Biddle Challenges Patterson, Mara, Weaver (Updated)
The Post and the City Paper have the story -- Interim Councilmember Sekou Biddle's campaign has chosen to challenge signatures on the nominating petitions submitted by Jacque Patterson, Bryan Weaver and Patrick Mara. A separate challenge to Mara was filed by a supporter of Josh Lopez, while a possible challenge of Vincent Orange's nominating petitions by Biddle was pulled back at the last minute.
Weaver and Patterson are most at risk -- each campaign submitted between 3,400 and 3,600 signatures, leaving them little wiggle room should some of the challenges succeed. (A total of 3,000 valid signatures is needed to get on the April 26 ballot.) Mara should be fine; he submitted around 6,000 signatures, begging the question as to why his petitions were even challenged. Arkan Haile, Dorothy Douglas, Alan Page, Tom Brown, Lopez, Orange, and Biddle emerged from the 10-day challenge period unscathed and will appear on the ballot.
There was some debate as to the way and wisdom of Biddle's challenges. On the one hand, he looks like a bit of a bully for challenging Weaver, Patterson and Mara -- especially since he raised about $30,000 more than all three combined through January 31. Moreover, that it was his campaign treasurer that did the challenging makes it impossible for Biddle to maintain at least some distance and plausible deniability about the decision. On the other hand, this is politics, and things are bound to get ugly. Additionally, if a candidate doesn't have the signatures, well, then they shouldn't be on the ballot, now should they?
The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics has until March 15 to issue final rulings on challenges. The candidates then have until March 18 to file any appeals with the D.C. courts.
After the jump, a Twitter timeline of the announcement and some of the ensuing debate.
Update: Keith Ivey accurately points out in the comments: "You skipped the second challenge to Patterson, from Alonzo Edmondson (who successful challenged Calvin Gurley’s ballot petitions for last year’s Democratic primary). Not sure which candidate Edmondson might be allied with." That means that both Mara and Patterson face two challenges.
Sekou Biddle’s Awkward Tax Stance
By Alan Suderman, Washington City Paper (link)
Interim At-Large Councilmember Sekou Biddle just gave the 10 people running against him in the April special election an awkward flip-flop as an early Presidents' Day gift.
Biddle told Tim Craig at the Post and Freeman Klopott at the Examiner earlier this week that he wants the council to focus on making cuts to the budget to bridge a possible $600 million budget gap. But if higher taxes were necessary, he'd support raising them for people making $125,000 because he felt councilmembers should be included in any tax increases.
This hardly seems like the stuff of controversy—who wouldn't agree that the District's budget needs to be scrubbed before people start talking about tax increases. And taking the position that any tax increase ought to include councilmembers has a nice populist touch.
There’s a D.C. Council Race On. Why Aren’t Any Women Running?
By Alan Suderman, Washington City Paper (link)
On paper, a gig as an at-large councilmember seems like an ideal job for a working mom. It’s part-time, has flexible hours, and pays extraordinarily well. You also don’t have to worry about ward-specific constituent problems and can pretty much park wherever you want.
Why then, aren’t more moms, or women of any sort, interested in the job? Prospective candidates of all sexes learn pretty fast that the reality of being a councilmember is far more demanding than the part-time label suggests. But that still leaves an open question as to why there only three female councilmembers on a 13-member legislative body and no serious women contenders anywhere to be found.
"There’s no women on the horizon, and that’s bothersome," says former At-Large Councilmember Carol Schwartz.
A candidate forum earlier this month for the at-large special election was a major sausage fest: eight dudes, all trying to differentiate themselves. While watching, LL couldn’t help but think that a well-qualified woman would have a good shot of standing out from the boys and becoming a frontrunner. The April special election, after all, will likely have such a small turnout that a few thousand votes from a motivated voting bloc might be all it takes to win.
LL isn’t the only one with those thoughts. MaryEva Candon, a longtime Democratic party insider, says a “big reason” she initially decided to run was the lack of female candidates. "There’s a great appetite" for female candidates, says Candon, who ultimately decided not to run.
Is Bryan Weaver D.C.’s Bill Clinton?
