DCSOB points out a poll showing Ralph Nader only five points behind President Bush in the District of Columbia. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is way ahead. DCist would like to point out that although Kerry is way ahead, Chef Geoff Tracy, husband of NBC’s Norah O’Donnell, is gaining on President Bush. When we checked on Monday, the Georgetown graduate was only down by 10-15 votes at the 13th Street Chef Geoff’s. We don’t know if…

Dupont Rowhouse Ablaze: An 18th Street NW rowhouse went up in flames yesterday. No one was hurt, but flames from the building’s third floor shot up “high enough to be seen several blocks away,” the Post reports. Cardinal Dies: Cardinal James Hickey died at his Northeast nursing home at the age of 84. Hickey led the Washington archdiocese for 20 years and “created the metropolitan area’s most extensive nongovernmental network of social services, an achievement…

President Bush and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry faceoff one last time in tonight’s presidential debate. With 20 days left ’til the election, and the race in a virtual dead heat, DCist expects a gloves off, no holds barred performance from both men tonight at 9 p.m. from Tempe, Ariz. The third and final debate of the campaign will focus on domestic policy and social issues such as health care, job growth (or the lack of),…

Carol Schwartz is all alone. She’s the last Republican on the council. David Catania, like Schwartz an at-large member, has defected from the Republican Party, and, like Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont in 2001, has become an independent, the Post reports. Catania, who is openly gay, has been in disagreement with the Republican establishment over President Bush’s support for a constitutional provision that would outlaw same-sex marriage. This summer, the D.C. Republican Party denied him…

Over the weekend, DCist noticed this lawn sign reading “KERRY” on Potomac Avenue NW near Arizona Avenue in the Palisades. While such a landscape political statement isn’t necessarily anything new (Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee had “BUSH” sculpted into a hedge outside his Northwest Washington home), the landscaping supporting Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s presidential bid has two distinctive characteristics. First, it appears that the landscapers intended the sign to be seen from planes…

The D.C. Republican Party has never been particularly strong. The city’s demographic reality tends to work against the GOP. (The Post says that President Bush and Vice President Cheney only got 18,073 votes of 205,748 votes cast in the District in 2000.) Carol Schwartz and David Catania are D.C.’s only GOP city councilmembers. And they aren’t going to New York for the Republican National Convention. First off, David Catania, who has said he will vote…

We know that everyone is probably getting tired of all the Krispy Kreme grand opening hoopla, but there is some breaking news about the presidential race coming from Dupont Circle. President Bush is losing the D.C. doughnut vote. A press release from Krispy Kreme said that 82 percent who participated in the Bush-Kerry red-sprinkle, blue-sprinkle presidential doughnut poll chose Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. While it is unclear whether professional pollers will take the poll seriously…

While much has been written about the O Street home of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry (or should DCist say Teresa Heinz Kerry?), the West End Guide has the skinny on the home of Kerry’s vice presidential nominee, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. His home, built around 1830, is just a block away on P Street. It is currently assessed at $3.7 million. The Edwards bought the Georgetown home after selling a seven-bedroom 30th Street…