Mara, in a 2011 campaign photo.
As The Washington Examiner tells it, there are two clear frontrunners in the April 23 election for an at-large D.C. Council seat. One is former Councilmember Michael A. Brown, who was bounced in last year’s general election by David Grosso. The other is Patrick Mara, the Ward 1 representative to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education and a candidate in previous Council elections.
The race, as the Examiner frames it, is also shaping up as a showdown between political parties. Brown, who because of rules in the D.C. Charter was an independent when he served on the Council, is running as a Democrat. Mara, meanwhile, is a Republican.
The last time Mara ran for a Council seat, in 2011, a website called PatrickMaraIsaRepublican.com popped up. It was authored anonymously, but sought to highlight the fact that when Mara appears on a ballot, he does so with a little “R” next to his name. That site appears to have been resuscitated today, with Federal Election Commission records from the 2012 presidential election concerning Mara’s donations to Republican nominee Mitt Romney, along with a link to a photo of Mara and Romney’s son, Josh.
Two years ago, when the site first popped up, its creator described himself or herself as “a D.C. resident who wants to share Patrick Mara’s anti-D.C. background, that the candidate himself does not tell voters.” Mara, for what it’s worth, has been a member of the board of D.C. Vote, the statehood advocacy group, and actively pushed for last year’s Republican National Convention platform to include language supporting full Congressional representation for the District. (It was ultimately rejected.) Mara also wrote dispatches from the convention for DCist.
Moreover, Mara does not appear to be hiding his party registration. “My typical Democratic voters—a majority of my votes will be Democrats—don’t really care about that stuff,” he writes in an email to DCist. “I generally note that I’m a moderate Republican at least twice during forums and meet and greet.”
And, by the way, anyone who isn’t clued into Mara’s or other candidates’ party affiliations will learn them when they go to vote. “On the 23rd, the ballot will say Patrick Mara, Republican,” he continues. “I think they will get the idea then.”
