Patrick Mara stopped by the D.C. Republican Committee offices at 13th and K streets last Wednesday to see whether anyone had signed his petitions for an at-large seat on the City Council. A campaign volunteer had dropped them off a week before.
On a counter, Mara saw forms for Christina Culver, running as a GOP candidate against Jack Evans in Ward 2. He saw Adrian Salsgiver’s petitions to challenge Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton. But no Mara petitions.
“I realized I couldn’t rely on the D.C. GOP to get signatures for me,” Mara tells me. “I went to an event for a local GOP candidate in Georgetown last week. They were passing around petitions for everyone but me.”
The local Republicans — perhaps the most anemic and inept political party in any big city — have reasons to fear Mara. He’s dared to challenge Carol Schwartz, the veteran at-large council member and the only Republican to ever hold political office here, and remain a Republican.
In harsh political terms, if Mara were to succeed in taking out Schwartz in the primary, he would face almost insurmountable odds in the general election, because Democrats outnumber Republicans 10-1.
Still, that is no reason to stifle a campaign by the only fresh-faced, young candidate to run as a Republican since Schwartz ran for school board in 1974, since David Catania ran as a Republican in 1996, before he bailed and became an independent.
Stomping on Mara is downright undemocratic. And it’s ultimately destructive to a party that needs new blood.
Mara, a 33-year-old from Rhode Island, is being supported and financed by business activists who are furious at Schwartz. They believe she lied to them in developing and passing the Safe and Sick Act, which guarantees health care coverage for part-time workers.
Last week some of the biggest names in local business got together at Georgia Brown’s restaurant on McPherson Square to raise funds for Mara. Among them were Barbara Lang of the Chamber of Commerce; Federal City’s Terry Golden; restaurateur Paul Cohn; parking magnate Bud Doggett; and John Kane, former president of the Board of Trade. They raised more than $30,000. Mara has more than $60,000 in the bank.
Isn’t that how our system of electoral politics is supposed to work? Groups favoring one candidate or another raise funds and drum up support?
Let me be clear: Carol Schwartz is a venerable and hardworking local leader. She has run for mayor four times. She has taken courageous stands, often against the tide, often against Mayor Adrian Fenty. She works hard as a committee chairwoman.
Carol gets my vote.
But that doesn’t mean she should not face a challenger for the nomination. Or that the local D.C. GOP should stay neutral in that race.
Dissing Patrick Mara lends credence to his challenge. Today he will turn in petitions with more than 400 signatures that he got going door to door for weeks; he needs 291.
Mara expects the local Republican Party to challenge his petitions. That would be another travesty of democracy.
