jsteele wrote:
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.
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