Bowser for Mayor in 2014?

It’s not a secret in D.C. that some politicos think Ward 4 Councilwoman Muriel Bowser is eyeing the office of the executive on the sixth floor of the John A. Wilson building. (Try and get her to say it on the record though!)

In his latest post for the Georgetown Dish, political consultant Chuck Thies breaks down her recent statements on government employee furloughs as campaign fodder for 2014.

This week, Bowser posted this comment on her Facebook page: “I deeply regret agreeing to the Mayor’s furlough proposal.” Why would she call attention to a vote she now regrets, asks Thies?

By signaling regret for the furloughs, Bowser is beginning the process of making amends for her vote. Better to seek forgiveness now than to be confronted with tough questions down the road.Bowser’s mea culpa is also clever in that it portrays the furloughs as a product of Mayor Vince Gray. The message is calculated to maximize political advantage. Bowser uses remorse to take a shot at Gray and also to distance herself from a mayor who has been struggling with low approval numbers.

Thies adds Bowser is also distancing herself from Council Chair Kwame Brown, at least on Twitter. She joined in the chorus of tweets chiding the chairman when he failed to recognize the Ward 4 neighborhood he was in when he Tweeted about an event he was attending.

 

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