By day, she’s the mayor of the District of Columbia. But on Wednesday evening, Muriel Bowser was just another voter sitting through a debate between a half-dozen candidates running for two At-Large seats on the D.C. Council.

“I heard there were some Ward 6 residents out, so I joined them,” Bowser said nonchalantly when asked about her presence at the debate in the gymnasium of a Capitol Hill charter school.

But Bowser’s appearance at the event underscores the stakes in what has become the most contested D.C. race of the year, between incumbent At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman and challenger Dionne Reeder. Not only did Bowser break with past mayoral practice and endorse Reeder, a Ward 8 restaurant owner, but she’s also marshaled her financial supporters to give to Reeder’s campaign.

And give they did. According to a campaign finance report filed the same night as the debate, from August through October Reeder took in just over $98,000 in contributions—most flowing in after Bowser formally endorsed her. Silverman, by comparison, took in just over $57,000.

Reeder’s two-month haul was more than she had raised in the 10 months prior, and also included a significantly higher number of contributors—individuals and corporations—giving the $1,000 maximum amount allowed by law. It also served as a lifeline for Reeder’s attempt to unseat Silverman; at the start of the reporting period in early August, Reeder was down to $2,000 in the bank.

This weekend, Bowser—her own campaign flush with $1.1 million to spend, and only a few nominal challengers vying for her seat—is hosting a rally for Reeder and Councilmember Anita Bonds (D-At Large), the second candidate the mayor is supporting in the At-Large race. (Two seats are up for grabs.)

“What’s important for me in working with any Councilmember, especially At-Large Councilmembers, is that they’re open minded, that they’re collaborative and that they have a real focus on D.C. residents. And I think Anita and Dionne have demonstrated that they’d be those types of Councilmembers,” Bowser said outside the debate.

Reeder wasn’t Bowser’s first choice, though. Her endorsement only came after S. Kathryn Allen, a former D.C. government official, was knocked off the November ballot because of accusations of fraud and forged signatures on her nominating petitions. Allen had received support from lobbyists, developers and business groups seeking to defeat Silverman. (Ironically, Allen tried to keep Reeder off the ballot, but was unsuccessful.) Since Allen’s campaign imploded, some of her donors have shifted to Reeder.

Not Just About Politics

Beyond politics and policy, Bowser’s backing of Reeder has taken on a personal tinge. Long-time supporters of Bowser have taken to calling Silverman divisive, and outside of Wednesday’s debate, Bowser ally Josh Lopez accused the Councilmember of “stoking racial animosity to benefit her politically.”

Earlier this year, Lopez resigned his seat on the board of the D.C. Housing Authority mto which he was nominated by Bowser—after he hosted a rally outside the Wilson Building where a speaker referred to Silverman, who is Jewish, as a “fake Jew” and used other offensive language to describe Jewish people. The rally came in the wake of comments made by Councilmember Trayon White (D-Ward 8) in which he repeated a conspiracy theory that a prominent Jewish family controls the weather. Those comments drew criticism from Silverman and other Councilmembers, and after Lopez’s rally, Silverman pushed for his resignation from the Housing Authority’s board.

Speaking after the debate, Reeder, who is black and a lesbian, played down Lopez’s comments about Silverman.

For Silverman, Bowser’s hearty embrace of Reeder has opened a line of attack: If elected to the Council, Reeder couldn’t be an independent check on the mayor.
“Josh is his own person,” she said. “I’m running the race of my life, so I don’t get bogged down in the details of what everyone else is doing. What I expect people to do when they are working on my campaign is to actually do what’s right. I don’t agree with bigotry, sexism, racism, sexism, discrimination of any kind.”

“I take being an independent to heart,” Silverman said on Thursday. “I’m an independent voice on the Council, and the mayor has criticized my oversight of her agencies. I think my job is to make sure that we’re spending taxpayer dollars in the best way possible, and spending them on the things that matter the most.”

Reeder rejected the idea that she wouldn’t be able to separate herself from Bowser.

“I welcome and I appreciate the mayor’s endorsement. I think I would be foolish if I said that’s not a blessing. I didn’t ask the mayor for her endorsement. What the mayor saw is what I’m hoping everyone else sees in me, and that’s a qualified candidate that’s going to be a voice for everyone in this city,” she said.

But Republican candidate Ralph Chittams, Sr. says he shares Silverman’s concerns.

“And we are to believe she will be an ‘independent’ voice in the Council after this,” he tweeted. “I have a bridge to sell.”

Silverman also says that Reeder’s campaign contributions could raise red flags.

“I think where you get your money from says a lot about you as a candidate, and about how you’ll make decisions at the Wilson Building,” she said. “There’s a very big contrast between Dionne’s approach to fundraising and mine. I only take money from individuals. I don’t take any corporate contributions, LLC contributions, labor PAC contributions, I just take money from living, breathing people, and predominantly District residents.”

On The Issues….

Those issues aside, Wednesday’s debate was a polite affair, with the six candidates—alongside Bonds, Reeder, Silverman, and Chittams were Rustin Lewis and David Schwartzman (Statehood Green) debating development, traffic and parking, nightlife, and affordable housing.

On that issue, Reeder proposed giving more residents the option to enter into rent-to-own agreements, Bonds floated putting more of the city’s housing stock under rent control, Silverman said she wants the city to exercise its right to buy residential buildings to help keep them affordable, and Schwartzman proposed that the city “pump money into public housing.”

Two issues that were not addressed—and which Silverman and Reeder differ on—were Initiative 77 and paid family leave. Reeder has said the paid family leave law is too expensive and could put restaurant owners like her out of business, while Silverman has argued that it would actually allow small businesses to be able to afford providing their employees with paid leave.

This story originally appeared on WAMU.