Ward 4 City Council - Election 4/28! Who...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Renee Bowser seemed very anti charter in some questions and amasses I saw. The others looked far better, a better understanding of the issues.

I found her emphasis on the shameful way charters are allocated Monet for kids they expel and foist on the public schools, who get none of that money, to show a great understanding of the biggest issue.

I appear to have an art-loving auto-correct.

Lol! You are awesome.

[Anonymous]

Andrews here. With a background in urban planning and three girls in elementary school (who are suffering the same challenges as most of us with regards to a Ward 4 middle school), I think he'll better address my interests in the city than the others.

Great website here to get background on each:
http://www.ward4candidatesinfo.com/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Andrews here. With a background in urban planning and three girls in elementary school (who are suffering the same challenges as most of us with regards to a Ward 4 middle school), I think he'll better address my interests in the city than the others.

Great website here to get background on each:
http://www.ward4candidatesinfo.com/

PP here. I should clarify - I am not Andrews, I'm an Andrews voter

[Anonymous]

We voted for Renee Bowser. Todd seems so young and in Muriel's back pocket. We wanted a more independent CM.

[Anonymous]

Just cast my vote for Toliver. It was EXTREMELY quiet at my voting location at Shepherd Elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just cast my vote for Toliver. It was EXTREMELY quiet at my voting location at Shepherd Elementary.

Very quiet at Takoma also.

[Anonymous]

I'm voting for Toliver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We voted for Renee Bowser. Todd seems so young and in Muriel's back pocket. We wanted a more independent CM.

Ugh. She's anti-development, pro-public housing. Can you retract your vote?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We voted for Renee Bowser. Todd seems so young and in Muriel's back pocket. We wanted a more independent CM.

Ugh. She's anti-development, pro-public housing. Can you retract your vote?

I'm not the first PP, but you're right, she is not an automatic supporter of anything the big donors want to build and she's concerned about the needs of working folks. I'm devastated that I can't retract my vote for her and give it to someone who is for bigger and higher.

Yeah, I'm being facetious about my devastation; I apologize. Were you being ironic too?

[jsteele]

In early votes, Todd has 44% with Bowser second with 23%. Almost exactly what I expected.

[jsteele]

Todd wins with less than 40%. It's neck and neck in Ward 8. In both cases, the Bowser candidates faced opponents who split the vote. It's always the same story it seems.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:Todd wins with less than 40%. It's neck and neck in Ward 8. In both cases, the Bowser candidates faced opponents who split the vote. It's always the same story it seems.

No one voted. Now we have a puppet so I guess we can kiss our elected Attorney General goodbye. Muriel will get everything she wants and people got to keep their contracts by helping her get her candidates elected. Unbelievable.

[Anonymous]

The 17% turnout was an embarrassment. Between the plethora of forums and debates, and numerous candidate meet-and-greets, there was no excuse to not be aware of the election, or worse, know about the election but make the conscious decision not to vote. It was disappointing to see the top 3 non-Todd candidates split the vote, but I would have felt better about a Todd win if he hadn't just earned a spot on the city council with barely over 4,000 votes. Ward 4 residents who didn't vote should feel ashamed of themselves. All politics is local, especially in a small city like DC, and a few votes actually do make a difference. So disappointing. ..

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:The 17% turnout was an embarrassment. Between the plethora of forums and debates, and numerous candidate meet-and-greets, there was no excuse to not be aware of the election, or worse, know about the election but make the conscious decision not to vote. It was disappointing to see the top 3 non-Todd candidates split the vote, but I would have felt better about a Todd win if he hadn't just earned a spot on the city council with barely over 4,000 votes. Ward 4 residents who didn't vote should feel ashamed of themselves. All politics is local, especially in a small city like DC, and a few votes actually do make a difference. So disappointing. ..

My first real involvement in Ward 4 politics was in 2007 when I published a blog about the special election that year to fill Adrian Fenty's seat. Of course that election was won by Muriel Bowser. My sense of deja vu this time around was almost complete. I had a conversation with Pedro Rubio back in January about his campaign (he eventually dropped out) and told him that I expected 20 candidates to enter and Todd would get 40% of the vote. Nearly exactly what happened. Elections like these can't be blamed on the voters. Voters need a reason to go to the polls. The fact that a bunch of ego-maniacs show up at community forums every night is not a compelling reason.

The Green Team is a solid, professional, no fooling around political organization. To beat it is going to require another organization. It requires raising money, organizing volunteers, and reaching out to voters. Two candidates came to my door and one of them was Todd. I have voted in every election since I moved to Ward 4 in 1998 and am exactly the type of resident that should have been targeted. When it only takes 4,000 some votes to win, candidates should be trying to meet every potential voter.

I think Renee Bowser would be a great council member, but she sucks as a candidate. I have watched her election after election (indeed, she was a candidate in 2007) and she simply doesn't have it in her to run a proper campaign. She should hang it up and support someone more capable. Andrews and Toliver should have realized almost immediately that they were doing nothing but contributing to Todd's victory. Andrews is a neophyte and hasn't run for anything in DC of which I am aware. He gave his campaign $90 grand to get third place. At least I hope this was a learning experience. Maybe he was trying to get name recognition for another run, but he had better get started right now building an organization because I didn't see many signs of life coming from his campaign this time.

[Anonymous]

Bowser, Andrews, and Toliver had almost 49 percent of the vote compared to Todd's 42+. If there were a runoff, I would guess that most of Andrews and Toliver's supporters would support Bowser, but even if every single one of them preferred Bowser, they would probably not come out as heavily as those whose candidate was in the runoff, so it would probably be a close race.

In any case, a year from now we'll be less than six weeks shy of the primary, so every move Brandon makes will be part of his reelection campaign.

Renee has been saying that this was her last campaign. Whether her strong second will cause reconsideration, who knows!