Vincent Orange appeared to win a special election to fill an at-large D.C. Council seat on Tuesday, besting eight other candidates in a race that was only tight for a few of them.
Approximately 43,000 D.C. voters cast ballots on Tuesday, about 13,000 more than were expected. Late Tuesday night, Orange had about 30 percent of the vote to apparently fill the seat vacated by Kwame Brown when he became council chairman. The race’s sole Republican candidate, Patrick Mara came in a close second with about 25 percent of the vote. Sekou Biddle, who defeated Orange in a Democratic State Committee Vote earlier this year, came in third with about 20 percent of the vote.
There were approximately 3,000 absentee ballots mailed out by request. Late Tuesday, Orange led Mara by approximately 1,200 votes.
“I wanted to bring my message of fiscal and ethical responsibility to the D.C. Council, but it doesn’t appear that resonated with voters,” Mara told The Washington Examiner Tuesday night before conceding the race. “I believe it will down the road, though.”
After losing to Biddle in the state committee vote, it appeared Orange was on the outs. But in the months that followed, the former Ward 5 councilman proved himself to be the top fundraiser among a field of candidates thick with Democrats. He also cobbled together support from the same unions that helped Vincent Gray defeat former Mayor Adrian Fenty last summer.
Biddle appeared to be the early frontrunner in the campaign in January when he picked up endorsements from Mayor Gray and Council Chairman Brown. The city’s top two political leaders had just come off victories of their own, and it seemed they were poised to tap into the same votes for Biddle. But when Gray and Brown became mired in scandal, Biddle apparently was unable to convince voters he was independent.
The most damage he was able to inflict was against Mara. The two candidates battled over white voters who had supported Fenty and the school reform agenda he and former D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee represented. The returns Tuesday evening showed Biddle and Mara splitting votes in the city’s whitest wards where Fenty had also proven himself strongest.
That left Vince Orange to run as the Democratic opposition to the status quo. As Brown’s opponent in last summer’s council chairman race, Orange had the citywide name recognition and anti-establishment credentials he needed to apparently get the victory. As Biddle and Mara dueled over white votes in Northwest, Orange sopped up the black vote in Wards 4, 5, 7, 8.
