Ward 7 D.C. Council candidate Yvette Alexander seems to be taking a page from the campaign of Ward 4 council hopeful Michael Brown. Literally.

Last week, Brown sent out a campaign update e-mail touting the fact that he drew the No. 2 slot on the May 1 special-election ballot. The missive included a graphic of a sample ballot that blurred out the names of other candidates and highlighted Brown’s position.

On March 27, Alexander, who will also appear in the No. 2 slot, sent a similar e-mail featuring her face, a Ward 7 special-election ballot, and her name clearly printed with her opponents’ blurred.

But there was something wrong with Alexander’s graphic. As her e-mail points out, Alexander is No. 2 among “18 candidates in the Ward 7 race.” Her ballot has 19 names. The blurred names don’t really match up with the Ward 7 contestants. In position 19 for example, the obscured name looks a lot like Dwight Singleton’s, a Ward 4 candidate. And isn’t that Ward 4 hopeful Muriel Bowser in the No. 6 position?

LL would never suggest that Alexander’s Web team would simply lift the Brown graphic and insert Ward 7 and her name at the top. Perhaps her staff just used the wrong ballot as their template.

But the similarites don’t end with the ballots. Check these passages from the accompanying press releases. Here’s Brown’s:

Today at noon, the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics held a lottery to determine ballot positioning in the upcoming Special Election on May 1st. We are pleased to say that we drew the 2nd position out of 19!…

With little more than 6 weeks until the May 1st Special Election, I need your help and involvement more than ever.

And here’s Alexander’s:

The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics held a lottery to determine ballot positioning in the upcoming Special Election on May 1st. We are blessed that we drew 2nd position out of 18 candidates in the Ward 7 race !….

With little more than 6 weeks until the May 1st Special Election, I am pleased that my campaign is moving in a positive and fast-forward direction.

You be the judge! The ballots are after the jump.

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Just in case you were wondering who’s footing the bill for tomorrow night’s Adrian Fenty inaugural bash, here’s a list, furnished by the Fenty transition team, of the donors who made the $213,000 open-door gala possible.

Bank of America, Chevy Chase Bank, real-estate outfit The Tenacity Group, and accountants/consultants Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio & Associates chipped in $25K each.

In a stunning turn in the race for a seat on the Crestwood advisory neighborhood commission, incumbent James H. Jones has reclaimed his commissioner job over upstart Jeff Hildebrand. On Election Night, it appeared that Hildebrand had scored an upset for the ages when he bested the veteran politico, 289–288, on Nov. 7.

But the uncertified tally was just that—it hadn’t included absentee and provisional ballots which were counted on Nov. 17.

Those ballots were enough to return Hildebrand to the political backwoods. Today, with the election results certified, Jones captured the win over Hildebrand by eight votes, 313–305.

Jones marked the occasion by faxing a written statement to Washington City Paper. In his typed missive, he admits that the last few weeks—with narrow defeat looming over his head—had been tough. “In the last few weeks, I received many telephone calls from well wishers lending their support, hopes and prayers,” the statement reads. “One call that I will always treasure is from a cagey octogenarian lady in my community who cited the City Paper’s article that prematurely and falsely reported my defeat. She said, ‘Mr. Jones, don’t worry, keep your chin up. In the end, it will be their defeat, not yours. God will cast the deciding vote.’ He did.”

Twenty-four other Crestwood residents cast absentee and provisional votes for Jones as well. In a subsequent interview, Jones is less humble about his close call. “I thought I was going to win,” he says. “I never figured that it would be this close. We live and learn.”

Jones has not yet received a concession from his opponent. “Protocol says he should reach out to me, and I don’t have any intention of breaking that,” he says. “That sounds so trite. Just say, I just expect a call from him.”

Hildebrand says he’s just happy that he almost won: “It shows I have a base, and it means I can be back out there in 2008.” He will not ask for a recount.

