After enduring the Harry Thomas Jr. scandal and the months spent waiting for his replacement, residents of Northeast Washington have a new representative on the D.C. Council.
Kenyan McDuffie, a 36-year old prosecutor, won the Ward 5 seat in a landslide with a 20-point margin in the unofficial election results released late Tuesday night. McDuffie garnered 44.5 percent of the total, or 4,085 votes, in a race for a wide-open seat against 10 other candidates. Delano Hunter, who finished second to Thomas in the 2010 primary election, mustered 1,850 votes for 20.2 percent of the field. Frank Wilds, considered the other top contender, finished with 14.8 percent of the vote.
Political consultant Chuck Thies said the margin by which McDuffie won was particularly impressive because none of the top contenders had a clear edge.
“He just left them in the dust,” he said.
McDuffie was not available for comment before press time.
Bob King, who managed Hunter’s campaign, congratulated McDuffie but said his candidate would be back.
“He’s got a good vision, he understands where he’s going,” King said of Hunter.
McDuffie is a native of Ward 5 and no stranger to D.C. politics. This was his second attempt to win the ward’s council seat, after coming in third to Thomas and Hunter in 2010. A prosecutor and civil rights attorney, McDuffie used his professional background to sell himself as the candidate who could bring ethics and integrity back to the Ward 5 seat from which Thomas resigned in disgrace.
Thies said that because McDuffie ran on an ethics and integrity platform, his election signaled a “mandate by the residents of Ward 5 … to go downtown and clean things up.”
Many Ward 5 residents have said they hope the special election would bring closure after a year marked by shame and disappointment, as Thomas admitted in January to stealing $353,500 in grant money meant for sports camps for the city’s youths. Thomas used the city-run nonprofit Children & Youth Investment Trust Corp. to steer grant money to certain nonprofits that then kicked most of those funds back to him.
He spent the stolen funds mostly on himself, including paying for vacations and luxury cars.
This month, Thomas was sentenced to 38 months in federal prison. He is awaiting his summons to a minimum-security prison.
Tuesday’s election marked the first time in decades the Thomas family name was not on a ballot in Ward 5, as the family has a long history of public service to Northeast residents.
Thomas’ father held the Ward 5 council seat from 1986 until his death in 1999. Thomas followed his father’s footsteps into city politics, winning his old council seat in 2006.
