Councilmember Vincent Orange (D-At Large)

As the D.C. Council gathers this morning to select an interim D.C. Council Chair, the fight will no longer be over who gets to replace Kwame Brown until November’s special election, but rather who gets to be the council’s ceremonial second-in-command.

According to the Post, Councilmember Vincent Orange (D-At Large) has given up on vying for the interim chair slot, ceding it to Councilmember Phil Mendelson (D-At Large). Orange has instead shifted his sights to the chairman pro tempore position, though, challenging Councilmember Michael Brown (I-At Large) for the ceremonial position currently held by Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3).

Orange’s shift could provoke some drama in council chambers today. Mendelson’s ascension is something of a packaged deal—a resolution put forth yesterday by Cheh moving him up in the council’s hierarchy specifically includes promoting Brown to the pro tem post. Orange has taken aim at the deal, saying in a statement that he thinks it would make the council only look worse if it voted on the packaged resolution instead of separating the two posts so they’re voted on individually.

It’s a clever move—Orange knows that the there isn’t a whole lot of good faith floating around for the council these days, and by playing up the notion that backroom shenanigans are behind Mendelson and Brown’s rise he might be able to peel away a few votes for himself. And while he won’t directly say it, that Brown is part of the deal only helps his argument. Today the Examiner’s Jonetta Rose Barras came down hard on Brown for his own transgressions, and Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) has been tweeting up a storm asking that residents call the council—most likely in support of Orange.

“We need two members who are not under investigation, two members who have not been investigated…We need to come up with a resolution that’s going to protect the institution from unnecessary hits,” Orange told the Post’s Mike DeBonis yesterday evening.

Mendelson hasn’t backed off of his support for Brown as pro tem, so it remains to be seen if Orange can get enough votes to push Brown off of the ticket. If anything, though, the move shows how Orange can deftly move through the city’s legislature and how much he’s jockeying for higher office. If Orange wins the pro tem post, he’d be in line to take over the council if Mayor Vince Gray stepped down and Mendelson were elevated to the post of interim mayor.

But even if he doesn’t win today, he’s already made clear that he’s running in the November special election to finish out Kwame Brown’s term, which is up in 2015. But since Orange is already on the ballot for his own At-Large seat, that means that he’ll be running for two elected offices.