By Alan Suderman, Washington City Paper (link)
No, but at-large hopeful Weaver did just nab Minyon Moore, who used to be director of White House political affairs under President Clinton, to be his campaign chairwoman. From Moore's bio at the P.R. firm Dewey Square Group:
Josh Lopez Raises More than $6,000
By Alan Suderman, Washington City Paper (link)
At-large candidate Josh Lopez, a former campaign aide to Mayor Adrian Fenty, four-day city employee, and Fenty write-in campaign organizer, has raised a respectable $6,374 so far in his bid to win the April special election, according to today's campaign finance report.
Not a bad haul for a young (27) upstart in a crowded field.
Nearly a third of the total donations comes from Fenty fraternity brother Omar Karim and his company Banneker Ventures (both gave $1,000). Banneker and Karim are at the heart of the ongoing council investigation, along with another fraternity brother Sinclair Skinner, into whether a few of Fenty friends improperly received city construction contracts. (Skinner's brother Caribe Skinner, gave Lopez $30).
Mystery Candidate First To Decry Navigatorgate
By Alan Suderman, Washington City Paper (link)
Mystery at-large candidate Arkan Haile is trying to get some press time by decrying the $2,000-a-month lease payments taxpayers are footing for Mayor Vince Gray and Council Chairman Kwame Brown's Lincoln Navigators.
In a statement released by his campaign, Haile says was "disapointed" in Gray and Brown given the city's crummy financial situation.
"One would think that our ever-expanding budget deficit—now $600M and counting—would make our two senior-most elected officials a little squeamish about spending so lavishly on personal transportation. If not that, than our 10.2% unemployment rate,” says Haile, a Eritrean-born lawyer who lives on Capitol Hill.
Nice try Arkan, but LL doesn't think anyone is dumb enough to fall for such a bald-faced publicity ploy.
Rallying Around Biddle
By Alan Suderman, Washington City Paper (link)
Tim Craig over at the Post breaks the news that new Mayor Vince Gray is scheduled to attend a fundraiser for new at-large Councilmember (and subject of LL's column this week) Sekou Biddle.
A Gray endorsement would be huge for Biddle, who is looking to cement himself as the frontrunner in what could be a very crowded field. As a new mayor who is happily ensconced in his honeymoon cocoon, Gray's got the most juice of any elected official right now and a friendly word from him would make Biddle's life a lot easier. And Gray probably has little interest in seeing Republican Pat Mara take a seat with the help of a heavily-fractured Democratic vote in the April special election.
Republican Golden Boy Runs for At-Large
By Alan Suderman, Washington City Paper (link)
Pat Mara, looking in the above video like an earnest high school student making a practice tape for speech class, has thrown his hat in the ring for the at-large seat.
The announcement is hardly shocking, given that these rare special elections seem to be a Republican's best shot at winning a council seat. (If you don't know by now, then-Republican David Catania was the surprise victor of the 1997 special election.)
Mara's definitely got a fighting chance of winning the election. He's proven himself as a hardworking campaigner, both in knocking off Carol Schwartz in the 2008 Republican primary, and beating Ward 1 school board member Dotti Love Wade last year. (Mara, by the way, has been a school board member for just over two weeks now. Granted, it does seem like an almost worthless gig.)
Sekou Biddle Wants To Be Your Councilmember
By Alan Suderman, Washington City Paper (link)
Let’s get this out of the way: The ear-to-ear scar that runs atop the crown of Sekou Biddle’s skull is the result of some asshole blindsiding him with a pool cue in the mid-’90s when he was trying to head off a bar fight. The single whack, which the newest member of the D.C. Council says he never saw coming, happened as Biddle was trying to herd a buddy out of Quigley’s, a now-defunct bar near American University, before his friend and a stranger came to blows.
An associate of said stranger struck Biddle across his forehead and face with a pool cue, causing several skull fractures. To put his head back together, doctors took a “big chunk” of his skull for a bone graft “to fix the rest of it,” Biddle says.
Bryan Weaver Sure Sounds Like He Wants To Run, Sorta
Former Ward 1 D.C. Council candidate Bryan Weaver says he's giving himself the next week to decide whether to poop or get off the pot.
Some members of D.C.'s progressive voting bloc are trying to get Weaver to run in April's special election for the at-large D.C. Council seat. So far, the effort has a website and has raised $280.
Weaver says the campaign to draft him, spearheaded by former DCist contributor Dave Stroup, is "humbling" and "flattering," but he's not ready to dive in just yet. Why? Because running for council is a bear.