Some voters at Precinct 13 in Kalorama Heights got an unexpected visit from a political legend today.

Scott Bishop, who is still facing charges connected to Mayor Anthony A. Williams’ 2002 nominating petition signature debacle, is back at his old trade: fastening political signage.

Activist Marie Drissel reports that after voting she spotted Bishop putting up a sign for D.C. School Board President Robert Bobb. “My eyes nearly popped out of my head,” says Drissel. “All I could say was, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Bishop wasn’t fazed. “He said: ‘Marie Drissel!’ came over and kissed me on the cheek,” says Drissel, who worked with Bishop during Williams’ 1998 election bid.

Despite his title as the political sign king, Bishop has stayed away from the District recently (though he was spotted placing Marie Johns signs earlier this year). After all, he still hasn’t been collared by the authorities for the multiple election violations he’s been charged with.

Drissel, who is aware of Bishop’s legal status, says she was stunned by his Election Day appearance: “I must have looked like I was going to faint.”

With under 20 hours until polls open, Ward 4 Councilmember Adrian Fenty would seem to have a mayoral victory in the bag. But these are undoubtedly a treacherous 20 hours—what faux pas must the candidate avoid in order to cruise to victory? City Desk asked Fenty voters at Eastern Market this weekend what it would take to change their votes:

Inconsistencies in voting records have led defeated Ward 5 Council candidate Philip Blair Jr. to claim that the city broke the law by certifying its primary results. The Brookland resident wrote the elections board yesterday asking whether ballots were accounted for by a process outlined in D.C. law. If the ballots weren’t checked, he asked, then why was the count made official?

His letter follows an announcement that the Board of Elections and Ethics would act on his previous complaints and investigate missing votes in his ward. Blair previously checked poll books and found that of 139 voters from his party, the Statehood-Greens, only 89 votes were counted.

He tracked an even bigger loss of Republican votes. While that party had no contested races in the ward, 335 voters showed up. Just 202 votes were recorded.

He filed three complaints about the missing votes. Because the investigation into those complaints has just started, BOEE representatives refused to comment, but the board’s general counsel told The Washington Examiner yesterday that the missing votes likely were transferred to the Democrats through the confusion of elderly pollworkers.

Blair now wonders whether Ward 5’s primaries should have been certified at all. His new questions rely on a section of D.C. elections regulations that states “a full accounting of official ballots shall be made prior to certification of the official election results.” That full accounting, he says, should mean ensuring that the number of ballots issued matched the number of ballots cast, the number of cards exchanged for ballots (plus special ballots) matched the number of voters, and so on.

Blair wants to know if the board actually does these things, and if so, how it keeps track of them. “In fact, these records would mean that much of the investigative work requested in my three previous complaints has already been done,” he writes.

Carolyn Steptoe beat Blair 40-33 to represent the Statehood-Green Party in Ward 5 council elections. After his loss, Blair considered challenging the election, but the city took its time giving him a CD-ROM database of voting rolls. That’s why he started combing the paper records.

“It takes a while, but you know, you gotta drown your sorrows somehow,” Blair said. “So I had drugs, drink, or poll books, and I chose poll books.”

Alec Evans, spokesmen and top campaign aide to mayor-to-be Adrian Fenty, has been fired by the candidate just two weeks before the general election.

Evans confirms that he is no longer with the campaign and that his separation was not of his choosing. “It’s a shame to part ways so quickly after helping get someone elected,” Evans says. He refused to elaborate on the circumstances surrounding his dismissal.

Evans, 27, was widely seen as a prime force behind the positive press coverage Fenty received during his campaign for the Democratic nomination.

Fenty could not immediately be reached for comment.

In March, longtime politico A. Scott Bolden asked an old family friend, Enjoli Timmons, to help out with his bid for an at-large D.C. Council seat. “I took a bite [on the pay], but I was helping him out,” says Timmons.

