An ANC commissioner and longtime local advocate is the latest person hoping to unseat Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans amid multiple investigations into his relationships with private-sector clients. For those who have lost track, this brings the total number of challengers to five.

Kishan Putta currently serves as the ANC commissioner for parts of Georgetown, Burleith, and Hillandale. He previously served as an ANC commissioner in Dupont and ran for an at-large D.C. Council seat in 2014 against more than a dozen people in a race that Elissa Silverman ultimately won.

“D.C. is my home, and I love this city. Over the last decade, I’ve worked really hard to make it a better place to live,” says Putta, who filed to run today. “I’m running for D.C. Council because I’ve met so many people who need help here in D.C., and I know that D.C. hasn’t done enough to help them.”

Putta describes a long list of issues that he would focus on, including transportation, recreational space, and affordable childcare. But, he says, “the top priority has got to be restoring trust. Because so many of my constituents have been telling me they not only have lost faith in the councilmember, but they’re pretty disillusioned with D.C. government in general.”

The fallout from reports earlier this year that Evans leveraged his elected position for private benefit has intensified in recent weeks. Federal agents searched Evans’ Georgetown home last week. D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson is appointing an ad hoc committee to investigate Evans and plans to hold a vote in two weeks to strip his chairmanship of the Finance and Revenue Committee. And Evans resigned from the Metro board after the release of a 20-page report outlining his violations of the transit agency’s ethics code.

The city’s longest-serving councilmember has issued a vague apology and cautioned against rushing to judgment, saying that he’s owed due process and that it would be premature to remove him as the Finance Committee chairman (he’ll have the opportunity to explain his side of the story at a meeting on July 2.)

But it has all been fodder for the growing slate of candidates that hope to unseat Evans, who has not formally filed for reelection. Putta says all of his previous campaigns have been positive and he doesn’t plan to criticize his many other opponents—except for the councilmember, whose conduct he described as “egregious and harmful.” (Putta says he had his doubts about Evans as far back as 2014, declining to endorse his bid for mayor that year.)

The Democratic primary, which is generally tantamount to the general election in blue D.C., is scheduled for June 2, 2020.

A former journalist and healthcare policy analyst, Putta currently works in community outreach for a non-profit that helps seniors age in place. He grew up in upstate New York, the child of Indian immigrants who worked as public servants for the New York government, and attended Dartmouth College. He’s lived in Ward 2 for about 14 years, moving neighborhoods in 2016 from Dupont to Burleith.

In that time, he’s racked up involvement in an impressive number of political and civic organizations. In addition to his current and former ANC positions, Putta also serves on the D.C. Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Affairs and as the chair of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Affairs caucus in the D.C. Democratic party. He’s the vice president of the Friends of Stead Park group, a member of the Community Advisory Council for WETA, and sits on the D.C. Public Schools Chancellor’s Parents Cabinet. He counts among his successes over the years helping to lobby for funding for Stead Park and years of advocating for the 16th Street bus lanes, which are slated to be in place by 2020.

Like the other four candidates—Patrick Kennedy, Jordan Grossman, John Fanning, and Daniel Hernandez—Putta says that he also plans to participate in D.C.’s new public elections financing program.

“I have been a big believer in campaign finance reform for probably two decades. I have always thought it’s the biggest problem in our democracy and our government that regular people have their voices drowned out by big money,” Putta says, noting that he testified in support of the program before the Council. “I’m very proud to take part in it because I greatly believe in it and I want to lead by example.”

If elected, Putta pledges to only stay in office for two terms. He also says he wouldn’t abuse his D.C. Council license plate, a reference to Jack Evans’ notorious parking jobs in illegal spaces. Putta was among the ANC commissioners who publicly turned down their government parking passes earlier this year: “I thought that was an important statement to make, that I didn’t want special treatment.”

This story has been updated to reflect the correct date of the primary election. 

Previously:

There Are Now Enough Jack Evans Challengers To Make A Barbershop Quartet
A Third Candidate Jumps In The Race To Unseat Jack Evans In Ward 2
Jack Evans Gets A Second Challenger For His Ward 2 Council Seat
Jack Evans’ Former Campaign Chair Is Running For His Council Seat
Notes On A Scandal: WTF Is Going On With Ward 2’s Jack Evans?