Vincent Orange

You can attend, but you can’t vote. That’s pretty much the marching orders from the D.C. Democratic State Committee, whose members will vote tonight for an interim At-Large councilmember to fill the seat vacated by D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown. The meeting kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at 430 South Capitol Street SE.

At this point, it looks like it’ll be a battle between former Ward 5 Councilmember Vincent Orange and Ward 4 State Board of Education member Sekou Biddle, who’s been coming on strong this week with a slew of endorsements — including Brown’s. Mike DeBonis reports that Biddle is currently counting “39 solid votes with 10 more leaning” of the 78 members who will vote tonight, including the support Committee Chair Anita Bonds. We’re told that the voting itself will be via closed ballot, but each ballot will be numbered and assigned so that inquiring minds can find out which of the Democratic State Committee’s members voted for Orange, Biddle or any of the other contenders.

Even after the results are announced, though, the interim At-Large councilmember won’t have much time to get comfortable — a special election to fill the seat through 2012 is scheduled for April 26. Should Biddle win tonight, he’ll still have to fend off an Orange challenge in four months; the opposite is likely also true. And as we reported yesterday, a lot of people are expressing interest in April’s special election.