Cambridge councilor wins write-in bid

She was the butt of jokes and a target of criticism after her campaign missed the crucial deadline to get her name on the November ballot.

But yesterday, Decker and her supporters were the ones laughing after the five-term councilor pulled off a stunning victory to retain her seat, marking the first write-in victory of any candidate in the city’s history, political observers said.

“I wouldn’t have predicted it,’’ said Robert Moncrieff, who served on the council in the early 1970s. “It’s a very difficult thing to do. . . . I don’t know how she did it.’’

James Rafferty, a lawyer and former School Committee member, said Decker’s victory is a milestone for Cambridge, as well as the candidate.

“She got more votes this week than she has in the last five elections when her name was on the ballot, which is a testament to what she accomplished,’’ said Rafferty.

During this year’s elections, incumbent councilor Larry Ward lost his seat, and newcomer Leland Cheung, an MIT grad student who tapped into local social networking sites, became the first Asian-American elected to the nine-member council, said Rafferty.

Decker, who seemed a little stunned by the scope of the win, said she was confident in her abilities to mount a spirited campaign. “I knew that good, old-fashioned retail politics was going to win this election,’’ Decker said.

In the 12 weeks since her campaign gaffe, Decker turned to the scores who had supported her over her five terms in office, knocking on doors, handing out fliers, and reminding voters to vote for her using a sticker or writing in her name.

“I am so deeply grateful to the people of Cambridge who worked so hard, because they support me personally, but really because they support the issues,’’ she said.

Decker said she initially broke down in tears after she discovered that her former campaign manager had gotten the date wrong for the ballot signatures. And she took a lot of heat over the error. Some supporters questioned how a five-term councilor and a stellar campaigner could have allowed such a rookie mistake, and others stopped donating to her campaign because of the error, she said.

She kept the former campaign manager, whom she did not name, and she kept on campaigning.

“People make mistakes,’’ she said, looking tired yet happy at her Porter Square headquarters yesterday.

Cambridge elects representatives proportionally, an unusual system that allows voters to rank candidates in order of preferences. Adopted more than a half century ago, the process is designed to give smaller constituencies the ability to elect candidates.

Candidates must get a little more than one-tenth of the vote to be elected. With 16,000 people voting this year, candidates needed about 1,600 votes to fill the nine at-large council seats.

To win, Decker needed voters to rank her number one on the ballot or make her a top choice. And they did: She picked up 1,285 number one votes, she said.

The large turnout stumped election officials, who spent about three days tabulating write-in votes, many of them for Decker.

By Thursday, Decker’s name appeared on the city’s unofficial list of elected council candidates. The official results cannot be declared until Friday, when provisional and oversees ballots will be counted.

Yesterday Decker said she got up at 5 in the morning, played with her young son and later had breakfast with her longtime friend Jeni Wheeler, who took over as her campaign manager after the gaffe.

In the upcoming days they plan to thank supporters for sticking with the campaign and to ask them for donations to pay campaign debt.

Until then, Decker is kicking back, savoring coffee and her victory. “I’m really tired,’’ she said. “In some ways it’s been a whirlwind, but in other ways it just feels like it’s been the longest 12 weeks I’ve ever experienced.’’