Electing Michael Brown to the at-large city council seat on Nov. 4 would be a corruption of the country’s core democratic principles and a flagrant violation of the Home Rule Charter.
Here’s why. Politics in the United States is based on a multiparty system. Many voices, many choices, many parties. At this moment, politics is dominated by the two major parties, the Democrats and the GOP. Looking back, we had Whigs and Federalists and Progressives. Now we have the Greens and the Libertarians. In D.C. we have the Statehood Party, driven to change the Constitution and give residents a pair of senators and a congressman.
True, many third parties are quixotic, like our Statehood folks. But from the idealistic roots, politicians can thrive. Take Bernard Sanders, who represents Vermont in the Senate. Sanders first ran for Senate in the Liberty Union party in the 1970s. He became mayor of Burlington, Vermont’s largest city. Then the state’s congressman. Now it’s senator, along with Patrick Leahy, Democrat.
This kind of diversity must be what the framers of the Home Rule Charter were thinking when they wrote the language for the composition of the 13-member city council. In creating the first council in 1975, the charter says: “not more than two of the at-large members (excluding the Chairman) shall be nominated by the same political party.”
In other words, two at-large members musts come from a party other than the Democrats, who overwhelmingly dominate the politics of the capital city. Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 10-1. We live in a one-party town, which is why the framers required two non-Democrats on the council.
A few years back we had two Republicans: David Catania and Carol Schwartz. Catania turned in his GOP spurs and became an independent. I truly believe Catania fits the independent brand. He’s never been a Democrat, he doesn’t cavort with the Dems, he votes his independent streak. Schwartz got bumped off in the primary by Patrick Mara, a newcomer to the D.C. scene.
Michael Brown, who desperately wants to be elected to anything, saw an opening for an at-large seat. He knew incumbent Kwame Brown, running as an authentic Democrat, would win one of the two seats up for grabs. Brown changed his party affiliation from Democrat to independent; in so doing, he can run as not “from the same political party.”
But Brown is a Democrat, through and through. His father, Ronald Brown, was a legend among Dems. Michael Brown ran as a Democrat for mayor against Adrian Fenty and as a Democrat for a Ward 4 council seat. He even acknowledged he was a Democrat using the independent brand just to get elected.
Mara is a fine option, but Schwartz, running an uphill battle as a write-in candidate, stands a better chance of winning. At least she’s offering an honest alternative. “I’ve always been a Republican,” she says. “I’m not going to change just to be expedient. I think it’s helpful in appealing to Republicans in Congress.”
It’s also fair, honest and in line with the Home Rule Charter.
