In shocking-but-not-surprising news (or is it surprising-but-not-shocking news? or is it neither?) upstart Patrick Mara has won the endorsement of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce PAC over incumbent Carol Schwartz in the Republican at-large primary, LL has learned.

And, in news that is definitely neither surprising nor shocking, incumbent Marion Barry won the endorsement in the Ward 8 Democratic primary, meaning Schwartz is the sole incumbent not to get the chamber nod.

Mara already won the endorsement of the city’s other main business group, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, and the chamber’s nod solidifies the notion that biz is out to get Schwartz due to her support of mandatory sick leave for District employees.

The sick leave maneuver wasn’t a total political disaster for Schwartz: She’s been rolling in the union endorsements ever since. The real proof of the fallout from the supposed biz-world abandonment will come Aug. 10, when the next round of campaign-finance disclosures are due.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

UPDATE, 3:30 P.M.: Kelvin Robinson, the former chief of staff to Mayor Anthony A. Williams who is now a consultant and chair of the chamber’s political action committee, wouldn’t get into specifics of what led to Mara getting the endorsement, except to say candidates are judged “how they best align with the views and the issues the business community cares about” and “their fresh perspective on the issues of the day.”

As far as what those issues are, Robinson cited “level of taxation…and what can we do to stem the tide of excessive regulation that can stymie economic progress in the city,” in addition to general concerns about crime and education.

Mara cited the chamber and Board of Trade nods as further proof of his “real Republican” bona fides, pointing out, “She’s endorsed by SEIU and the AFL-CIO. That just kind of says how we stand on these issues….That certainly says something to Republican voters.”

Mara says he’s continuing to raise money, with two fundraisers already under his belt this week, with two more scheduled before the filing deadline.

LL has been informed that the D.C. Chamber of Commerce has made their endorsements in several of the major D.C. Council primary races. In each of those, incumbents unsurprisingly pulled in the chamber’s nod:

• Ward 2 Democrat: Jack Evans
• Ward 4 Democrat: Muriel Bowser
• Ward 7 Democrat: Yvette M. Alexander
• At-Large Democrat: Kwame R. Brown

The endorsements, made by the chamber’s political action committee, do not include the at-large Republican primary. There, of course, the big question is whether four-term incumbent Carol Schwartz will get the chamber’s nod. Challenger Patrick Mara got the nod from the Greater Washington Board of Trade, a group with a broader scope but similar pro-business interests. Chamber types were not pleased, not pleased at all, with Schwartz’s advocacy on the behalf of mandatory sick leave.

A source says that the delay is due to the fact that neither Schwartz or Mara have been interviewed by the chamber yet; they’ll make their pitches next week. No word on whether a Ward 8 endorsement is forthcoming.

For your afternoon viewing enjoyment, LL gives you Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry and Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh getting down to “Let’s Get It On.” (Yes, Marion Barry would be the one wearing the Marion Barry T-shirt.)

And here’s Barry dancing with at-large colleague and former mayoral foe Carol Schwartz to “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” Behind them, Cheh cuts a rug/lawn with council chair and legendary hand-dancer Vincent C. Gray.

The occasion, you might be wondering, was a picnic—complete with live band!—for councilmembers and their staffs held Saturday at Gray’s Hillcrest home. LL crashed the party; more to come in this week’s column.

At-large council candidate Adam Clampitt issued a media advisory this morning for a “joint news conference” with fellow challenger Michael A. Brown on Monday to announce a “major development” in their campaign against incumbent Carol Schwartz.

Sources tell LL that Clampitt will announce that he his is ending his campaign and endorsing Brown. The presser is scheduled for noon Monday at Eastern Market.

Clampitt raised a lot of eyebrows early in the race by raising thousands from well-heeled donors to the mayoral run of Adrian M. Fenty, leading to scuttlebutt that Clampitt, a 33-year-old public relations executive and Capitol Hill resident, would be anointed by Fenty to oust Schwartz. That support from the mayor seems not to have materialized; his most recent campaign finance report showed Clampitt’s campaign to be some $12,000 in debt. He marched in last week’s Palisades 4th of July Parade with about a half-dozen supporters—a quite smaller contingent than he brought out a year ago as a virtual unknown.

