Paul Zukerberg gets his petitions. Photo by Sarah Anne Hughes.By Matt Cohen and Sarah Anne Hughes
As far as the Board of Elections is concerned, D.C. will hold an attorney general election in November. This morning, Paul Zukerberg — the lawyer who has led the fight to affirm a voter referendum to create the election — picked up nominating petitions to run for the position. While Zukerberg is certain an election will take place in November, D.C.’s current Attorney General is once again appealing to stop it.
The D.C. Court of Appeals recently ruled that an attorney general election must happen in 2014 if possible. The decision comes after a long court battle between the D.C. Council and Zukerberg. District voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of an attorney general election in 2014, but the Council passed legislation to delay it until 2018, using ambiguous language in the law that states an election “must occur after January 1, 2014” as a justification. The matter has since been a series of long, contentious court battles between Zukerberg, the Council and D.C.’s Attorney General Irv Nathan.
“I’m on top of the world,” Zukerberg said of finally receiving the petitions, a process that went “perfectly.” “I’m so proud of the Board of Elections standing up to Irv Nathan.”
In February, a District Court Superior Judge ruled in favor of the Council, issuing an opinion stating that an election does not need to occur this year. Zukerberg appealed the ruling and found victory in the Court of Appeals. However, Nathan said that his office plans to appeal the Court of Appeals ruling, which could potentially delay the attorney general election.
In a statement after the ruling, Nathan’s office said that they “continue to believe that the “Council of the District of Columbia had the authority to interpret the 2010 Charter Amendment to authorize a statute scheduling the Attorney General election to be in 2018.” His office also said that they’ll be “working with the Board of Elections and the Council to develop a full explanation of the practical and legal issues associated with rushing to hold the Attorney General election in 2014.”
“Basically two things are happening simultaneously,” Ted Gest, a spokesperson from Nathan’s office tells DCist. “One is that we’re asking the court to rehear the entire case, and two…we have to be prepared for the court to decide not to rehear [the case].” Gest says his office is working with the BOE to ensure that the election can happen in the event that the court decides not to rehear the case. “Mr. Zukerberg can pick up his petitions today, we aren’t trying to block that,” he says. “This was handed down by a decision of a three-judge panel, so it’s not uncommon for the loser in a case like this to ask the entire court, which now has eight judges, to rehear this.”
Zukerberg, who must collect 3,000 valid signatures over the next two months to get on the ballot, said he’s “completely confident the election for attorney general is going to be on November 4.” He said he’s already started meeting with voters to ask what they expect from an elected attorney general. “I’m listening to voters, talking to voters and I’m just on top of the world that we’re going to have some accountability on November 4th.”
