Comments on: GOP Claims Michael Brown Ineligible to Claim Council Seat

By: another view

another view — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:37:28 +0000

Reid- I should have written “practically unopposed”.
Check the 2004 primary results at:
http://www.dcboee.org/election_info/election_results/elec_2004/sep14cr/En_W2_Council.asp
The R and SG candidates, which got a 17% combined vote in the general, only got 100 votes combined in the primary. And I don’t even remember their names 5 minutes after checking the report. My point is that Jack’s negatives hover at a solid 17%, and that Christine did nothing to expand that base.

By: KCinDC

KCinDC — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:33:21 +0000

1. Brown’s switch from Democrat to independent to run for at-large is nothing new. Bill Lightfoot was successful doing the same thing in 1988 and again in 1992. (And Marion Barry was unsuccessful with a similar attempt in 1990, in a campaign that overlapped with his trial.)

2. I’m pretty sure most of those Culver votes were just anti-Evans votes energized by Cary Silverman’s campaign, not Republican sympathizers.

3. The election in which David Catania beat Arrington Dixon was the only time a Republican has beaten a Democrat in DC, and it was a very strange one. It was a special election with two Democrats running, and the second Democrat drew off enough votes from Dixon that Catania managed to win. The combined votes for Democrats exceeded those for Catania. As Reid says, something similar could conceivabl happen again in a special election if the Democratic vote is split up enough — but if the office is anything but an at-large council member I seriously doubt the Republican could be reelected when the normal election comes around.

By: Bubba

Bubba — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:17:52 +0000

Brown running as an independent was a total sham, form over substance all the way, and I hope BOEE has the nads to call him to the carpet for it. Democrats and republicans alike shouldn’t stand for it–democrats wouldn’t vote for him over other democrats in the primary (because there are better democrats to vote for), and certainly republicans/independents wouldn’t vote for him in the primaries, either (because there are more true republican/independent candidates than him), yet we all get stuck with him anyway. Like the law or not, it is what it is, and if you let Brown him wink, wink, nudge nudge on this, there’s no telling what else he will wink, wink, nudge nudge on.

By: Babs

Babs — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:23:57 +0000

Oh my goodness Carol you lost give it up. Go home and play with your grandchildren like Linda did.

By: JohnD

JohnD — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:28:18 +0000

I also don’t see how this is going to fly. I have also seen that party “affiliation” is determined by who you are registered with. If Brown had changed his to a Republican before the vote, could the DC GOP have callenged that? I don’t think so. So how can they claim that by changing to an independent, he is still a Democrat? It just doesn’t make sense and won’t fly.

By: Not Likely

Not Likely — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:26:57 +0000

Their complaint is not likely to amount to much. The Home Rule Charter says that at no time shall there be more than 3 At-Large members, including the Chairman, who are affiliated with the same politcal party.

It does not say anything about elections or who can be elected to the Council. So even if a Court were to define “affiliated” and determine that Brown was indeed “afiliated” with a the Democratic Party, he could still serve as long as he was not affiliated on his swearing-in date. In other words, he has until January to disaffiliate.

By: JMT

JMT — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:24:19 +0000

I voted for an independent be a councilmember. The DC Republican Party can kiss it where the sun does shine. The seat was won by an independent from ward 4, wasn’t it? The appropriate time to contest Brown’s independent status was before the election. Now go and play out on the whitehurst freeway you bunch of losers- Sincerely A DC Democrat

By: Reid

Reid — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:44:04 +0000

Evans ran unopposed 4 years ago and still got only 82% of the Ward 2 vote.

No, he wasn’t unopposed in 2004. And the Republican only got 9% then. Maybe the Republican in 2004 campaigned even less than the futile Culver campaign, but keep in mind that in 2004, 15 percent of Ward Two voted for Bush. This year, only 12 percent voted for McCain. So in a year when fewer Ward Two voters were voting for a Republican president (both as a percentage and in real numbers), almost twice as many were voting for a Republican ward CM. We’re still comparing mole-hills here, but put it in a special elections context, and those mole-hills might be mountainous.

By: Reid

Reid — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:27:16 +0000

Could a Republican pull off the same thing in a first-Tuesday-in-November election. I’d say no.

But that’s just it. If Gray runs for mayor in 2010, he can’t also run for Council Chair (or at least not very aggressively). Thus opening the way for Evans to run for the seat. Evans term doesn’t end until 2012, so a special election would be called to fill his seat if he won the council chair. The more “really good and aggressive” Dems there are, the easier it is for a Republican (Or Statehood Green for that matter) to pull it off.

By: another view

another view — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:26:34 +0000

“I mean look at Christina Culver. She doesn’t know crap about DC politics, only started to run about two weeks before the election, and still won 17% percent. Not much but not bad considering the circumstances.”

Don’t credit Culver. Evans ran unopposed 4 years ago and still got only 82% of the Ward 2 vote. There’s a solid core that will not back Jack.

By: Erik Wemple

Erik Wemple — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:58:23 +0000

David Catania stands as the great hope for Republicans. In ‘97, he won in an open special election as a Republican. As in any special election, though, there were special circumstances–low turnout and a woeful Democratic candidate in Arrington Dixon. Could a Republican pull off the same thing in a first-Tuesday-in-November election. I’d say no. If Jack vacates the Ward 2 seat, for example, there’d be plenty of really good and aggressive Dems who’d be ready to follow. A Republican of any mold would be killed in that race.

By: Arthur Delaney

Arthur Delaney — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:55:44 +0000

Here’s another question: Who is the biggest phony in this at-large race?

Hint: not Carol!

By: Reid

Reid — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:43:21 +0000

If Brown were disqualified, who would win? There were more write in votes than there were for Mara, but not all the write in votes could be for Carol. Would Mara slip through?

The only hope I can see for the Republicans to get a seat back is if Evans wins the Council chair (which could happen if Gray runs for mayor in 2010, thus enabling Evans to run for the Chair.) If the Ward 2 chair were open, I think they could make a decent run for it if they got their sh*t together. I mean look at Christina Culver. She doesn’t know crap about DC politics, only started to run about two weeks before the election, and still won 17% percent. Not much but not bad considering the circumstances. Throw in the fact that Ward 2 will probably be geographically smaller after the 2010 census (i.e. fewer Shaw votes), and Republican prospects improve even more. Still a long shot, certainly, but a determined liberal Republican in the mold of Mara could pull it off.

By: pathetic

pathetic — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:35:08 +0000

How about Obama and the new congress change the city’s home rule charter? No (electoral) socialization without representation! Stand up, people!!

By: Erik Wemple

Erik Wemple — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:13:17 +0000

Great points here. The only thing I’d add is that if the Republican Party really wants to stake its strategy on a law that reserves seats for the non-majority party, it’s in even more desperate straits that I’d thought. I mean, this is a set-aside, electoral socialism, and the party is hanging its full hope for the future on that.