Calls to Clampitt and Brown were not immediately returned.

UPDATE, 12:15 P.M.: Says Clampitt, “No comment.”

UPDATE, 12:30 P.M.: Brown says he has no comment, “not at this time.”

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

At-large council incumbent Carol Schwartz‘ campaign might just be a couple of weeks old, but she’s wasted no time finding prime office space: LL over the weekend spotted Schwartz signs above a 7-Eleven at the corner of 12th and U Streets NW.

This, of course, is rival Dee Hunter’s stomping grounds; the border of the district he represents as an advisory neighborhood commissioner starts a block up 12th Street. Hunter, natch, called up LL yesterday to point it out.

“I think it’s a smart decision on her part, because no one knows who she is the neighborhood,” he says.

Hunter continued the trash-talking, pointing out Schwartz’ plastic banners and signs recycled from her last campaign: “Her headquarters is really an eyesore. We don’t tolerate that kind of stuff hanging from buildings around here. It does not fit the neighborhood at all.”

Hunter, of course, pointed to the sharp backlighted sign on his own (empty) headquarters, a block and a half away at 1318 U St. NW, as something more in keeping with the surroundings:

Hunter had better watch it—Schwartz has clearly been eying a possible run from him for years, having been slowing inching onto the happy Hunter grounds: For her 1996 mayoral run, she had her headquarters downtown. Then, for runs in 1998 and 2000, she occupied a building at 7th Street and New York Avenue NW (now occupied by the Jack Evans campaign). The 2002 tilt took her to upper Georgia Avenue NW, and in 2004 HQ was on the 900 block of U Street, according to Schwartz aide John Abbot.

Abbot also notes that mail service has begun and the Schwartz campaign would be happy to accept any checks at 1115 U St. NW, Suite 201.

Note: LL is taking a pre-campaign-season constitutional the remainder of this week and next. He’ll see you all at the Palisades July 4 parade and back on City Desk on July 7.

On Saturday afternoon, LL was watching the weather report with bated breath, as a line of thunderstorms threatened to put the kibosh on this year’s Capital Pride Parade, the centerpiece of the yearly gay-community celebration and the first chance for the players in this year’s campaign season to truly come out. (Yes, pun intended.)

Luckily, the show went on. The big news of the parade were the mystery signs:

All along the parade route, posted on lampposts were signs reading “Ask Carol Schwartz why she OPPOSES marriage equality” in Schwartz’ trademark yellow-and-white. The signs carried absolutely no indication of where they might have come from. Shady!

Gay activist Peter Rosenstein told LL he had seen folks on stepladders posting the signs earlier in the afternoon, but neither he nor anyone else LL consulted had any idea who they were. The challengers who marched in the parade—Adam Clampitt, Dee Hunter, and Patrick Mara—all denied having anything to do with the signs. (A Clampitt aide, in fact, phoned in a preemptive denial, before LL even showed up for the parade.)

Schwartz called it “the work of a cowardly liar” and furthermore implored LL not to “rain on my parade” (har har) by giving the cowards any ink—sorry, Carol! (For more on the does-Carol-support-gay-marriage theme, read Washington Blade articles by Rosenstein and by Schwartz.)

LL thought he might have solved the mystery when, right on the middle of the 17th Street NW commercial strip, a spectator holding one of the signs in one hand and a drink in the other marched right out to confront Schwartz, who was walking behind her yellow Pontiac Firebird. From a distance, LL seemed to see Schwartz saying to the interloper, “I do! I do!” in response to the sign’s query.

After Schwartz passed, LL asked the man, Andrew Campbell of Dupont Circle, whether he’d been involved in the signmaking. Nope, he said—”I pulled it off the lamppost.”

LL quizzed him further on the reasoning behind his anti-Schwartz stance. “I dunno,” he said. “Look at what the sign says!”

The crowd rest of the crowd seemed not to care much. Take this spectator reaction to the confrontation: “Tell him to fuck off, Carol!”

Many more pix after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »

Campaign finance reports were due Tuesday. LL’s spent the last couple of day poring over them to give City Desk readers the inside dirt. This round: at-large council races.

• Kwame Brown: The Kwame money train has slowed just a bit, with only $55,480 added to the war chest this period. Take that, though, as testament to Brown’s early success at shaking the money tree, what with a total of $408,000 raised total. The pull this period is still heavy on construction and development interests, but there’s a fair number of smaller Joe Q. Citizen donations, too. Kwame also been the spendiest candidate in town, spending nearly twice his revenues for the period. The bulk of that—more than $70,000—went to campaign aides. (See Nikita Stewart’s Post story for more on Papajohnsgate.) And then there’s this “consulting” fee: $125 to Capitol Hill Cleaning Service. Care to share any cleaning tips you learned, Kwame?

  The Totals: In: $55,480; Out: $104,012.74; Cash on Hand: $133,812.49; Debts: $0

• Adam Clampitt: Clampitt, who had raised a lot of cash from Fenty supporters in previous month, seems to slowed, with only $11,560 pulled in this period bringing the total haul to just over $60,000. Splashy names are getting few, with philathropist Calvin Cafritz really the only show-stopper. (There’s also a $150 from the “Friends of Jack” PAC.) The interesting part is all the spending Clampitt’s done—on rent, renovating office space, consultant wages, printing, software, etc. His accounts payable at the moment total over $12,000, putting his campaign well into the red.

  The Totals: In: $11,560; Out: $22,091.86; Cash on Hand: $1,372.17; Debts: $12,239.90

• Michael A. Brown: These numbers aren’t bad, save for this fact: $21,300 of those revenues are coming out of lobbyist Brown’s own pocket. The rest is a sprinkling of D.C. folks and a rather large number of donations out of Florida and Georgia (on dates which correspond to plane tickets and a hotel stay in St. Augustine). As far as spending goes, Brown’s dished out $5,000 on campaign materials, plus $15,000 to four paid campaign aides.

  The Totals: In: $36,659.33; Out: $23,136.33; Cash on Hand: $13,523; Debts: $831.50

• PaulDavid Schwartzman: The Statehood Green candidate seems to be going with a minimalist campaign, with five donations totaling $450 (of that, $100 is from the candidate himself). He has spent none of it.

  The Totals: In: $450; Out: $0; Cash on Hand: $450; Debts: $0

• Did Not Report: Carol Schwartz, Dee Hunter, Clarence Cherry—Schwartz just announced her campaign kickoff earlier this week, and Cherry, who has picked up petitions to challenge Brown, is an unknown. The mystifying thing here is Hunter, who has yet to file a campaign finance report even though he’s been raising money for months. No January or March reports have been filed either; shortly after the January deadline, Hunter told LL he had raised about $30,000 and had filed for a 15-day extension. Fifteen days later—make that 130 days later—and still no report. Hunter undoubtedly has something to report: On April 14, Hunter held a fundraiser at the Park at 14th.

UPDATE, 6:54 P.M: LL was wrong to report that Hunter has not filed a campaign finance report; Hunter calls to say he’s been filing monthly reports as an exploratory committee, compiling receipts in excess of $40,000. Exploratory reports are not available online and LL was not able to obtain them before close of business today. He will follow up on Monday. LL apologizes for the error.

LL has been scrutinizing the campaign-finance statement of surprisingly well-financed GOP at-large challenger Patrick Mara. Some more details:

• At least $20,500 of his $50,125 comes from parking companies and related companies and employees—Landmark Parking, Monument Parking, Doggett Enterprises Inc., MarcParc, Altman Parking, Atlantic Parking, PMI. In other words, Mara’s caught the eye of Bud Doggett, the guy who has wrangled together the parking community politically for years.
• Mara collected $6,000 from the Miller & Long construction company and the MC Dean electrical contractor and their employees, including $1,000 from Citizens for Empowerment, a political action committee funded largely by the two firms that has in the past been devoted to anti-union causes.
• As far as donations from non-corporate District residents, Mara collected a mere $6,825—assisted in no small part by donations from Federal City Council chair Terry Golden and his wife, Kathleen. (If you give him the benefit of the doubt on some of the entries with incomplete info, that rises to $8,850.) In other words, he may have cash, but not a lot of votes. This is somewhat unsurprising considering his virtually non-existent name recognition.

