As of today, the D.C. Council is out of commission. No meetings through Sept. 15, the calendar says. A two-month break from lawmaking, yes, but 60 days crammed with campaigning for perhaps the most important local election in District’s history.
And when council members return, they will likely know who their new mayor and chairman will be. They will know the names of at least three new ward representatives and possibly a new at-large member — the Democrats having locked up seats during the Sept. 12 primary.
None of the politicians-elect will have secured their jobs until after the November general election. But the primary is everything in Washington, and it will herald a “wholenew era of D.C. government,” said Erik Gaull, a candidate to replace Ward 3 Council member Kathy Patterson, herself a candidate for council chair.
“It’s as if you’re waiting for the old D.C. structure to die off and the new one to take over,” said Lorenzo Morris, Howard University political science professor.
So here’s why voters should see through the summer haze and pay attention.
The District has seen several years of record financial surpluses, balanced budgets and booming development — at least in and around downtown. Overall crime is down citywide. Baseball is back. Some of the city’s worst neighborhoods have been revitalized.
But violent crime is on the rise. The emergency medical system is in trouble.
Public schools are crumbling and student achievement is slow to improve.
Affordable housing is an oxymoron. The disabled are treated poorly. The gap between rich and poor is as wide as ever. And anger over gentrification is reaching a boiling point.
“We opened the door and we need someone now who can lead the city through that door to a greater place,” Mayor Anthony Williams said in May when he endorsed Council Chairman Linda Cropp for his job.
Williams never developed a voice with the low-income black voter as Marion Barry did years ago, Morris said, and his potential replacements also haven’t marshaled constituencies of their own.
“It would only take a strong set of positions to set someone apart,” the professor said. “But since you’re in a fairly stable pattern nobody wants to do that.”
Much of the campaigning, especially for the citywide races, has keyed on spreading the wealth, protecting the most vulnerable and ensuring those who were left behind are caught up in the economic boom. But who is best to accomplish what all candidates have promised to do?
That is for the voters to decide.
“Is there really a clamor for change or is there a clamor for more of the same steadiness?” asked Katherine Boettrich, chair of the Ward 1 Democrats. “That will factor in for somebody who has to decide who to choose for mayor.”
