The front-runner in the district’s attorney general race, who boasts experience as a trial attorney and spending more than a decade on the D.C. Council, is ineligible to appear on the ballot due to years of inactivity as a lawyer.
The decision from the Washington, D.C., Board of Elections on Monday deals a blow to Councilman Kenyan McDuffie, who had been outraising his opponents in the Democratic primary race and garnered several high-profile endorsements. The move also boosts challenger Bruce Spiva, a former Perkins Coie partner who filed a challenge claiming McDuffie did not meet the minimum requirements by not being “actively engaged” as a D.C. attorney for at least five of the past 10 years.
“When I read the statute … I read it to require more than a candidate being a member in good standing of the bar and an employee of the District of Columbia,” said Gary Thompson, chairman of the three-member panel that unanimously voted in favor of Spiva. “It’s got to include something more than that. Namely, that person must be actively engaged as an attorney.”
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Serving as a councilman since 2012, McDuffie argued his experience should be taken into account, noting he has used his legal experience to draft laws, particularly during his stint on the council’s judiciary committee over the last three years.
However, the panel ultimately decided this experience does not equate to legal work because other council members who also draft similar legislation are not attorneys. Spiva’s lawyer made the distinction that while McDuffie is an attorney who is employed by Washington, D.C., he is not employed as an attorney for the district.
“The position of D.C. councilmember, while it certainly helps to be an attorney, it’s not one that one is necessarily an attorney, [and] does not have to be an attorney,” Thompson said. “I’m persuaded that the candidate does not meet the qualifying language of the statute.”
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McDuffie’s absence from the ballot throws some uncertainty into the race to become the second-ever attorney general of the nation’s capital because the three remaining candidates don’t hold the same name recognition as the Ward 5 councilman. With McDuffie out, Spiva is left with facing Brian Schwalb, who earned the endorsement of incumbent Attorney General Karl Racine, and Ryan Jones.
The councilman said he would appeal the decision to the D.C. Court of Appeals, noting he would not take a break from campaigning. The Board of Elections is set to finalize the ballot in early May before the primary election on June 21.
