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COVER STORYSept. 8, 2006 Promises to save the schools…aging pols cannibalizing the few higher offices in the city…generational clashes on the campaign trail: Must be primary time in the District of Columbia.By Jason Cherkis
(Photograph by Darrow Montgomery)
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Playing the FieldsIn his two victories, At-Large Coucilmember Phil Mendelson has faced a splintered set of challengers. Can he go one-on-one? On a recent Saturday afternoon, At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson is making some campaign stops in his dark-blue 1998 Mercury Mystique (odometer: 98,228 miles). As he shuffles between block parties and the like, he has three tapes to choose from—an Annie Lennox, an early Bruce Springsteen, and a 911 recording that’s already queued up. Mendelson fires up the 911 tape. Through the crackle, there’s a burst of noise and a woman trying to give an address. Within seconds, you hear terrifying screams. It’s the sound of an anguished crowd stampeding the phone. Finally, the woman sputters out an attempt at an address and names a nearby grocery. The chaos on the recording is the by-product of street-level mayhem: A child had been hit by a car. The 911 call sent the ambulance to the wrong address. Eventually, the dispatcher figured out the right location. The boy survived his injuries, but the two-term councilmember wanted to listen to the tape to see if the 911 dispatcher had erred. (She had, by getting both the street address wrong and the location of the grocery store wrong.) Mendelson is the D.C. Council’s resident expert on 911 recordings. He’s chair of the council’s Judiciary Committee, after all, and such calls fall under his jurisdiction. He made headlines in 2003 when he investigated a 911 screwup involving a deadly fire in Dupont Circle. And he garnered more attention this year for getting caught flat-footed on the bungled response to the fatal assault sustained in early January by Northwest resident David E. Rosenbaum. A June report by the city’s inspector general uncovered a slew of errors by emergency personnel in handling the Rosenbaum call—errors that Mendelson’s critics say he should have highlighted. Mendelson takes partial credit for the probe. “I threatened the mayor’s folks with a hearing if they would not do the investigation,” he says. Whatever his alibi, one thing is certain: Mendelson didn’t botch the Rosenbaum issue because he was out demagoguing, race-baiting, or back-slapping in preparation for his face-off in this year’s at-large race against attorney A. Scott Bolden. The more likely explanation is that he had his nose buried in too many EMS documents. Mendelson’s brand of gotcha politics amounts to careful deliberation. It is this type of quiet wonkitude that distinguishes him from a dais packed with outsized personalities; the councilmember sticks out for simply not having one. Mendelson doesn’t browbeat like David Catania. He doesn’t do fake down-with-the-people like Jack Evans—someone please tell the Ward 2 rep to stop referring to slain activist Chris Crowder as “Brother Chris.” And he doesn’t rock a cardigan like Kwame Brown or molest a camera like Marion Barry or Jim Graham. “He’s the guy that looks for the comma and the period and the question mark in the sentence,” explains political operative Marshall Brown. “But he doesn’t really care about the sentence.” Even his supporters acknowledge Mendelson’s nebbish factor. “I think he looks like the skinny kid that you can beat up on,” says political gadfly Howard Croft. 
(Photograph by Darrow Montgomery)
Mendelson will tell you that this very trait—his attention to the minutiae of government—accounts for his electoral success. He thinks about issues, takes a position, and sticks to it. He doesn’t sell out to corporate interests, either, as reflected in his endorsements by labor and environmental groups. Even so, hard work and a traditional liberal record alone can’t account for Mendelson’s nearly eight years on the council. That principled stand on Klingle Road, that history of support for tenants and low-wage workers, that earnest demeanor when meeting voters—they just don’t add up to a stranglehold on such a coveted elective office. The factor missing in this equation is luck. A careful investigation of the Mendo’s political timeline reveals that the stars align for this pol as readily as the tires on his aging Merc. The Washington City Paper’s accounting of a charmed politician: • Spring 1998: Nine candidates join Mendelson in the Democratic primary for an at-large council seat. Splintered field helps the longtime Ward 3 activist. • Summer 1998: At-large opponent Bill Rice insists on riding his bike to campaign events. “I hated that bike,” admits Rice campaign worker Marshall Brown. “But that was Bill. Bill rode his bike.” The two-wheeled prop designates Rice as the whitest man in the contest, conferring unexpected racial cred upon Mendo. • Sept. 15, 1998: Mendelson wins the primary with 17 percent of the vote. Rice gets 14 percent. • June 30, 2000: The Washington Post runs a piece on Mendelson’s sidewalk office hours—another boost for the mustachioed councilmember’s street image. • 2001: Chattering class nominates D.C. political phenom Donna Brazile as challenger to Mendo. Brazile shuns Kalorama meet-and-greets in favor of national politics, assisting Sen. Mary Landrieu with her race in Louisiana. “I thought the at-large race was wide open,” Brazile recalls thinking before heading down to her home state. • March 6, 2002: Marion Barry, winner of four mayoral elections, sets his sights on Mendo’s seat, calling the incumbent’s leadership “woefully lacking.” Fifteen days after his announcement, Hizzoner is busted by Park Police at Buzzard Point with trace amounts of marijuana and cocaine in his car.
• Summer 2002: Mendelson faces another perfectly splintered field in his re-election campaign. The four black candidates include school-board member Dwight Singleton, who had this to say about his record: “I feel that under my leadership, our schools have not diminished, not one bit.” • Late August 2002: Campaign manager for at-large challenger Beverly Wilbourn quits. “The campaign really didn’t have the money,” former campaign manager Cheryl Benton explains. Vaunted Wilbourn campaign ends with a whimper. • Sept. 10, 2002: Mendelson wins the Democratic primary on his way to a second term as at-large councilmember. • Sept. 14, 2004: Ward 7 Councilmember Kevin Chavous loses his seat to Vincent Gray. The Chavous exit allows Mendo to appropriate his campaign-trail mantra: “I’m not the downtown candidate. I’m the around-town candidate.” • May 2005: Activist David Bowers tears his ACL in a pickup hoops game, sidelining him from his planned at-large run. The injury ends a string of good fortune for Mendo, leaving him in a tough one-on-one contest with colorful pro-business candidate A. Scott Bolden. CP |
Copyright © 2006 Washington Free Weekly Inc.
