The Weekly Feed: Experimentation Edition
Former Blade Staffers Launch 'DC Agenda'
D.C. Insurance Dept. Denies Birth Control Coverage Meddling
Controversy Over Rhee Now to Include Sex, Congress
D.C. Unemployment Rate Reaches 11.9 Percent
Clark Ray
As D.C. Wire reported yesterday, former director of Parks and Recreation Clark Ray has all but officially announced he'll be running against Mendelson in 2010, the first volley in what has so far been a slow-to-develop campaign season for the coming local elections. Ray will apparently target Mendelson's stances on education and crime, both areas on which he has differed from Mayor Adrian Fenty and various members of the D.C. Council.
Mendo is a politician whose survival on the council remains something of a surprise. Detail-oriented and a contrarian by nature, Mendelson might be the exact type of thinking man you want working on public policy, but not exactly a guy known for glad-handing, kissing babies for the camera or, you know, actually campaigning. When he was challenged in 2006 by lawyer A. Scott Bolden, Mendelson didn't really seem to have much of a campaign operation, leaving Bolden to relentlessly hammer at the incumbent without much of a response. Intense, widespread distaste for Bolden saved Mendo from having to worry too much, though: the incumbent won with 64 percent of the vote to Bolden's 36 percent.
Ray is clearly organized, and he's got the appearance of independence from the mayor's office after being summarily fired from the top spot at DPR earlier this year. So all he needs to be is marginally likable and he might pull off a win, right? Maybe not -- that's Mendo's charm, it seems. No one knows how to unseat him.
Looking ahead to other races, Mayor Fenty's re-election campaign will parallel contests for the Council Chair, two At-Large seats (Mendelson's and Catania's), Wards 1, 3, 5 and 6, and the D.C. Delegate to the U.S. House. Current D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton will likely continue her reign unopposed, and Tommy Wells in Ward 6 seems safe. Should current Council Chair Vincent Gray want to stay where he is, he looks like a sure winner, but if he wants to go after Fenty, that might throw his seat into play. The biggest contests might be in Wards 1, 3 or 5. Someone always has an axe to grind with Jim Graham in Ward 1, and while Ward 3 might be the richest of the city's wards, it also seems to breed particularly active (and sometimes contentious) campaigns. Over in Ward 5, Harry Thomas, Jr. could end up facing opposition from black ministers if he continues to support same-sex marriage legislation. And will David Catania decide to run again? He still hasn't said.
Then there's the question of Fenty. He's got the most money and still maintains some of his reformer credentials, so he'll be tough to challenge. But there have been mutterings, including Council member Michael A. Brown (I-At Large) and Council member Kwame Brown (D-At Large). Should either of them run for mayor, it would leave their seats open for new blood.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Clark spoke at a CCCA meeting in Shaw and I must say he got my vote...he understands why the Shaw community was up in arms over the defeat of the crime bill and seemed to win over all sides of the room as he went through how he would address dealing with the issue.
He is also an "insider"...he knows what DC bullshit is all about and who needs to be touched when there is a neighborhood issue...
I think you might be right maybe Phil (and hopefully David Catania's) time is done.
Mendelson's torpedoing the crime bill was inexcusable. I think that Mendelson might be sinking at long last and its his own fault.
I'm still on Mendo's side when it comes to the crime bill. He didn't torpedo anything, he just removed a provision that Fenty and Co. didn't do enough to justify as being a necessary tool for fighting crime. Just because they claim that a certain gang provision will help fight gang violence doesn't make it so.
As Mendo said, and I agree, "crime lends itself to grandstanding."
Mendo is a weenie. Anyone who supports Mendo hates puppies and sunny skies. And probably supports death panels who will swoop in on black helicopters and implant you with alien-human hybrids.
So, basically, if you support Mendo, you hate humanity itself.
I'm kinda torn. I agree with Mendelson's opposition to Nickles, but they could definitely use some fresh and fabulous homo blood on the Council. I don't know what Catania stands for anymore, and Graham's record of scapegoating Jumbo Slice, demonizing devil-incarnate suburban drivers, and doubleparking his VW on infants speaks for itself.
He should be running against that nutjob Catania, not Mendelson.
Please, please, please....would someone viable and who isn't intimidated by his developer-infused war chest please run against the Grahamstander. I was a supporter at one time, but of late he has become out of touch with the Ward (and at times reality). The city's most densely populated ward needs better.
Why would runs by either of the Browns open up their seats? I know Michael Brown is pretty stupid, but he's not that stupid to give up his seat on a futile run. If they ran, they'd just keep their seats since they're not up for election this year.
Well, if it were Michael Brown, he's now an Independent, so he'd have to choose how to approach challenging Fenty. He could stay an Independent and take Fenty on in the November election, but if he wanted to take him on in the primary he'd have to change his party affiliation. If he did that, he's have to give up his At Large seat.
mendelson's campaign is strong and largely grassroots -- enviros, social justice folks, civil rights supporters, human rights supporters, anyone with an interest in making this city better, more livable, and stronger supports mendo. There are reasons to have policy-wonks on the council. Someone needs to actually READ the legislation to make sure it doesn't screw a good portion of folks -- (see: the crime bill).
there's already someone running against harry thomas—she's ran against him in the last election and she's been running a shadow campaign through every neighborhood listserv in ward 5 since—kathy henderson.
just spend some time reading her posts on the eckington, trinidad, and brookland listservs and tell me she doesn't already have her hat in the ring.
Mendo?
God damn Mart!
I say this as a liberal...but Mendelson is basically the living embodiment of the much-parodied, mushy-spined, bleeding heart. I keep waiting for The Penguin to give him a swirly-whirly so that he'll see the light and let Batman out of jail...
The time has come...
The time is now...
The man is...
Vincent Orange!
According to the Examiner, there won't be much of a race in Ward 3.
Anything is better than Mendo, and the bonus is that Ray has a mind and a heart.
Go Clark Go!
Clark 100%
His time as a volunteer police officer (all the training, none of the pay), a Service Coordinator, the Director of the Office of Neighborhood Services, then the Director of Parks and Rec, has given him more in depth experience with solving this city's problems than Mendo would have if he lived to be 100.