As you may know, the special election for at-large councilmember is tomorrow. This is the seat vacated by Kwame Brown when he became council chair. There are a lot of candidates running, but only a few with legitimate shots at winning. DCist has a great voter guide which I encourage everyone to check out, but here are my brief picks. Here’s the Board of Elections guide with all the questions you might have: where to vote, how, who, etc.
The main candidates running are former councilmember and mayoral candidate Vincent Orange, Adams Morgan ANC commissioner Bryan Weaver (he of the cool campaign commercials), Ward 1 school board member Patrick Mara, who I believe is a part owner of Meridian Pint, current temporary councilmember Sekou Biddle, and newcomer Josh Lopez, who worked on Adrian Fenty’s campaign.
So who do I like and who don’t I like? In short, I’m leaning towards Bryan Weaver. Here’s the longer explanations:
First off, I won’t be supporting Vincent Orange. He’s the definition of insider, having run for election for about 20 years in DC. I’ve never really seen him do anything positive or anything negative, which leads me to believe he’ll just be a seat-filler. Plus he recently had a campaign vehicle parking illegally at 14th & Girard while the vehicle broadcast a message about enforcing DC laws. Not the best example to set. He also put out a (presumably) racially-themed ad in Ward 8 saying “He walks like us. He talks like us” — presumably as opposed to the white and Hispanic candidates. It seems like he’s doing whatever he can to get elected.
I also won’t be supporting Sekou Biddle. He’s heavily involved with both Kwame Brown and Vincent Gray, and neither of their terms so far have gone very well — see the Lincoln Navigator or Sulaimon Brown. Kwame Brown’s father was on Biddle’s campaign staff until he was fired after he made some controversial remarks about white residents of DC. Biddle seems like a decent guy, but the remarks and the deep involvement with Gray and Brown rub me the wrong way.
I like Patrick Mara, who is a Republican claiming to be socially progressive and fiscally conservative. He also vows to meet with a different Republican congressperson every week if he’s elected — that’s a strong plus for me, as I’m strongly for DC voting rights and against Congressional interference in DC’s budget. He also got the Washington Post’s endorsement, as well as Congressman Tom Davis and others. That said, the city may need to raise taxes to balance the budget and he’s strongly against that.
I also like Bryan Weaver. He’s an energetic, involved ANC commissioner who gave Jim Graham a good run in the last election. He’s campaigning heavily on cleaning up the Wilson Building, and as DCist mentions, he also got the endorsement of the City Paper, Greater Greater Washington, The InTowner, the Georgetown Voice, the D.C. YouthPAC and the D.C. College Democrats and the Current newspapers called him “the most knowledgeable challenger we’ve interviewed over the past 16 years.” The Current didn’t endorse him because they don’t think he is well-known enough, but turnout is sure to be low. I say vote for him.
Josh Lopez seems like a good guy, and I like his connection with Fenty who I supported last time around, but I think he’s a little inexperienced.
So in short, I like Bryan Weaver and Patrick Mara. I’m probably going to vote for Weaver. I suggest you vote for either of them, but whether you do or not, go vote! What are your thoughts?
