She’s the farthest left councilor there is at the moment,’’ he said. “She’s probably the least flexible of the councilors, given her far-left thinking.’’

Attorney Robert J. La Trémouille said Decker’s record is poor on the environment, poor on issues, and poor for not firing city manager Robert Healy after a court ordered Cambridge to pay former city employee Malvina Monteiro $4.5 million in a discrimination lawsuit.

“I see her as a part of a pattern of destructiveness and a pattern of lies’’ in the city, La Trémouille said.

On YouTube, someone posted a clip that includes a poster announcing Decker’s birthday and a song from “The Wizard of Oz’’ called “Ding Dong The Witch is Dead.’’

Decker said she refuses to look at the YouTube postings and added that her critics have no interest in the kind of work she does.

She chalked off the Harvard issue as a “tongue-in-cheek’’ proposal to shame the institution for putting poor people out of work. She said she has stood up to Healy, refusing to back his efforts to appeal the Monteiro verdict.

For the past two weeks Decker has been on a whirlwind effort of door-to-door canvassing, letter writing, and holding coffee talks to build her case for returning to the council.

She has also not ruled out using her Hollywood connections - childhood pals Matt Damon and Ben Affleck - who have rallied for her before.

Asked whether she will call on the actors in this campaign, Decker demurred.

“I’m going to do everything that I’ve always done,’’ she said.

Meghan E. Irons can be reached at mirons@globe.com.

Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story in yesterday’s Metro section about Cambridge City Councilor Marjorie Decker incorrectly identified an online journal that chronicles Cambridge political news. It is the Cambridge Civic Journal.