When election season rolls around, Washington turns into the Soviet Union. We live under a one-party system.
Democrats outnumber Republicans in our town about 11-1. D.C. has about 30,000 registered Republicans.
Whoever wins the Democratic primary in September is virtually assured of winning the November general election.
And we call it democracy.
Carol Schwartz, an at-large council member, is the top Republican-elected official in D.C. Actually, she’s the only Republican holding office. By law, two members of the council cannot be members of the majority party. David Catania used to be a Republican, until he became an Independent.
Schwartz has run four valiant campaigns for mayor, and she would have made a good chief executive. But she got scant support from the GOP or the business community.
One more time?
“Four strikes and you’re out,” she tells me.
As a lifelong Democrat, I have no intention of switching. But I also believe the best leadership comes as a result of competitive elections. We deserve a real choice in November, rather than a coronation.
So I have conducted my own candidate search for the best the GOP has to offer. I found Dennis Moore, a smart, likable and well-spoken fellow who looks a bit like Chris Rock.
Quick bio: He’s 53, was born in Harlem and raised in Savannah, Ga.; his father was an Army paratrooper and a businessman; was educated in New York public schools; attended Fordham University but didn’t graduate; worked in news for the National Black Network for years, then public affairs in D.C., then the D.C. Public School System in 1998, “by accident,” he says. He left after two years.
“It was administrative hell,” he says. “Very incestuous.”
If elected mayor, he would take over the schools.
Moore started a media company and later did some work for D.C.’s finance office. His company now runs booksandwords.com, a lively Web site for black literature and news.
As mayor, Moore says he would be “an executive public advocate” for D.C. residents. I’m not sure what that means, and Moore says he’s not sure he buys the GOP line. His Republicanism is “more holistic.”
But his interest in running for office was enough to get him invited to the GOP’s Minority Candidate College, a two-day seminar in Arlington. He met GOP boss Ken Mehlman. He came away stoked to run.
But his reception from the D.C. Republicans has been “lukewarm” and “guarded.”
I called the D.C. GOP. No answer. I visited dcgop.com; the faces on its committee officials page are white. One woman, at least. Back to the 1950s.
Executive Director Jamila Atkinson did call to say the local party doesn’t endorse in the primary. She didn’t have much to say about Moore. His two competitors are David Kranich, a real estate agent and member of the D.C. Republican Committee, and Albert Ceccone, who has filed petitions.
If Moore wins the primary, we might actually have a general election that doesn’t resemble the Russian model.
Harry Jaffe has been covering the Washington area since 1985. E-mail him at [email protected].
