At-Large Candidates Talk Tax Increases, Council Salaries
By Martin Austermuhle, DCist.com (link)
At a forum hosted by The Georgetown Dish and Georgetown Current yesterday evening, five candidates for the April 26 At-Large Special Election debated each other, touching upon a number of issues including the District's looming 2012 budget deficit and D.C. Council salaries. (Check out our Twitter timeline of the whole debate here.)
Patterson Brings Hefty Resume to At-Large Council Race
By Martin Austermuhle, DCist.com (link)
It's not particularly relevant, but it's interesting none the less -- Jacque Patterson spent 14 years in active-duty military service, escorting chaplains to the front line so they could perform religious services. "I'm real good, to say the least," Patterson told DCist last week, referring to his ability to handle M-16s and 9mm handguns.
That's not the sort of thing I felt inclined to question.
Patterson is one of 10 candidates vying for the seat once held by D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown, and he's looking to translate an extensive and diverse resume into a win on April 26. Beyond his military service, Patterson has worked for the District government under Mayor Anthony Williams, served four terms on a Ward 8 ANC and sat on the Bicycle Advisory Council, the Historic Preservation Review Board and the Board of Directors of the D.C. Housing Finance Agency for Affordable Housing. Patterson currently serves as president of the Ward 8 Democrats and a managing director at the Federal City Council.
At-Large Race Narrowed Down To 10 Candidates
By Martin Austermuhle, DCist.com
(link)
First, there were 21. Then 11. Now, only 10 candidates remain in the race for the April 26 At-Large Special Election -- and in the coming week, there's a slight chance that the field may be narrowed down further.
Over the weekend, Calvin Gurley was knocked out of contention for not attaining the 3,000 signatures necessary to get on the ballot for the election to fill the seat once held by D.C. Council Chair Kwame "Fully Loaded" Brown. Ten other candidates turned in the required signatures last Wednesday, ranging from Interim Councilmember Sekou Biddle's 8,800 to former Ward 1 council candidate Bryan Weaver's 3,400.
Saturday marked the start of a 10-day challenge period, during which residents are allowed to inspect any and all of the nominating petitions turned in by candidates for irregularities that could disqualify certain signatures and potentially knock candidates off of the ballot. Any D.C. resident can truck on down to the Board of Elections and Ethics -- and yes, the office is open today, with BOEE workers being allowed to take the mandatory furlough day at another point during the year -- request any of the nominating petitions and go through the painstaking process of checking signatures against information in the D.C. voter registry. In the brief visit I made to BOEE this morning, I checked a few of Biddle's signatures against information in the registry, and everything seemed to come up clean.
Challenges are part and parcel of the District's democratic process, and have been successful in denying candidates access to the ballot over the years. Most famous is the case of former Mayor Anthony Williams, who was knocked off the ballot in 2002 and fined close to $300,000 after hundreds of his signatures were effectively challenged. (Williams ended up running as a write-in and won re-election.) Just last year, Gurley's run for the Council chairmanship was cut short when challenges to his nominating petitions brought him 148 signatures short of the required 2,000 to get on the ballot. Gurley's either very unlucky or just not very good at gathering signatures.
The last day for challenges is February 28; BOEE will publish its determination on who gets on the ballot and who doesn't by March 15.
At-Large Council Candidates File Nominating Petitions
By Martin Austermuhle, DCist.com (link)
Just as you're leaving the office to head home, candidates for the April 26 Special Election to fill the At-Large seat once occupied by D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown will be handing in their nominating petitions to the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics. To actually get on the ballot, candidates had to gather 3,000 signatures by 5 p.m. today, which meant long hours of standing outside of Metro stations and supermarkets in less-than-ideal weather. Being the creatures of curiosity that we are, we informally reached out to a number of the candidates to see how many signatures they were planning on turning in today.
Interim Councilmember Sekou Biddle's campaign said it would have roughly 8,000, while former D.C. Council Chair hopeful Vincent Orange filed around 6,000. Patrick Mara, the sole Republican in the race, tweeted on Monday that he had delivered 5,500, and followed up with another few hundred today. Jacque Patterson told us yesterday that he had roughly 3,600; he was hoping to close out today with 4,500. Josh Lopez, who had at least 3,000 when he filed his petitions on January 10, said he was gunning for an even 6,000. Former Ward 1 council candidate Bryan Weaver said he had gotten north of 3,000 signatures, while Statehood Green Party candidate Alan Page counted roughly 3,400. Ward 7 State Board of Education member Dorothy Douglas filed her petitions on Tuesday, but we didn't get a solid count from her.
Does the number of signatures count? Yes and no.
