April 26 DC Special Election

[jsteele]

I'm starting this thread to be a catch-all for issues related to the April 26 Special election. The seats at stake are the At-Large Council seat formerly held by Kwame Brown, the Ward 4 Member of the State Board of Education, and the Ward 8 State Board of Education.

With regard to the At-Large seat, the current situation is as follows: Ten candidates submitted nominating petitions. The petitions of four of those candidates were subsequently challenged.

The leading candidate is Sekou Biddle who was selected to hold the vacant seat until the election could be held. He is strongly supported by Council Chairman Kwame Brown, Mayor Vincent Gray, and a number of former Fenty supporters. He is also well-funded.

The other candidates are:

Tom Brown - a Democrat about whom I know nothing.

Dorothy Douglas - also a Democrat about whom I know nothing.

Arkan Haile - an Independent about whom I know nothing.

Joshua Lopez - a Democrat who has been active in Ward 4 politics and has been a strong Fenty supporter. After Fenty's defeat in the primary, Lopez was a leader in the write-in effort.

Patrick Mara - a Republican, currently serves on the State Board of Education. He defeated Carol Schwartz in a Republican primary a few years back but then lost to Michael A. Brown in the general election.

Vincent Orange - a Democrat, previously served as Ward 5's Member of the Council. Ran for Mayor against Fenty and lost, ran for Council Chair against Brown and lost. Has been working as a lobbyist for PEPCO. Was the strongest competitor to Biddle for the interim At-Large appointment.

Alan Page - Statehood/Green. I don't know too much about him but he Tweets a lot and has a decent website.

Jacque Patterson - a Democrat, pretty strong base east of the River.

Bryan Weaver - A ANC commissioner, ran against Graham for Council, but lost. Is popular among the "myopic twits". Seems like a thoughtful and decent guy.

Biddle's campaign treasurer challenged the petitions of Mara, Patterson, and Weaver. A Lopez supporter also challenged Mara's and someone that I know nothing about also challenged Patterson's.

The Biddle challenges have become something of a joke. Among the signatures challenged are Biddle's own signature, Weaver's wife, Weaver's campaign manager, Kwame Brown's brother, Former Mayors Fenty and Williams, several ANC commissioners, and other well-known Washingtonians. It appears that Biddle was more interested in bogging his strongest opponents down with the challenges rather than anything else.

[jsteele]

The Post had a good article today about union endorsements:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dc/2011/03/afscme_endorses_vincent_orange_1.html

AFSCME has endorsed Vincent Orange. SEIU and the hotel workers' union have endorsed Biddle.

If you don't pay attention to what is on DCUM's home page, there are statements from Josh Lopez and Arkan Haile, two candidates in the At-Large election, explaining why they would be independent voices on the Council.

[jsteele]

The DC Board of Elections is currently meeting regarding the challenges of nominating petitions. The Board has ruled that Pat Mara will be on the ballot and Jacque Patterson will not. Weaver results are pending. Patterson will be allowed to present his case to the two-member board (which is apparently a member short because there should be three) and, if that fails, appeal to the courts.

[Anonymous]

Oh, that's a shame about Patterson--my husband met him when signing his petition, and liked him a lot. So now I'll pin my hopes on Weaver (whom I also liked in the W1 campaign, though I'm not a W1 resident) as the anti-Biddle.

[Anonymous]

Jeff, would you say that Lopez is most like Fenty? Does he support fixing the budget through cutting fat or is he simply pro-tax hike and not solving problems?

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:Biddle's campaign treasurer challenged the petitions of Mara, Patterson, and Weaver. A Lopez supporter also challenged Mara's and someone that I know nothing about also challenged Patterson's.

The Biddle challenges have become something of a joke. Among the signatures challenged are Biddle's own signature, Weaver's wife, Weaver's campaign manager, Kwame Brown's brother, Former Mayors Fenty and Williams, several ANC commissioners, and other well-known Washingtonians. It appears that Biddle was more interested in bogging his strongest opponents down with the challenges rather than anything else.

Wait! Are you saying the Biddle campaign was involved in political maneuvering? Shocking!

You've convinced me: Let's vote for the white Republican guy so that Vince Orange can get elected!

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff, would you say that Lopez is most like Fenty? Does he support fixing the budget through cutting fat or is he simply pro-tax hike and not solving problems?

Going by memory, which is increasingly unreliable these days, only Mara and Biddle ruled out tax increases. Biddle actually flip-flopped, having suggest tax increases would be okay previously.

Several of the candidates are what I would describe as problem solvers. That would include Biddle, Mara, Lopez, and Weaver. Of the bunch, Weaver seems to be the most unconventional. Politically, I was upset with Lopez because of some of his antics during the campaign and because of his role in the write-in movement. He claims support from Fenty supporters, but a lot of big-named Fenty people are backing Biddle (which is ironic given that he is the Gray/Brown candidate).

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:You've convinced me: Let's vote for the white Republican guy so that Vince Orange can get elected!

Is this what Biddle supporters have been reduced to? Biddle is a sincere and honorable person. I am sure that he would be embarrassed by supporters such as yourself.

Unfortunately, Biddle is making himself a bit of a joke. He actually challenged his own signature! If his campaign is now reduced to "don't vote for a white guy", things are not going to end well for him.

