Cary Silverman, the Mount Vernon Square lawyer who ran a spirited campaign against longtime Ward 2 incumbent Jack Evans, has conceded the Democratic primary.

“I spoke to Mr. Evans yesterday and I congratulated him,” says Silverman, who also posted a valedictory message on his blog last night. “I don’t expect the outcome [of the election] to change.” Silverman’s campaign had sent out a press release Wednesday morning that said “it’s too early to declare a winner or a loser.”

Still, Silverman says he’s not entirely convinced of the latest numbers’ accuracy. Particularly, he says, he’s not as worried about the phantom write-in votes as much as the phantom votes that were actually allocated to candidates. “They took away more of mine than more of his. You’d think they’d affect both of us proportionally.”

“It’s more confusing today than it was yesterday than it was the day before,” he says.

To that end, he’s dispatched a letter to the elections board asking the board to “take all steps necessary to restore trust in the election results.” Silverman, though not asking specifically for a recount, thinks it might not be a bad idea: “This was not a huge election in terms of turnout,” he says. “It shouldn’t take a lot of time to take out the ballots and run them again, right?”

According to the unofficial numbers, Silverman won a single precinct—Precinct 2, in East Foggy Bottom, 17-11. (It also turned in, by far, the fewest votes of any precinct; it contains mostly George Washington University student housing.) The CW going in was that if Silverman was going to pull a Hoosiers-like upset, he had to run strong in Foggy Bottom and in the eastern reaches of the ward, in Shaw and Mount Vernon Square, to get carried off the court a la Gene Hackman.

Didn’t happen for him: Evans’ worst showing off of the GW campus was in east Dupont Circle, where he won 55 percent. West Foggy Bottom, the residential part of the neighborhood, went 59 percent for Evans; Silverman’s home precinct, encompassing south Shaw and north Mount Vernon Square, went 64 percent for Evans, just one percentage point off his ward-wide margin. Unsuprisingly, Evans racked up huge margins in the western parts of the ward, garnering better than 70 percent in Georgetown and Kalorama.

Silverman declined to indulge in any postmortems, saying he’ll wait until he has more confidence in the precinct-by-precinct numbers.

Finally, a look inside the madness at the Board of Elections and Ethics headquarters Tuesday night. When LL arrived shortly before 10:30, about a dozen people had gathered, including Ward 2 incumbent Jack Evans, who was poring over the questionable tallies. Within an hour, 50 people were in the board’s lobby and in the hallway, including Evans challenger Cary Silverman and a gaggle of his supporters.

Just before 11 p.m., board spokesperson Dan Murphy appeared to inform folks that the tallies were being examined and news would soon come. About 45 minutes later, everyone was directed downstairs, tot eh One Judiciary Square lobby, for his official statement.

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LL just returned from Shaw, where he accompanied Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans as they accompanied voters from the Asbury Dwellings senior complex to the polls.

“Jack, you got some buses for some seniors, but you got no seniors here,” Fenty quipped to the young-at-heart crowd, before they were escorted into several minivans to cart them the four blocks to the polling place at Shiloh Baptist Church. At least four Evans aides were part of the escorting party, along with three Fenty aides. At Shiloh, they met two Evans pollworkers, one of whom was Shaw activist Alex Padro.

Fenty waved an Evans sign and greeted voters for about 20 minutes. “Tell all your friends and family [to vote],” he said. “Take nothing for granted!”

Padro, like a good pollworker, had the precise voter tally as of 10:30 a.m.: 125 votes. Earl Storm, president of the Asbury Dwellings tenant association, said he was getting 26 votes out from his building. All Evans votes? LL asked: “Ain’t no doubt about it.”

Evans’ challenger, Cary Silverman, had a pollworker looking lonely outside Shiloh, bearing signs with an impromptu tag pasted on boasting of his endorsement today by the Examiner. Evans’ signs had slightly more professional-looking stickers pumping up his Post endorsement—you can do that with $184,000 in the bank.

LL had the opportunity to quiz Fenty on his own endorsements. He has gone to bat for Evans and Ward 4’s Muriel Bowser—both loyal mayoral supporters—but not for fellow Democratic incumbents Kwame R. Brown, Marion Barry, or Yvette Alexander. Fenty dodged the query: “I don’t really have much comment about endorsements that don’t exist. I have comments about endorsements that do exist.”

He also declined to make a prediction or choose a preference in the hotly contested Republican at-large race, where challenger Patrick Mara is running on a platform of supporting many Fenty initiatives.

“I’m happing telling you who I voted for,” he said. Fenty said that he had voted for Brown this morning.

Then LL asked who he had selected for the local Democratic party offices, and Fenty’s ballot-disclosure pledge disintegrated: “I’m probably not gonna reveal that….Well, I told you I voted for Councilmember Brown!” (Evans, incidentally, says he supports current local party chair Anita Bonds.)

On his way back to the office, LL stopped by Republican incumbent Carol Schwartz‘ headquarters on U Street NW. Three Schwartz staffers were manning the phones and computers while the candidate hit the hustings in Ward 3.

GOP turnout, says Schwartz volunteer Jim Slattery, is “very slow, very low.”

Where the campaign has precinct reports, “there have been eight or nine people,” he says, but the yellow team has reason to stay upbeat: “What we’ve heard is that most of the people who have come out and identified themselves [as Republicans] voted for Carol.”

LL has gotten reports from a Ward 3 precinct, at Jenifer Street and Connecticut Avenue NW, that Mara has a paid staffer working the poll. “Also they’re very well equipped with donuts,” a source says.

The city’s Office of Campaign Finance has opened an official investigation into whether Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans improperly used government resources in connection with an ad featuring police Chief Cathy Lanier that ran in the Current newspapers last month.