Josh Lopez Aims To Out-Hustle Competition in At-Large Race
By Martin Austermuhle, DCist.com (link)
On the evening in early January that the D.C. Democratic State Committee gathered in a crowded conference room to select an At-Large councilmember to hold the seat until the April 26 Special Election, Ward 4 resident Josh Lopez arrived as the contested balloting was wrapping up. It didn't really matter, though -- Lopez wasn't seeking the appointment.
But the way he slipped in without attracting much attention belied the fact that the 27-year-old had already finished gathering the 3,000 signatures needed to get on the ballot, putting him weeks ahead of the many competitors he's facing in the April contest. Lopez filed his signatures with the Board of Elections and Ethics on January 11; no one has yet followed suit. Being that far ahead is just part of the challenges he faces in winning the seat, though.
D.C. Democrats Try to Mend Fences
By Martin Austermuhle, DCist.com (link)
Last week, we reported on an internal spat which broke out amongst members of the D.C. Democratic State Committee over who, if anyone, the group would endorse for the coming April 16 At-Large Special Election. The committee, which selected Interim Councilmember Sekou Biddle in early January, seemed to be leaning towards him; other Democrats in the race cried foul, arguing that the committee hadn't actually held an endorsement vote as called for in its bylaws.
Now it looks like the committee is trying to calm internal tensions and move on, though the way it's going about it may not be terribly effective. On Thursday, the same night as the first candidate forum of the campaign, the committee passed a resolution re-affirming its support for Biddle, with 38 voting for, three against and five abstaining. (The committee has 82 members, though there are currently a few vacancies; 74 members voted in the selection process that Biddle won.) The committee also voted to give Biddle's campaign $1,000, though that measure passed with narrower support: 23 voting for, 20 against and three abstaining.
The At-Large Council Candidate Forum: Who Said What
By Martin Austermuhle, DCist.com (link)
Yesterday, eight hopefuls contesting the At-Large special election on April 26 gathered for the first candidate forum of the season. Josh Lopez, Bryan Weaver, Jacque Patterson, Stanley Mayes, Vincent Orange, Alan Page, Patrick Mara and Interim Councilmember Sekou Biddle took turns answering a host of questions ranging from statehood to schools and transportation to taxes. (You can watch the whole forum here.)
The queries were diverse and incisive, but the sheer number of candidates and necessary time limits stifled discussion and made it hard to tell some of the challengers apart. Thankfully, this is but the first forum of the campaign, and we'll be interviewing the various candidates as the season continues. (Biddle was first, Lopez is up next week.)
Bryan Weaver’s Got Issues…
By Martin Austermuhle, DCist.com (link)
...but they're the good kind.
As the race for the April 26 election heats up, the many candidates vying for the At-Large seat currently held by Interim Councilmember Sekou Biddle are pushing to lay out where they stand on the many issues facing the District. The problem is that they're not doing a particularly good job of it.
A review of the campaign websites of declared candidates finds that only Weaver has dedicated any space to actually explaining where he stands on issues ranging from education to youth engagement to Green initiatives. The majority of the content is warmed over from his Ward 1 run last fall, but it's there -- and still relevant. (Weaver also chatted with Greater Greater Washington this afternoon.)
D.C. Democrats Accused of Unfairly Supporting Biddle
By Martin Austermuhle, DCist.com (link)
The D.C. Democratic State Committee certainly didn't win any good government awards with the opaque process through which they selected interim Councilmember Sekou Biddle earlier this month, nor have more recent accusations painted the city's preeminent political party in a favorable light. A struggle is now brewing within the party over whether or not Biddle is the party's chosen candidate, bringing to light the darker side of local machine politics.
Late last week, the D.C. Democratic State Committee sent out an email advertising two locations where Biddle would be collecting signatures for his nominating petitions over the weekend. (It also tweeted the information.) Both the email and the tweet drew the attention of two of Biddle's challengers, both of whom accused the state committee of violating its own bylaws by using official means to endorse the Biddle campaign in its attempt to win the April 26 special election. A Biddle campaign official said that the email was sent independently by the committee; the campaign did not ask for the support.
The Accidental Insider: Biddle Fights Labels and Challengers
By Martin Austermuhle, DCist.com (link)
Four months ago, no one really knew Sekou Biddle. Now, after a tightly contested appointment process by the D.C. Democratic State Committee and a recent fundraiser attended by Mayor Vince Gray and a host of local power-brokers, Biddle is the consummate insider, a guy who has been groomed for elected office more because he'll be an easy yes vote than because he's qualified for it. It's enough to make anyone's head spin, Biddle's included.
"I don't think we'll ever get beneath the outsider-insider thing, because it's a story that's easy to tell when you don't worry about the details," Biddle told me late last week as he followed the arc of his career from education advocate to an interim At-Large member on the D.C. Council who has four months to fend of challenges from as many as 15 contenders in the April 26 special election to fill the seat once occupied by D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown.