D.C. councilman trailing a challenger with a familiar name
It’s not any shadow, either. It’s D.C. shadow Sen. Michael D. Brown, whom many voters seem to have confused with the at-large Councilman Michael A. Brown.
A Washington Post poll released Tuesday found the shadow senator to have a commanding 41 to 29 percent lead over the incumbent Mendelson. Michael D. Brown is running strongest in Wards 7 and 8, where Councilman Brown gathered much of his support in 2008.
Councilman Brown, who has endorsed Mendelson and isn’t up for re-election until 2012, is none too pleased with the situation.
The shadow senator, Brown said, “is playing a game of political identity theft.”
Michael D. Brown did not return several calls for comment Tuesday.
In July, the shadow senator told The Washington Examiner that he was running on a single-issue platform.
“Plan A is to win and make D.C.’s statehood a focus for the council,” Brown said. “Plan B is I don’t win, but I elevate the issue and we have it on the front burner.”
The problem, Mendelson said, is that the shadow senator hasn’t been promoting anything. He said the one move Michael D. Brown made to get elected was to file as “Michael Brown” so his name would appear that way on the ballot. Campaign finance records show he hasn’t raised a cent.
“There may be some intentionality,” Mendelson said. “He lacks a campaign, and his name was different on the 2006 ballot,” when he filed as Michael D. Brown as a shadow senator candidate.
Brown is the president of Horizon Communications Corp. As a shadow senator, he collects no salary; as a councilman, he’d make $125,000 a year.
On Tuesday, Mendelson and Councilman Brown endorsed the D.C. Council Chairman Vince Gray for Mayor campaign. Gray and Brown then pledged to help Mendelson clear up the confusion.
Mendelson has been passing out fliers, but they’re not getting the job done. He said he might run radio advertisements to reach a broader audience, a necessary move with less than two weeks until the Sept. 14 primary.