The decision comes in response to a complaint filed Aug. 28 by Dupont Circle activist Dave Mallof and three other Evans foes. OCF spokesperson Wesley Williams says there’s no timeline on the investigation; nothing will be determined, he says, prior to tomorrow’s primary elections, where Evans is facing a challenge from Mount Vernon Square activist Cary Silverman. Williams could supply no other details on a pending investigation.

It won’t be the first time Evans has been subject to an OCF inquiry. In 2006, the office investigated the “Jack PAC,” an erstwhile political action committee that paid for travel and sports tickets for Evans. A report issued by the office that year concluded that Evans did not violate any city campaign laws, though it recommended that Evans repay more than $6,000 to the committee, which he had already done.

Reagrding the current complaint, Evans campaign chief Keith Carbone says, “I am confident that there is no violation. This is an attempt to get negative press before an election.”

Peter Rosenstein, the longtime Dupont Circle gay activist, has broken with his longtime support of Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans, announcing today he’s endorsing challenger Cary Silverman.

In comments to LL, Rosenstein explained that he thinks it’s time for a change. “I endorsed Adrian Fenty for real change in this city. I think that includes new views and new ideas and new ways of doing things on the council.” He also cited the need for a “full-time councilmember,” echoing one of Silverman’s main talking points.

Furthermore, Rosenstein says, “I think 12 years is enough for a person to be on the council….Jack should be thanked for his time there, but it’s time for him to move on.” [Clarification: Evans has been serving since 1991, making this his 17th year in office; Rosenstein was speaking generally.]

The endorsement of Rosenstein, who writes a column for the Washington Blade, also marks a break from other elements of the gay community. The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club gave Evans a strong vote of endorsement in June, and The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance gave Evans a perfect 10 rating last month (Silverman rated a still high 8.5).

Silverman has picked up several endorsements from the neighborhood activist crowd over recent weeks, primarily from folks upset over Evans at his perceived focus on citywide development over bread-and-butter neighborhood issues. Evans continues to enjoy the support of most local institutions, with endorsements from the labor community, the business community, neighborhood newspapers, not to mention Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray.

UPDATE, 1:39 P.M.: Rosenstein sent a statement, which is after the jump.

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LL wrote on Friday about the controversy concerning an ad in the Current newspapers for Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans that featured a photo of the candidate with his arm around police Chief Cathy Lanier, raising questions about the propriety of using a city official for campaign purposes.

Yesterday, Dupont resident and Evans foe David Mallof, along with fellow activists Ronald Cocome, Elizabeth Elliott, and John Hanrahan, sent a letter to the Office of Campaign Finance requesting an investigation of a “blatant violation” by Evans’ campaign.

Rather than press federal Hatch Act concerns, Mallof & Co. are alleging misconduct by Evans in “misusing government resources” for campaign purposes. The ad, Mallof writes, “implies a clear endorsement by the Chief of Police Lanier, but nevertheless also was produced by Mr. Evans for campaign purposes on D.C. Government property in the Wilson Building, likely on government time (in daylight and with the chief in full uniform on duty), and with the full powers, ‘brand,’ and directly implied resources of the D.C. Council and MPD Office of the Chief of Police.”

Mallof continues:

That this campaign chose the Chief of Police for the advertisement, not the chief dog catcher, is profound. The improper use of the image of our top public safety official portends a possible witches’ brew of civic implications for D.C. and its integrity of governance. Your office finding such an ad is acceptable will almost certainly set into motion many subsequent and likely more dangerous situations in the future.

All four signers have connections to the campaign of Evans’ challenger, Cary Silverman. Mallof and Elliott were listed among Silverman’s endorsers in an press release earlier this month. Mallof has contributed the maximum $500 to Silverman’s bid; Cocome and Elliott have donated more modest amounts. Hanrahan’s wife, activist Debby Hanrahan, has donated to Silverman’s campaign and has is listed in the press release as an endorser.

UPDATE, 2:05 P.M.: Evans campaign chief Keith Carbone responds: “This is nothing but the Silverman campaign trying to cause a distraction because they can’t defend the fact that Cary Silverman is a lobbyist who has spent the last eight years advancing the Bush administration’s agenda from pharmaceuticals to tobacco to Tom DeLay’s cheeseburger bill to guns. While the Evans campaign is about the progress we are still making in Ward 2, I can’t help but wonder why a Bush Republican is trying to sneak onto the D.C. Council through a Democratic primary.”

Full letter after jump.

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The Phillips Collection auditorium last night hosted what’s probably the main event in this year’s Ward 2 D.C. Council race, with Democratic incumbent Jack Evans meeting primary challenger Cary Silverman in a 90-minute debate sponsored by the Dupont Circle Citizens Association.

“Debate,” however, might be a strong word for what took place. Under the, ahem, firm hand of moderator and Current newspapers publisher Davis Kennedy, Evans and Silverman rarely addressed each other directly and the dialogue was rarely heated. Time limits were strictly enforced by Kennedy, who cut candidates off—usually Evans—with a booming “THANK YOU, MR. EVANS!” Kennedy had a harder time keeping a lid on the crowd, who got raucous at points, and he also could have used a watch: He tried to end the debate a half-hour early before someone informed him there was plenty of time left.

For the most part, over a series on about 25 questions, the differences between the two candidates were minor or predictable. Both support lowering taxes, but Silverman made a big deal about “targeted” tax relief for small business and homeowners. Both hate aggressive panhandling, both think the local ANC should decide whether the sidewalks on 17th Street are brick or concrete, both support a green taxi fleet, and both think that exempting developers from parking requirements are a bad idea (hear that, Layman and GGW?).

This campaign, however, isn’t much about the issues, so much as it is that some people don’t like Jack Evans.

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