The District’s two newest councilmembers took their seats yesterday with a nod to the woman who got them there: Muriel Bowser.

After being sworn in, Brandon Todd, taking Bowser’s old Ward 4 D.C. Council seat, praised Bowser as “my mentor, my friend, and my former boss.” LaRuby May, who’s filling the Ward 8 seat just days after her slim election win was certified by the D.C. Board of Elections, thanked the mayor for her “commitment to Team LaRuby and the residents of Ward 8.”

Just how the new councilmembers plan to pay back the mayor, who has stumbled with her first budget to the Council, remains to be seen.

May included another mayoral shout-out in her speech, this time to the late Marion Barry, whose seat she’s filling.

“I will not replace the honorable Marion Barry, as he is irreplacleable in his commitment and service to our city,” May said.

File photo by Darrow Montgomery