Shortly after she started, she says, Bolden—a partner in the Reed Smith law firm—approached her and told her that his credit was maxed out and that he needed her to purchase two BlackBerrys for the campaign. The arrangement worked out fine for a while, but a few weeks before Bolden’s Sept. 12 landslide loss to incumbent Phil Mendelson, the BlackBerry bills went unpaid, and Timmons was hit with a disconnection notice.

A number of vendors are still waiting for payment from the Bolden campaign, Timmons says, but she feels her situation should take precedence. “I was not to be treated as an ordinary vendor. I did this as a friend.” At least one person wasn’t treated as an ordinary vendor: A. Scott Bolden’s campaign has been plenty efficient when it comes to paying A. Scott Bolden. During the last four months of the campaign, his committee paid him $33,470.46 to reimburse him for various expenses, including $5,000 for “Printing” on June 11, $10,000 for “Campaign Materials” on Aug. 12, and a May 19 payment of $3,550 labeled “Consultant.”

Bolden referred questions to campaign treasurer Kim Alfonso, who didn’t return repeated calls.

On Monday, Oct. 2, after a reporter made inquiries, Timmons got an e-mail from Alfonso asking her to specify exactly how much she was owed. Timmons did, and Alfonso replied, “Thank you. Did you call the city paper?” A check for the overdue balance—about half the total—was put under Timmons’ doormat later that day, and Alfonso assured her the rest of the balance would be paid before the service was cut off.

Posted by Mike DeBonis
And you thought he had moved on to 2010.

In the weeks before a scheduled Sept. 6 video shoot for the rap group Money for Life, Alfredo Nelson, a member and manager of the act, had fliers printed up, sent out e-mails, and invited what he describes as “very, very important people” to the event. Everything was in place for the shoot, which was to take place during a regular Wednesday-night open mic at Upshur Street NW’s Island Cafe.

But a couple of hours before Money for Life was to go on, manager Darryl Smith shut the club down. Event promoter Tina Turner, aka DJ Sexy Spice, told Nelson that Smith said he had decided to close his establishment right before the city’s Sept. 12 primary and would not reopen until after the Nov. 7 general election. Turner says Smith complained of frequent visits from alcoholic-beverage inspectors and the health department and believed things would die down after the ballots were cast. “He said he feels like the election is the reason they’re picking on him, and he wants stuff to die down,” she says. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Nelson, who still hasn’t scheduled a reshoot, concedes that police presence and licensing enforcement might be beefed up prior to elections but says “I still didn’t believe it.” Smith says he did indeed close the club down and says that he believes the primary is the reason that his place has been inspected more frequently than what he claims is the typical three times a year.
“I’m not the only one—other places have closed down,” Smith says. “We can’t bear all of the daily pressures.”

Every political career has to start somewhere. Why not start the easy way—by winning an uncontested race for advisory neighborhood commissioner? The job doesn’t pay and requires the ability to sit through the meetings, but it can be quite a little power trip, if that’s what you’re into.

As of 9 a.m. today, there were still 41 single-member districts that are wide open. No potential candidates have picked up the petition forms needed to get on the November ballot. If you’re not in one of the empty guys, there’s still hope: 164 of the 286 districts have only one candidate running.

Opportunity’s knocking, but there’s not much time to get the door. Twenty-five signatures from within your district must be handed in to the ANC office in the Wilson Building Board of Elections and Ethics office at 441 4th St. NW by 4:59:59, says ANC coordinator Gottlieb Simon. “If you haven’t gotten in, the door will be locked at five.”

The latest TV ads, going into the final weekend:

The mayoral race has its first dropout: businessman Michael Brown.

Brown, with his low-single-digit poll numbers, has thrown his modicum of support to old friend Linda Cropp. Farewell, Mike—City Desk will remember you best for cutting the top campaign theme song. (“Get Down With Cropp,” anyone?)

Us media types hate being accused of bias. So we just love it when two rivals both manage to look embarrassing at the same time:

Photo courtesy of Mark Segraves/WTOP