Photo by The Skipping HippyFailed Republican D.C. Council candidate Patrick Mara is claiming credit for flipping the vote of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski on this morning’s cloture vote for the D.C. Voting Rights Act. In a statement released to the press, the DC Republican Committee cited Mara’s meeting with Murkowski’s staff prior to the vote.
“Republican support and particularly Senator Lisa Murkowski’s vote for cloture put us over 60 votes,” Mara said. “I spoke with Senator Murkowski’s top staff and told them that DC Republicans and the District’s 40,000 veterans support S. 160. I told the Senator’s staff that my experience in knocking on over 25,000 doors during the election was evidence that DC Republicans support S. 160. Today’s vote was a combined effort from many and I am glad to see that because of DC Republicans, we were able to influence the outcome.” Mara beat incumbent Carol Schwartz in a Republican primary for an At-large seat on the D.C. Council last year, but lost handily to Independent Michael A. Brown in the general election.
Mara said he also met with top staffers from Senators John McCain and Lamar Alexander’s offices. Neither McCain nor Alexander voted for cloture. The Republican Senators who did vote for cloture today are: Cochran, Collins, Murkowski, Lugar, Hatch, Snowe, Specter and Voinovich.
The only photo we could find of Mara in the DCist Flickr pool is the one at right, of the then-candidate participating in a vegan cupcake eating contest in Columbia Heights.
ANALYSIS: We assume Mara’s attempt to insert himself into today’s voting rights victory is a signal of his intention to run for the Council again. Could he be after David Catania’s seat, which is up in 2010?
