Reply to Most disliked local politician, according to DCUM?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I disagree with your premise, but I definitely agree that people on this site think they're above their neighbors.[/quote]

Generally curious, have you ever actually talked to the people around you about D.C. elections? I wouldn't be surprised if the answer is greater than 95% who can't name all 13 Councilmembers. I used to do a lot of political work, so I'd ask my family and friends in the days after an election who they voted for. Almost invariably, once people got past the mayor and their ward councilmembers, they started forgetting names. If you can't recall the at-large members and the attorney general you just voted for, I doubt you're going to know the councilmembers from other wards.

Now, maybe the people around me just happen to all be much more disconnected from local politics than the typical D.C. resident. Except, no, this is a group of people that actually voted in D.C. primaries, which puts them well above the norm. the DCBOE has scrubbed all elections results post 2008 for some weird reason, but you can see the 2008 primary turnout was only 14% for Democrats:

https://www.dcboe.org/PDFFiles/Primary_08_Certified_Results_Summary.pdf

A little less for Republicans. 5% for statehood Greens. Turnout is somewhat higher now - it was 18.7% in 2018 (again, I can't easily look up the most recent numbers because DCBOE took them down). But people who bother to vote in primaries are a minority of people who pay much more attention to D.C. politics than the norm. And if you bother talking to them, they struggle to even remember the names of the people they voted for, to say nothing of councilmembers from other wards.

So 95% is probably generous. I wouldn't be surprised if it's closer to 98% of D.C. residents who can't name all 13 councilmembers.[/quote]

PP - if you are going back to 2008, more than 1/3 of the adult residents of D.C. could not read.  Ie - illiterate.

The rate of adult illiteracy District-wide that year was 36%.  In some wards, including ward 8, it was well over 40%.[/quote]

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