Why is DC So Dysfunctional?

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you run for Mayor?

I can't. I'm white. But I have considered ANC.

Almost half of the DC Council is white, including two of the four At-Large members (and before Brown replaced Schwartz, three of the four At-Large members were white and the Council was majority white). I think your excuse is disrespectful of the many DC residents who will vote for the best candidate regardless of race. DC has sufficient racial problems that non-existant ones don't need to be invented.

With all due respect, Jeff (and I really think you know your stuff, politically), you're being naive, and I think you know better. There has never been a white mayor of Washington DC (counting from 1975 when the office of mayor was created). I didn't do the research for previous primaries, but all of the candidates in the 2006 primary were African American. When we first moved to DC and started getting to know the politics, we joked that "the U.S. will have a black president before DC will have a white mayor!"

Yes, it's very nice to say that DC voters are intelligent enough, rational enough to see past the race thing. But politics is deeply emotional, and race is inextricably tied to politics, here more than anywhere I've ever lived. I'm not making any kind of value judgment here. I don't actually consider it a bad thing that the office of mayor is reserved for a black person, considing the population and the history. I could have a shot at ANC, or Council, as you say. But whiteness disqualifies me from that particular office.