There’s suddenly another high-profile vacancy at the District’s Board of Elections and Ethics — the Washington Post reports this afternoon that the board’s chairman, Togo West, is resigning.

Are independent voters special? Mayor Adrian Fenty believes so, but this morning Togo West and the Board of Elections and Ethics ruled that they’re no different than anyone else.

It’s not easy being a Republican in the District. This is one of the country’s most heavily Democratic cities, and even with two seats on the D.C. Council set aside for minority parties, Republicans don’t currently have a presence in the city’s legislature. (Both seats are held by independents, one of whom, David Catania, used to be a Republican.) So it makes sense that the D.C. GOP would do pretty much anything in its…

Togo West”I have not been a shadowy presence in politics in the District.” That’s what Togo West, the man who would save this fall’s election, tried to convey at a hearing before the D.C. Council this afternoon. He succeeded. The excellently-mustachioed West fielded questions from Councilmembers Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), Kwame Brown (D-At-Large), Harry Thomas, Jr. (D-Ward 5) and Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large). It was smooth sailing for the former Secretary of Veterans Affairs — West…