District voters appear to have sent a message via the ballot box to the mayor and council chairman that they’re not happy with the direction the city’s top elected officials are heading. The candidate for an at-large council seat backed by Mayor Vince Gray and council Chairman Kwame Brown came in lowly third place in Tuesday’s special election. With 8,842 votes, Sekou Biddle was about 4,000 votes behind winner Vincent Orange and about 3,000 votes behind runner-up Republican Patrick Mara. On the campaign trail, Orange defined himself as the Democratic choice for voters angry with a series of scandals surrounding Gray and Brown. The former Ward 5 councilman sounded out an early position against an income tax increase proposed by Gray and easily separated himself from Brown as the council chairman’s opponent in last summer’s chairman’s race.

“I focused on the budget and creating jobs,” Orange told The Washington Examiner on Wednesday. “The media did a great job of taking care of all the other issues.”