Photo by Samer Farha

Today is the last day for candidates vying for an At-Large seat on the D.C. Council during the April 23 special election to turn in 3,000 signatures on nominating petitions to get on the ballot. Of 20 candidates that started gathering signatures, so far only four have returned their petitions to the D.C. Board of Elections: Patrick Mara, Paul Zukerberg, Matthew Frumin, and Perry Redd. But a few others have done something different: they’ve opted to drop out of the race.

Today Jon Gann, the man behind the D.C. Shorts Film Festival, announced that despite gathering 4,000 signatures on nominating petitions, he was dropping out of the race. In a statement, Gann pointed to a single reason: avoiding the longstanding problem of crowded fields allowing incumbents to sneak into office:

We all agree that politics as usual cannot continue in the DIstrict. Voters must make sure that a strong progressive candidate with the best interests of all of our citizens wins this special race. It is because I respect the District that I must withdraw my candidacy for the At-Large Council seat. I believe that one more name on the ballot in the overcrowded Democratic field might create an unexpected and unwelcome outcome.

Gann isn’t the first candidate to jump out of the race. A.J. Cooper, who ran for an At-Large seat last November as an independent, recently announced that he was pulling out of the April 23 special election in order to back Elissa Silverman, a former reporter and analyst at the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute.

According to the Post, Cooper said that he feared that his place in the race would draw votes away from a good progressive candidate; he also said that Democrats had to join together to keep Mara, a Republican, from winning. John Capozzi, himself a council hopeful, dropped out of the race in December, citing the same reasons as Gann and Cooper. (Gann said he hasn’t yet decided who to back, but will make up his mind in March.)

These moves demonstrate some strategic thinking that was largely missing in two recent elections. In the 2011 Democratic primary for an At-Large seat, Sekou Biddle and Peter Shapiro largely split the vote, allowing Councilmember Vincent Orange (D-At Large) to cruise to reelection. A year prior, Orange returned to office after a hiatus after Mara narrowly lost to him; Mara claimed that his various opponents robbed him of votes he needed to beat Orange.

This year, the At-Large contenders will take on incumbent Anita Bonds (D-At Large) and recently defeated Councilmember Michael Brown, provided they both turn in their nominating petitions today and survive any challenges. If the two make it to the ballot, though, they could also split the vote. And even with a few people dropping out, it may still end up being a pretty crowded ballot—and with low turnout expected, the winner could sneak through with a small plurality of votes.