Bonds vs Mara?

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

jsteele wrote:
But, the most astonishing part of that article were the quotes by George T. Johnson, head of local 20 of AFSCME:

“People have perceptions about what this city is becoming .?.?. and they want this council to remain black, and if they don’t get out there and put black folks in there, there will be a white city council,” Johnson said. “That is a rough thing to say, but that is the truth.”

AFSCME had endorsed Brown and then immediately switched to Bonds when Brown dropped out. That suggests that Johnson and AFSCME leadership may be among the "people" who are concerned about having black council members.

Anita Bonds just said on the Kojo Show that she was glad to hear this comment. Voting by race is apparently considered a good idea in certain quarters.

I wonder how she would have reacted to the comment that it was ok for whites to vote on race in a presidial election.


Anita Bonds is a race-baiting political hack, just like her mentor, Marion Barry.

[Anonymous]

That's 'presidential' election.

[Anonymous]

Bonds was actually Barry's mentor.

[takoma]

Anonymous wrote:Bonds was actually Barry's mentor.

She is about nine years younger, but was pretty high on his team every time he ran for office. Does that make her his mentor? Was Carville Clinton's mentor?

[Anonymous]

Mara is the only candidate who can beat Bonds. Silverman is losing votes to Zukerberg and Frumin reform voters switching to Mara.

[Anonymous]

I agree with this. Based on the polling released this morning, I think people need to seriously consider supporting Mara.

[jsteele]

These last two posts make no sense. This is Mara's third city-wide election. He already serves as an elected official. He has been endorsed by most of the major media in DC. Yet, after all of that, he is still tied with Silverman and losing to Bonds. Face it, Mara can't win. At this point, you guys are just delusional.

[Anonymous]

Pat Mara is a right-wing Republican. Nice enough guy but I don't support his platform at all. Silverman is tied with Mara - there is no reason why she couldn't win as well. And I actually like what she stands for.

[Anonymous]

Where do you find these polls??

[takoma]

Anonymous wrote:Pat Mara is a right-wing Republican. Nice enough guy but I don't support his platform at all. Silverman is tied with Mara - there is no reason why she couldn't win as well. And I actually like what she stands for.

How do you figure Mara to be a right-wing Republican, rather than the moderate he claims to be? I can see opposing him on the basis of his Republican approach to fiscal issues, but I don't think it's fair to imply that he shares, say, Santorum's outlook on social issues.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Where do you find these polls??

The poll is here:

http://dcmj.org/poll/

It has several flaws:

1) Only 4% of respondents said they definitely will not vote. 69% said they definitely will. That says to me that 60% or more are liars.

2) Michael Brown was not included even though he will be on the ballot;

3) It seems to have under-sampled those between the ages of 18-29;

4) It didn't include cell phone-only voters;

Maybe not relevant, but funny: the poll was paid for by Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps.

[Anonymous]

11:35 here. I reviewed the polling numbers. No cross tabs unfortunately, but there is basically no statistical significance, no margin of error etc. I will revert to my previous position...this is a wide open race. May the candidate with the best GOTV win.

[Anonymous]

Frumin's campaign filings were horrible tonight. Elissa Silverman's were not much better and she was very defensive at Black Cat candidate forum. Mara is the only candidate now who can beat Anita Bonds.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Frumin's campaign filings were horrible tonight. Elissa Silverman's were not much better and she was very defensive at Black Cat candidate forum. Mara is the only candidate now who can beat Anita Bonds.

Now it is clear why Mara wants us to believe that he earns his living selling matchbooks on eBay. The truth is that he is selling out his supporters:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-council-candidate-had-contract-to-solicit-his-2008-donors-for-consulting-fee/2013/04/15/44fb84b6-a5eb-11e2-8302-3c7e0ea97057_story.html

Mara "agreed to help a conservative think tank raise money from his campaign donors in exchange for a “consulting fee” or a portion of the money raised, according to a copy of the contract between the two parties."

Last night at the Black Cat, the candidates were asked if they would be willing to make their tax returns public. Every candidate other than Mara immediately agreed. Mara hedged, suggesting he would do so if elected but refused to do so prior to that. I guess he shares his attitude about tax returns with the man for whom he was a delegate, Mitt Romney.

So, if you are a contributor to the Mara campaign -- the man that doesn't want you to know he is a Republican -- get prepared to be hit up for money to support conservative causes.

[takoma]

Based on this poll, the 2011 special election, and general feelings, my guess is that either Frumin or Silverman has a very low chance of winning as the race stands, maybe 5 or 10%. That's chance of winning, not percentage of vote. If one pulled out (quickly) and endorsed the other, I think the remaining one would have support pretty close to Bonds and Mara, so they'd have nearly equal chances to win, say 30%. If the two were to do a coin toss to choose one to drop out, they would have equal chances to get that 30% probability, so each would have a 15% chance. From a strategic point of view, the coin toss is a better strategy for each of them, and I think they are nuts not to do it.

The factor I am omitting, of course, is the public's reaction, especially their supporters. Would people see it as an indication that they were not serious, or would most people understand it as a reasonable move by each one of them to enhance the probability of election?

Or do you all just think I'm nuts?