Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd is the first incumbent to file his paperwork for the 2020 elections.

And as of Thursday, the first challenger for the seat has entered the June 2020 primary, too—former D.C. assistant attorney general Janeese Lewis George.

While the already crowded race in Ward 2 has quickly centered around the issue of corruption, George wants the Ward 4 primary election to be a referendum on cronyism in D.C. government.

“I believe that Ward 4 deserves a strong, independent voice that is going to be unbossed and unbought by developers, contractors, and the current administration,” says George, quoting Shirley Chisholm while referring to Todd’s closeness with his old boss, Mayor Muriel Bowser. Bowser vacated the Ward 4 council seat after winning the mayoral election in 2014, and Todd won the 2015 special election after touting his relationship with her.

At a fundraiser for Todd last week, Bowser said that “I can call on him to get it done,” according to attendee Bill Rice. At the same event, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson called him an “important ally,” per Rice.

It was one of a series of fundraising events held for Todd in July. One hosted last night at the residence of Everett Hamilton called for a suggested contribution of $500, according to the event invitation. Hamilton is the CEO of Octane Public Relations, which is a subcontractor on the aforementioned single-source sports betting contract, and previously served as the communications lead for Todd’s 2016 council campaign. Another fundraiser earlier this month was hosted by Keith McDuffie, the cousin of Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, whose name was listed on the controversial no-bid gambling contract approved by the council, including Todd. (Keith McDuffie maintains his name was listed erroneously.)

The Re-Elect Brandon Todd 2020 committee raised more than $180,507, according to July 31 filings to the Office of Campaign Finance. His donors include a slew of corporations, developers, and longtime supporters of both Todd and Bowser.

But that doesn’t impress George, who will be using the city’s new public financing program for elections. “We have to have people on the council who have real life and work experience, not just inside people who are connected to the right people,” George says. “This will be a race where it will be people versus money. I believe the people will prevail.”

Todd’s campaign chairperson, Darryl Wiggins, tells DCist that the campaign is not commenting on other candidates in the race. “We are running our race and making sure that all the residents in Ward 4 know who we are and that Brandon Todd is doing an amazing job,” he said.

George, a third-generation Washingtonian, says that the council’s work is deeply personal to her. After she returned to D.C. to attend Howard University’s law school, she says her family lost their Manor Park home amid rising rental costs, and she watched as neighbors and churches began moving to Prince George’s County. “My generation and my mom’s generation of Washingtonians has been left behind while the city has rapidly prospered,” she says.

As a D.C. assistant attorney general for public safety, George says she focused on juvenile justice reform, which reinforced to her that “the underlying issues were often health, education, and housing.” She says she met “families in my work that didn’t believe that our city cared about them,” quoting one mother telling her that “I don’t think this city cares if we live or die. I think they’re just interested in us leaving so they can have this property.”

If elected, George would join two other alums of Racine’s office on the D.C. Council—At-large Councilmember Robert White and Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White.

She says she was interested in these inequities long before joining the D.C. attorney general’s office, though. She traces it back to when she began attending Alice Deal Middle School (which the Washington Post called “the District’s most coveted middle school”) thanks in great part to her grandmother working as a lunch lady there. When she “got on the bus for the first time and crossed over Military [Road], I saw the difference in the neighborhoods and schools … That is what first got me fired up.” George served as a youth mayor under the YCMA Youth and Government Program, among other public service roles like Ward 4’s Youth Advisory Council.

George can quickly list off a slew of Todd’s actions on the council that she disagrees with: his opposition to paid family leave (“my father got very ill in 2016 and I had to take off work to take care of him,” she says, noting that women are more likely to end up being caretakers for their family members); his vote to exclude single-family homes from the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (she says taking away first buyer’s rights keeps black families who’ve long rented in D.C. from being able to stay in the city); his repeal of Initiative 77 (“D.C. voices spoke and the council repealed the voice of the people almost immediately,” says George); his vote to direct online sales tax revenue to commercial tax cuts rather than homeless services; and, most recently, his vote in favor of a controversial single-source contract for sports betting.

Discontent with Todd has been growing among more progressive officials and activists in Ward 4. Back in May, a group of elected representatives in Ward 4 called on Todd to participate in the new public financing program. “In every election since Councilmember Todd has joined the Council, including one in which he was not on the ballot, he has violated the city’s election law,” the group (which includes George’s campaign chairperson, Zachary Teusch) wrote in an open letter. “It appears that Councilmember Todd considers his repeated fines a cost of doing business since he has shown no remorse for his actions.”

Todd is not using public financing. At the time of his most recent fine, his spokesperson said Todd “looks forward to moving past this and remains focused on doing the important work of advocating for and serving the residents of Ward 4.”