Councilmember Vincent Orange (D-At Large)

Despite telling various media outlets last week that he’d be running in the November 6 special election to be D.C. Council Chair, Councilmember Vincent Orange (D-At Large) seems to have backed off of that plan, writes the Post:

People familiar with his thinking said Wednesday that Council member Vincent B. Orange (D-At Large) has concluded he’s not running for the chairman’s seat to focus on his at-large contest. Orange relayed his intention to stay out of the race to Mendelson over the weekend, the sources say.

Had Orange chosen to run, he would have faced current Chairman Phil Mendelson and been forced to run two campaigns at once—one for his At-Large seat and one for the chairman’s post.

Orange ran for the council’s top job in 2010, losing to Kwame Brown, who recently resigned after being charged with bank fraud and campaign finance violations. He took office again last year, winning a special election to fill the At-Large seat once held by Brown. He seemed like a contender for the council chairman position until last week, when his histrionics during a council session were panned by most political observers.