Sekou Biddle

Former councilmember Sekou Biddle has now made official what was long rumored: he’s running for a seat on the D.C. Council.

But not just any seat.

Biddle is gunning for the At-Large seat he briefly held earlier this year, which was subsequently taken by Councilmember Vincent Orange after the April 26 Special Election. Biddle served only four months after having been appointed by the D.C. Democratic State Committee to fill the seat, which had been held by D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown. In that appointment process, he beat — you guessed it! — Orange, after three contested rounds of voting.

Jumping ahead to April 2012, should Biddle win, he’ll have taken back a seat that was taken from him by Orange and which he originally took from Orange. You can’t make rivalries like this up.

Biddle will certainly have a challenge ahead of him, though a different one that he faced only months ago. He’s no longer the incumbent, and he isn’t likely to saddle up with associations to troubled elected officials like Brown and Mayor Vince Gray again. Known to friends and supporters as a bright and progressive politician in the mold of former mayor Adrian Fenty, Biddle will likely get to be more of himself — and in the process avoid challenges from the left (Bryan Weaver) and the right (Patrick Mara), as he couldn’t in April.

Regardless, Orange is a well-known name across the District, and Biddle will have to barnstorm across the city to make himself better known to voters. Whether the higher-than-expected turnout in April benefits the incumbent or the challenger is tough to predict, though Biddle showed stronger appeal across racial and demographic groups than Orange did during the special election. Then again, wards 4, 7 and 8 will be voting for their councilmember, and they polled largely for Orange in April.

With Biddle officially in the race, no seat up for grabs remains uncontested. Two people are currently challenging Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), while three are going after Councilmember Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) and a whopping seven are lined up against Councilmember Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4). Councilmember Michael Brown (I-At Large) has one competitor for the November general, and Ron Moten’s recent conversion to Republicanism means that he’ll await the winner of April’s Ward 7 Democratic primary.

Nominating petitions go out in mid-November; by January, we’ll have a final slate of contenders for all of the open Council seats.