More than two dozen city activists are calling U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders� appearance this morning at ONCE Somerville, where he joined Our Revolution Cambridge in its endorsement of six City Council candidates, counter-productive to the organization�s mission of uniting progressives.

In a letter dated Oct. 21, 27 signers, including state Rep. Marjorie Decker, D-Cambridge, and former state representative and mayor Alice Wolf, argued that a majority of the other 20 candidates are equally, if not more, progressive than the ones endorsed by the local branch. They called on Sanders to do his own research and to be more careful before publicly endorsing candidates. His time, they said, is better spent in other communities, not progressive bastions like Cambridge and Somerville.

�If � you rely on the local Our Revolution organization to nominate candidates for endorsement, you lose control of the process they use and expose yourself to the risk that the local organization will nominate candidates based on their agenda and not yours,� read the letter.

�Intervening in the Cambridge City Council race is a counterproductive choice and divides, rather than unites, progressives here,� the letter continued.

Six candidates endorsed



Last week, Our Revolution Cambridge, a local branch of the national movement spawned from Sanders� presidential campaign in 2016, released the names of five City Council candidates its members were endorsing: Dennis Carlone, Jan Devereux, Sumbul Siddiqui, Vatsady Sivongxay and Quinton Zondervan. A sixth candidate, Jeff Santos, was also added to the endorsement list by the national branch.

The local branch is made up of about 40 active members, of which 16 were named to a committee to help select City Council race endorsements, according to Our Revolution Cambridge member Sean McFarland. As part of the endorsement process, which began in May, an 80-question survey was sent out to the candidates, who had a two-week period to complete it. Based on the responses, the committee ranked and chose candidates to be invited to a panel discussion with the general membership. After the forum, the members voted to determine which candidates to endorse.

�What can [Sanders] do better than have the local people in the municipality reviewing the endorsements,� asked McFarland.