Ward 4 Council Race - can we do better than this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was also at the event last night, and agree with the previous posters on who came off strong. Also, I'm disappointed that Todd wouldn't even show up.

The only one I can't go along with is Sloan. I was talking to him about a month ago after a meeting, and he made some pretty disgusting remarks about Todd.

First, he implied something about Todd's sexuality based on his looks and then derided him for being in the closet and how that's lying to voters. Then he tried to deflect it as "some people are saying" and "older African-American voters might care about that". Really rubbed me the wrong way.

The weird thing is that the conversation started with agreement that Todd wasn't a good candidate, so he didn't even need to go there.

I think PP is right that Sloan is not helping himself by attacking Todd on irrelevancies like which Ward 4 address he really lives at and whether he used to be a Republican. Doug is probably the best speaker in the group; he took a swipe that his ANC colleague Ron Austin threw at him about where his kid goes to school and turned it into an impassioned, and almost poetic, speech about parental involvement in education. But I don't think he is as strong on policy as the three others we have called serious, and the dirt he has thrown at Brandon has left him a bit dirty as well.

[Anonymous]

I agree. He is very sharp and quite witty. But I don't trust him. I think we have better viable options.

[Anonymous]

The big question for me is the newspaper endorsements. I find it hard to believe that the Post will be able to endorse Todd with a straight face, but they were so unabashedly pro-Fenty and pro-Bowser that it would not surprise me. On the other hand, Davis Kennedy, publisher of the Current Newspapers, puts the candidates through such a wringer before he makes up his mind, that I would be shocked if he backs Todd.

My guess is that both will be serious enough to see that the real choice is among Andrews, Bowser, and Toliver. My hope is that they will choose the same one (preferably Bowser) and give that candidate a fighting chance to be taken seriously enough by voters to give Brandon a real fight.

[Anonymous]

Shepherd Park/Colonial Village listserv has been going crazy. Current discussion is about why it doesn't matter that Brandon Todd skipped 2 debates. We should judge him on his constituent services record. Are you fucking kidding me?

[Anonymous]

What constituent services? I've never heard of him before this. Or even Muriel Bowser when it comes to constituent services.