[Anonymous]

Not a Biddle supporter, Jeff. I'm a realist, though. This election is starting to look like it's between Vince Orange and Biddle. And Orange is not an option.

And you can skip the guilt-trip. Surely you've lived in this city long enough to see the difficulty in getting a "dark-horse" white republican elected to city-wide office.

[Anonymous]

?
but a lot of big-named Fenty people are backing Biddle (which is ironic given that he is the Gray/Brown candidate).


Jeff, this is your opinion, but I do not think you gave substantiated that. As I wrote in another post, brown and Gray backEd Biddle AFTER he had the biggest showing of signatures so I would contend that their support if Biddle came in response to being the elected representatives and in response to the large number of their constituents show of support of Biddle.
And, you supported Gray so now is everything he does suspect to you now? It seems a bit as if you are compensating IMO.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Not a Biddle supporter, Jeff. I'm a realist, though. This election is starting to look like it's between Vince Orange and Biddle. And Orange is not an option.

And you can skip the guilt-trip. Surely you've lived in this city long enough to see the difficulty in getting a "dark-horse" white republican elected to city-wide office.

David Catania, a white Republican, won a special election for an At-Large seat. I think that was actually the last special election for an At-Large seat.

Phil Mendelson, a white Democrat, won both the Democratic primary and the general election for an At-Large seat. You do African Americans a grave disservice when you suggest that they will not vote for a white candidate.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
Jeff, this is your opinion, but I do not think you gave substantiated that. As I wrote in another post, brown and Gray backEd Biddle AFTER he had the biggest showing of signatures so I would contend that their support if Biddle came in response to being the elected representatives and in response to the large number of their constituents show of support of Biddle.
And, you supported Gray so now is everything he does suspect to you now? It seems a bit as if you are compensating IMO.

This is the most hilarious thing. Are you seriously trying to say that Gray and Brown were just jumping on the Biddle bandwagon? If you were paying attention in the last couple of month of 2010, there was no Biddle bandwagon. Very few people outside of Ward 4 -- and not even that many in the Ward -- had even heard of him. The bandwagon was created by Brown.

Yes, I supported Gray. Not everything that he does is suspect. But, if you are upset with the Sulaimon Brown situation and the Fully Loaded situation, why would you vote for someone beholden to Gray and Brown? Especially when there are legitimate alternatives.

Since you are ascribing psychological explanations for my skepticism of Biddle, what sort of psychosis is causing you to ignore the rather obvious and very public ties between Biddle, Gray, and Brown

[jsteele]

Just an update on the challenges. Biddle challenged the petitions of three candidates. One challenge -- that of Jacque Patterson -- was upheld. His challenge of Patrick Mara was denied. His challenge of Weaver was also denied, but Weaver has to get 50-some change of address forms submitted before March 10.

Mara was also challenged by a Lopez supporter. That challenge also failed. Patterson also had another challenge which also succeeded. Edit: Patterson's second challenge came from the Orange camp and failed. So, only Biddle's challenge was upheld.

Patterson is appealing the decision.

In terms of signature yield of the challenged candidates, Weaver did best with 92% of his signatures being found valid. I guess that includes a finding that Sekou Biddle's own signature was valid. Patterson also had a good yield at 82%. 57% of Mara's were found to be valid.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a Biddle supporter, Jeff. I'm a realist, though. This election is starting to look like it's between Vince Orange and Biddle. And Orange is not an option.

And you can skip the guilt-trip. Surely you've lived in this city long enough to see the difficulty in getting a "dark-horse" white republican elected to city-wide office.

David Catania, a white Republican, won a special election for an At-Large seat. I think that was actually the last special election for an At-Large seat.

Phil Mendelson, a white Democrat, won both the Democratic primary and the general election for an At-Large seat. You do African Americans a grave disservice when you suggest that they will not vote for a white candidate.

Fair enough. Looking at the numbers, I just don't see Mara beating Biddle and Orange. Biddle has essentially been endorsed by Tommy Wells. Wells has posted some unflattering stuff about Orange on his Twitter feed. That's good enough for me. As far as I'm concerned, if we had a Council comprised entirely of Tommy Wells', we'd have the best city government in the country. Whoever he wants to work with, I'll vote for.

[Anonymous]

Jacques Patterson works for the Federal City Council. (Jeff, no comments?) I'm surprised he didn't make it on the ballot. But that may have a lot to do with whom his employer represents.

Bryan, Bryan, Bryan. Please focus on Ward 1. Jim won't stick around forever. Latinos need an advocate IMHO and at-large would pull Bryan away from that.

I'm a Dem who voted for Mara for board of ed. I want him to STAY there for now. He doesn't have enough sway with national GOP to do us any good at the moment. With some school reform stuff under his belt, a couple years from now he may have more friends on the Hill.

Lopez. The Fenty ship has sailed along with Michelle Rhee. You're gonna need a bigger boat.

One Vince of Color is enough thank you. Orange is only in it for the mayorship. Get over yourself VO.

Sekou may be green, but he's a sincere guy with strong grasp of education and child poverty issues. All the ed reform Fenty-ites should be looking to him to keep up the focus on progress here. He has experience to provide oversight on ed issues. It takes a TFAer to call BS on a TFAer.