Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh said she doesn’t regret supporting ousted D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown’s 2010 bid for the legislative branch’s top job.
“This is a situation where you’re not talking about one person. You’re talking about one person and who the other person might be,” Cheh said Thursday in an interview with WPFW-FM. “At the time, I thought I was right.”
Brown, who resigned earlier this month after prosecutors charged him with bank fraud, was running against Vincent Orange, a former city lawmaker who ultimately returned to the D.C. Council in 2011 as an at-large member.
“The choice was clear,” said Cheh, who briefly served in the council’s top job until lawmakers picked Phil Mendelson as Brown’s replacement. “I didn’t know that he cheated on his mortgage application.”
Cheh said she worried at the time that Orange would disrupt the council’s rhythms.
“I really thought that he would be a divisive influence on the council, and I’m confirmed on that,” Cheh said in a reference to Orange’s widely criticized actions at a meeting earlier this month to select a new chairman.