LL seems to have made a serious mistake.

For months, he has been avidly following the candidates lining up to challenge four-term incumbent Carol Schwartz for the non-Democratic at-large seat. He’s been spending all his time charting the fundraising endeavors of Adam Clampitt, Dee Hunter, and Michael A. Brown. Just last week, he blew up rumors that Marie Johns might enter the race.

But the true threat to Schwartz’ sinecure might be, gasp, a fellow Republican! Patrick Mara, the 33-year-old Columbia Heights resident planning to challenge Schwartz, announced in a press release minutes ago that he’s raised just over $50,000 in two weeks of his campaign, with virtually all of it still on hand.

That’s an absolutely flabbergasting figure, probably enough to fund an effective direct-mail campaign to every Republican voter in town. It also makes him the best-financed non-Dem at-large candidate.

LL took a quick glance at his June 10 finance report. Some things that caught his eye: Maximum donations from Federal City Council chair Terry Golden and wife Kathleen. Thousands and thousands from downtown parking interests, including Doggett Enterprises, Atlantic Parking, and MarcParc. Max donations from donors affiliated with construction outfits like Miller and Long and MC Dean. Max donations from White House communications aide Tucker Eskew and his wife Lisa.

LL is going to go ahead and call this the big-business backlash that Chamber of Commerce types had been promising ever since the Sick and Safe Leave Bill passed earlier this year.

LL’s call to Mara was not immediately returned. There will be massive followup tomorrow!

UPDATE, 8:05 P.M.: OK, how bout massive followup right now:

Mara calls back to say you ain’t seen nothin’ yet: “August is going to be an even more impressive showing,” he promises. Checks from friends and family not sensitive to the publicity demands of a filing deadline failed to get their checks in on time, and Mara plans to throw a major fundraiser later this month at a restaurant TBA.

The Golden donations, he says, came after he started making the business community rounds. Terry Golden, he says, offered advice on his run: “We had a great discussion.”

Besides the fundraiser, Mara, as LL speculated, plans to do a mailing by the end of the month. He also says to look for him in this weekend’s Capital Pride parade.

Took you long enough, honey!

At-Large Councilmember Carol Schwartz today announced she’ll be standing for a re-election this fall, in an unsurprising but highly anticipated announcement from the four-term incumbent.

The news reached LL in the form of a press release issued by the D.C. Republican Party just after 5 p.m. this evening, which included a long speech written by Schwartz playing up her long record and explaining her fifth bid for the council seat.

One highlight: “A lot of people have told me, ‘Carol, you don’t need this job. Why do you want to continue to work this hard?’ And the best answer I can give them is that I am very protective of and, in fact, passionate about this city. I often say that I have gotten over every love affair I’ve ever had except for the one I’ve had with DC for nearly 43 years.”

In a conversation this afternoon, Schwartz said the mechanics of the campaign meant she just couldn’t put off a decision any longer: Ballot petitions are due July 2, and Schwartz picked hers up today (they’ve been available since May 9). “I wanted to get my petitions and start getting that on the road,” she says. “That’s why I did it the way I did it.”

Schwartz says she’s yet to plan a formal kickoff—or any other campaign event, for that matter. “I haven’t thought that far ahead….The only thing I’ve done thus far is pick up my petitions and written that speech. Now I have to do the other things.”

The late start is nothing new for Schwartz, who has typically delayed her politicking until well into the campaign season. What is new this year is a slew of motivated challengers taking aim at her seat, including independent candidates Michael A. Brown, Adam Clampitt, and Dee Hunter, plus a Republican challenger in 33-year-old government relations consultant Patrick Mara.

