How did Kwame Brown land in the catbird seat?
The freshman at-large D.C. Council member is up for re-election. A Democrat, he doesn’t face an opponent in the September primary. It isn’t like he hasn’t made mistakes; hasn’t disappointed a few of his friends; and hasn’t made enemies.
Brown is still pretty green — just attend a meeting of his Committee on Economic Development. You know immediately there are things he doesn’t fully understand and the acronym he most often repeats, to my and others’ frustration, is LSDBE — local, small, disadvantaged, business enterprise, which translates into minority business — except when Brown is doing the deciphering and then it’s “local, local, local.”
Additionally, there have been whispers during this campaign season that he has been soliciting contributions from developers — some with business before his committee.
“You sure you don’t have me mixed up with the [Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s] administration?” Brown asks when I catch up with him on the campaign trail. He says any claims that he has hustled developers are “absolutely, positively false.”
“A lot of people have been reaching out to me saying they want to throw a fundraising event. Money is not an issue for me,” Brown continues.
Between June 11 and Aug. 10, he collected $126,150.25. Overall, he raised $534,933.25, according to documents filed with the Office of Campaign Finance. Interestingly, the names of employers of many contributors aren’t listed as required by law. Without explaining why, Brown says he may return some money.
He concedes that he’s been pushing for minority equity partners on the Southwest Waterfront project. He says he delayed approving the agreement because he was told “lies.” He’ll take up the issue again on Sept. 18.
In fairness, Brown has done some good. He helped push through approval for a new vocational high school — the first to open in more than a decade; he wants more adult job training programs. He championed greater assistance for victims of domestic violence; supported a living wage; and is pushing a grading and evaluation system of government contractors.
“Eighteen months ago, everybody was talking about running against me,” Brown says, calling out names. “I guess they looked at my record and decided it wasn’t in their best interest.”
That’s what’s baffling. Either the two people running as so-called independent Democrats — Dee Hunter and Michael Brown — in the November general election are wimps or they couldn’t get their acts together to run in the Democratic primary.
This is clear: Kwame Brown doesn’t necessarily need media endorsements, though he surely will receive them. Those are always nice to excerpt and put in campaign material.
I don’t think I’ve provided any accolades worth printing in boldface in some blue and white brochure, have I?
Jonetta Rose Barras, an author and political analyst, can be reached at [email protected].
