The race for the Ward 3 D.C. Council seat drew another candidate this week as a former council insider jumped into the fray.
Eric Goulet, 29, left his job as clerk to the finance and revenue committee a week ago, picked up his nominating petitions Tuesday and participated in his first candidate forum Wednesday.
“I think I did as well as I could have with three days preparation,” Goulet said.
Goulet’s campaign is very much in its infancy, while his eight opponents for the Democratic nomination have been hoofing the trail for weeks and months, some as long as a year. As of Thursday he was still developing issue bullet points and designing his T-shirts. He had yet to file with the Office of Campaign Finance.
“I think three months is plenty of time to get my message across the voters,” he said.
The candidate said he spoke with Ward 2 Council Member Jack Evans, chairman of the finance panel, about the race in March. If he loses, Goulet said, his clerk position will be waiting for him, but “I’d like to think I’m not coming back to the Committee on Finance and Revenue except as a council member.”
“It looked like an open field and nobody was discussing the issues that I was interested in,” said Goulet, a North Cleveland Park resident and first time candidate for political office.
Goulet said his message will be “pushing for some control over the D.C. budget in terms of spending” — limiting annual spending increases to 5 percent or 6 percent, rather than the 9 percent to 18 percent of recent years. Any surpluses, he said, should be dedicated to myriad tax relief opportunities for individuals and small businesses.
Candidates for Ward 3 Democratic nomination
» Sam Brooks
» Mary Cheh
» Erik Gaull
» Robert Gordon
» Eric Goulet
» Jonathan Rees
» Bill Rice
» Paul Strauss
» Catherine Wiss