To get on the GOP primary ballot, Schwartz and Mara will need to gather signatures from 1 percent of registered Republicans in the city—about 291, according to the most recent registration stats. That’s much fewer than the 2,000 that local Democratic candidates need to capture, but then again, finding Republicans in this town is a lot harder.

Schwartz says her old reliable method for signature gathering is to focus on local grocery stores and rely on the expertise of friends to circulate. The door-to-door campaigning strategy favored by some of her competitors, she says, is “such a hit or miss thing….It’s probably more efficient to just go to some grocery store where people gather.”

Speech in full after the jump.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Read the rest of this entry »

Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham started out sounding like the accomplished, mature legislator he sometimes can be: “I suspected the D.C. Council has discussed Klingle Road at sufficient length,” he began. “There are even points where I give up….The handwriting is on the wall.”

Phew, thanks Jim, on behalf of the beleaguered political class of the city, we appreciate you sparing us the 2,345th hour of debate about….

“HOWEVER,” he continued, “saying in fact that Klingle will not be a road is a different decision than what this pathway ought to be.”

So another amendment! This one, introduced with the support of colleagues Carol Schwartz and Muriel Bowser, would remove funding to convert Klingle Road to a hike/bike trail, while leaving the decision to close the road intact.

Graham, in his remarks, said he wanted to avoid rehashing all the old arguments but cited a conversation he’d had with transportation director Emeka Moneme last night where Moneme informed him that the official estimate for a hike/bike path is $9.6 million, far outstripping the $2 million so far budgeted. OK, interesting.

Then, in a funny but rhetorically empty exercise, Schwartz quoted the words of main anti-road foe Mary Cheh about how the road was prone to flooding and is located in a gorge: “I like bicyclists! I like pedestrians! I want them to be safe!”

Oh, and then, and then! Bowser, despite Graham’s promise not to rehash the same 17 years of debate, takes the mike and starts rehashing the same goddamn unpersuasive arguments about traffic! Sheezus, Muriel!

The amendment has just failed, 3-10. God help us all.

The battle over the noise bill, recently brought back from the dead, comes to a head today at the D.C. Council’s legislative meeting.

Actually, the battle is well underway: At this morning’s council breakfast meeting, councilmembers got pretty huffy over the bill’s prospects. Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans described an amendment he plans to introduce that would distinguish between amplified noise in residential areas, where it would be limited to 80 decibels as measured inside a residence, and commercial areas, where there would be no limits. The distinction, he explained, was necessary to protect the interests of unions (Local 25 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees was specifically mentioned) who want to hold protests—including protests outside three large hotels located inside residential zones (the Washington Hilton, the Wardman Park Marriott, and the Omni Shoreham).

Also, rather than empowering police officers to enforce the law as originally proposed, the amendment would require readings to be taken by noise inspectors from the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. That, Evans explains, is because the unions “have an enormous distrust of the Metropolitan Police Department.”

Ward 6 Councilmember and bill cosponsor Tommy Wells initially suggested a compromise amendment that would keep the residential/commercial distinction, but lower the threshold to 70 decibels, as measured outside a residence. To placate the unions, Wells proposed allowing amplified speech within 100 feet of a hotel with 50 rooms or more.

So what does 70 decibels sound like? Some said “freight train”; Evans likened it to one of his favorite hangouts: “It’s Cafe Milano on a busy night,” he said.

Wells took a dig at Evans, who had loudspeaker-equipped protesters outside his Georgetown home early on a Sunday morning earlier this year: “As Jack learned, noise is used…as a weapon.”

Then At-Large Councilmember David A. Catania said, essentially, screw this union shit: “What offends me about this is in the effort to pander to one constituency…we’ve basically said to the community, ‘Good luck!’” After Catania’s spiel, At-Large Councilmember Carol Schwartz also spoke again the union pander, and Ward 3 Councilmember Mary M. Cheh stood up for the provisions in the original bill, which she cosponsored. The hotel exception, she says, is “beyond pandering.”

The meeting broke up when Evans stalked out shortly before 10 a.m.; Cheh, Wells, and others huddled to discuss strategy.

Shortly before the start of the meeting, Wells told LL that he and his allies would offer no amendment unless Evans’ amendment passes.

