For hardcore District activist Mary C. Williams, what goes around comes around.
Williams, a Southwest advisory neighborhood commissioner and the individual behind the failed recall of Ward 6 Council Member Sharon Ambrose, is now herself a recall target. One of Williams’ constituents, Sydney McMahan, has launched a bid to remove her from office.
In a 200-word statement submitted May 4 to the Board of Elections and Ethics, McMahan wrote that Williams has “gained a reputation … for being a shameless self-promoter, single-mindedly pushing her own views rather than listening to those she is supposed to serve.” He also accused Williams of launching a “disastrously unsuccessful smear campaign” against Ambrose and “suing constituents who publicly expressed displeasure with her performance.”
Williams filed a defamation suit against McMahan last year.
Recalls rarely work in D.C., though a growing number of disgruntled neighbors seem to be looking to the process as an option. Williams is the seventh ANC commissioner to face a recall in the last two years, said Bill O’Field, a spokesman for the Board of Elections. Her district runs from South Capitol SW to Fifth Street SW.
The commissioner filed a vitriolic response Monday with the Board of Elections.
“He has neither skills nor character to judge my work in past years,” Williams wrote of McMahan. “The fact that he refers to Ambrose as a ‘popular’ representative is an indication that he is either delusional or was hired to do this.”
Williams also touted her accomplishments, including community policing, litter cleanups and preserving retail.
McMahan could go before the Board of Elections this week to get the authority to launch a petition drive. He will then have 180 days to collect signatures of 10 percent of all registered voters in Williams’ single-member district to force a recall election.
