Jack Has Competition

Last night, lawyer and neighborhood activist Cary Silverman kicked off his campaign to unseat four-plus-term Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans.

At the HR-57 jazz club on 14th Street NW, Silverman told about 50 supporters, “I think we need a change of priorities in Ward 2.” His campaign slogan: “Neighborhoods first.”

In a press release this morning, Silverman claimed more than 100 supporters showed up in all. He’ll need a some more: Evans’ campaign reported about $135,000 in the bank as of July 31; it’s already spent some of it doing polling earlier this fall.

Silverman hammered on some of Evans’ perceived vulnerabilities—mainly the perception he’s too focused on citywide financial and development issues to the neglect of his home ward. In his comments, Silverman mentioned the long-shuttered Watha T. Daniel Neighborhood Library in Shaw and took a shot at one of Evans’ pet projects in the process: “Seven years for a library, three years for a baseball stadium—that’s not neighborhoods first,” he said.

He went on (and on) to recite a laundry list of concerns, including crime, vacant property, support for small businesses, and a “culture of corruption” in D.C. Before and after the speech, attendees enjoyed free beer and wine and a spread of veggie samosas, feta pinwheels, and beef empanadas.

Silverman’s base, such as it is, is in the gentrifying eastern half of the ward. He’s a past president of the Logan Circle Community Association and is currently president of the Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association. Like Evans, a lawyer for Patton Boggs, Silverman makes his living as an attorney, for the Kansas City-based firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon. But in another dig at Evans, Silverman’s promising to give up his high-power legal gig.

A slick Silverman campaign sign on display at the party referred to the candidate (boldface his) as a “successful lawyer at a top law firm who will commit himself to serving communities—full time.”

Also likely to enter the race is Rob Halligan, president of the Dupont Circle Citizens Association. Halligan says he’s “probably still running, just thought it was still a little early to declare.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 at 3:51 pm and is filed under DCision '08, Jack Evans, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.