Michael A. Brown is filing his papers today to officially enter the race for an at-large D.C. Council seat as an independent. He’ll be facing longtime incumbent Carol Schwartz, as well as motivated challengers Adam Clampitt and Dee Hunter, in November for the non-Democratic slot.

Brown, son of legendary Democratic honcho Ron Brown and veteran of failed runs for mayor and Ward 4 councilmember, spent almost two months pondering his run on an exploratory basis. This time, Brown says, he’s really done his homework, leading him to believe he has a winning strategy. “It’s been all scientific,” he says. “When I ran for mayor, it was kind of on gut. Ward 4 council—that was half gut, half scientific.”

His winning issues, Brown says, are a bit of a reprise from his mayoral run, where he made youth issues a centerpiece of his campaign. This time, he says, he’ll be focused on the disposition of closed school buildings—”I am not a proponent of selling every asset we have for condo development. There is no reason those assets shouldn’t be turned into libraries, vocational centers, senior centers”—and a “lack of opportunity” for youth.

In addition, Brown—who has a background in municipal finance—says he’s concerned about the District’s debt load and advocates refinancing bond issues for the baseball stadium and the convention center. “We need to take advantage of the rates now, get the payments down,” he says.

A big question is whether Brown, 42, is willing to give up his lucrative lobbying gig to be a full-time councilmember—a pledge so far given by all his opponents. He recently left the lobbying firm Alcalde & Fay to join Boston-based Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge.

“I haven’t made that assessment,” Brown says, citing a need to speak with current councilmembers with side gigs such as Ward 2’s Jack Evans and at-large member David Catania about their experiences. “My first priority will be the people of the District of Columbia.”

Brown says he has no events planned until later next month, when he will conduct an eight-ward “whistle-stop tour” on Metro.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Tomorrow’s the monthly D.C. Council legislative meeting. This morning, Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray held his usual preview press conference. Here’s the rundown:

• Vince Gray Punctuality Watch: The presser kicked off at 9:42 a.m.—12 minutes late. Getting better, Mr. Chairman!
• Things kicked off with a presentation from At-Large Councilmember David A. Catania on his “Healthy DC” universal-health-care plan. The meat of the policy proposal is to provide an affordable health insurance option for a relatively small part of the city populace: the approximately 25,000 uninsured folks who make too much to be eligible for Medicaid or the D.C. Healthcare Alliance program. Will spare the details, but the costs are intended to be no more than 3 percent of annual income for participants, with a District subsidy covering the rest.

  Along with the bridge insurance program comes a requirement that all District residents over 18 years of age be continuously insured. Anyone filing a D.C. tax return will be required to check a box attesting they’re insured. Enforcement is still vague; Catania said liars could be prosecuted for tax fraud—another option, he says, would be to cross-reference all emergency-room visitors with their tax returns.

  How is it being paid for? Under Catania’s proposal, the individuals are expected to bear a little more than half of the cost through monthly premiums. As for the remainder, a new 2 percent premium tax on HMOs raises a chunk, and taxes paid by CareFirst, the local Blue Cross licensee, takes care of most of the rest. Also kicking in, but not directly: A doubling of the District’s excise tax on cigarettes, from $1 to $2.

  The plan is scheduled to kick in on July 1, 2009; Gray said he hopes to hold a hearing on the plan before the end of the budget season.

• Looks like Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry’s plan to rename the Southeast-Southwest Freeway and part of Maine Avenue SW after Martin Luther King isn’t going anywhere fast. Said Gray: “I have a number of concerns about that…as well as a number of my colleagues….I think this is one of those where I think I will have a hearing.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Let the amendments begin! The Sick and Safe Leave bill is up on the council dais; sponsor Carol Schwartz has introduced a substitute that keeps things largely intact and doesn’t address the main issues the business community have. Never fear—Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans is on the scene. He’s got seven amendments, drafted with the assistance of Council chair Vincent C. Gray, at-large member David A. Catania, and, undoubtedly, the D.C. Chamber of Commerce. This could take a while. —Mike DeBonis