I don't see much difference between him and Mrs. Schwartz in the sense of what my husband and I feel are core values. He is support of gay marriage--schwartz supports civil unions; They are both suppporting the increased use of surveillance cameras, though Schwartz wants some regulations; I don't know where either of them stand on the use of local funds for abortion. I have been to two forums that Mr. Mara did not come to on other local issues (Ms. Scwartz was not at one either) so on issues that impact day to day life I really don't know what Mr. Mara stands for. From the mailings from the PAC all I see are attacks with no solutions.

So we are going into a primary with an unknown that does not appear to understand the Council's role and at least from the Kojo show yesterday seems to think he would get a committee right away to a known that is fiscal conservative but social liberal. I think we have enough mean spritited actions on the Council with the former republican Catania.

So what is one to do. It would have been good if the bid had found someone with a citywide reputation and connection, my friend's father is an African American, life long DC resident and Republican who I would have voted for in a minute.

For what it's worth the only DC council member I've ever given money to was Catania, who last time I checked was not a Democrat.

On one hand, Scwhartz brings a lot of institutional memory to the job. She's been around for a long time, and she knows how the system works. That's a very big deal -- Ms. Schwartz can, indeed, deliver on her big projects from time to time -- and we have to understand Mara would need on-the-job training.

But for those of us who actually believe in Republican ideology, Schwartz simply isn't strong on the issues. For instance, she is a huge ally of labor unions, opposes school vouchers, isn't supporting McCain (at least it doesn't appear that way), and has gone along with the Council as spending has gone up significantly in the last five or six years. On the other hand, Mara seems legitimately dedicated to promoting conservative ideology on the Council, and that's what I think I want in one of only two seats on the Council reserved for non-Democrats.

And Mr. Jarrell and Reid: you're obviously Democrats. We'll handle our GOP primary ourselves, thanks.

I agree with DC Resident, Mara seems like an overall decent fellow, but I'm not sure he knows this city well enough for the job. When you look at him do you think "yeah that guy is absolutely going to be living in the District in five years"?

I get the sense that he's a Hill staffer who decided to start a political career, and since he happens to live in the District and is a Republican, there's only one job he can go for. But the problem is that the national party perspective the you develop on the Hill is utterly useless to governing DC.

My guess is that if he were to win, he would get steamrolled by the other council-members and be pretty much at the beck and call of the Federal City Council.

Keith Jarrell

Carol, although mostly on the defensive, played defense very well. I actually was surprised.