Photo by michael starghill

Come November, Councilmember Michael A. Brown (I-At Large) may face a tough re-election battle. As he aims for a new four-year term, he’s staring down a determined opponent who has battled him on policy and process—and landed some stiff blows.

Brown faces independents David Grosso and Leon Swain and Republican Mary Brooks Beatty in the fight for his seat, which by law is set aside for members of minority political parties. While Brown has been batting away allegations of ethical impropriety related related to a failed attempt to implement online gambling in D.C. and concerns over unpaid taxes, he has also had to contend with procedural challenges that have bogged down his campaign.

Earlier this month, Grosso filed a complaint with the D.C. Board of Elections over the signatures Brown submitted to get on the ballot; Gross said Brown didn’t reach the 3,000-signature threshold needed. (A separate complaint was filed by activist Dorothy Brizill.) And though the election board ruled this week that Brown did in fact have the signatures needed to appear on the ballot, he’s still going to have to answer accusations from Brizill over claims of forgery on his nominating petitions.

Beyond that, Grosso has hit Brown over his campaign spending, recently asking that his campaign account be frozen after Brown failed to file a mandatory August 10 campaign finance report. Brown fired back, saying that he had to close the account after a theft by a former campaign staffer. (Brown also sent a press release with a list of his current contributors, though not how the campaign is spending its money.) Still, the damage was done—this week a Post editorial chastised Brown for not filing his report on time.

The procedural fights have seemingly taken a toll on Brown, who in a statement criticized the “large volume of frivolous challenges” and accused Grosso of making them in “bad faith.” He also said that he “looks forward to…talking about issues that matter like jobs and housing.”

Grosso, a lawyer with CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and former D.C. Council staffer, may have landed a punch just at the right time. With two full months of campaigning ahead of him, Grosso has $55,000 in the bank, more than Beatty ($22,000) or Swain, who is $795 in debt. And as the City Paper recently reported, Grosso can sell himself as either an alternative to Brown or Councilmember Vincent Orange (D-At Large), who is also running for re-election. (The top two vote-getters get the spots, so either Orange or Brown are vulnerable.)

In another advantage, come mid-September, Grosso will have been campaigning for a full year. (He’s celebrating the accomplishment, along with his birthday, on September 16.) He’s pulled together a strong network of volunteers, so much so that he was able to gather 3,000 signatures to get on the ballot in only three days.

That being said, he faces a tough competitor in Brown, who is generally well-liked and enjoys citywide name recognition from his various runs for office. And while being an incumbent these days isn’t a good thing, Brown has seemed to escape the worst of the criticism that has been leveled at his colleagues. He also enjoys a money advantage: according to a June campaign finance report, he had $115,000 in the back, and said he raised an additional $29,300 through August. That being said, both the theft of funds and the lack of an August 10 report make it tough to see where he stands today.