While Adrian Fenty, the Democrat nominee for mayor, is plotting his transition into the post, Republican pick Dave Kranich is plotting what would be one of the greatest political upsets of all time.
This virtually unwinnable situation is one the 34-year-old residential real estate agent, an unknown in D.C. political circles, happily brought upon himself.
He wasn’t chosen to run as the lone Republican candidate; he volunteered.
“I sat down with the chair of the party in April and let him know I was going to run,” Kranich said. “It was something I wanted to do. I truly have a vision for the city.”
Kranich, one of only 30,560 registered D.C. Republicans, says he believes he has a chance for victory on Nov. 7 if the stars align.
All he’ll have to do, he says, is turn out Republican and independent voters in massive numbers, win over the Democrats who voted for Fenty’s opponents, and then convince Fenty supporters to stay home.
Kranich moved to the District 12 years ago after graduating from Penn State University with a degree in marketing. He’s had some success as an entrepreneur, running two businesses over the last 10 years, and hopes to use that managerial experience in the chief executive’s office.
“I had to make hundreds of decisions every year for my business,” he said. “It’s no different than making a decision based on what you want the policy for affordable housing to be.”
He describes himself as an abortion-rights, anti-death-penalty Republican, a moderate who strongly believes in limited government.
“I truly believe that my intelligence and hard work and my vision for the city will improve the quality of life for most residents of D.C.,” Kranich said. “I firmly believe it, and I’ll keeping working toward it.”
On the issues:
» Schools: The District spends enough money on its education system, Kranich said, but the “money’s getting caught in the middle and not getting to the classrooms.” Clearly there’s a “breakdown somewhere if we’re spending that kind of money and the results are subpar,” he said. “We’re not doing the job.”
» Crime: The city has long faced a crime emergency, Kranich said, but the recent spike in crime is imaginary. The nominee vehemently opposes cameras and earlier curfews, calling the measures “overly obtrusive.” “The short-term solution is you take police officers from behind the desks and put them in the streets,” he said. “The long-term solution is you fix the schools.”
» Affordable housing: More must be done to ensure developers stand by agreements to include affordable units in projects. But the key, the nominee said, is to make the city more affordable for its lower- and middle-income residents through tax cuts.
» Marketing the District: “If we’re going to spend $250,000 on gun buyback programs, that do absolutely nothing in my opinion to improve crime, take $250,000 to run some ads that say ‘Hey, move to Washington, D.C., because we’re cutting our property taxes.’ ”
More on Dave Kranich
» Dupont Circle resident
» Raised in Hatboro, Pa., just outside of Philadelphia
» Not married
» www.kranichformayor.com
