It’s official: The race for the Wards 4 and 7 D.C. Council seats are flooded, with 19 and 20 candidates respectively having turned in their signature petitionsto the Board of Elections and Ethics by Wednesday’s deadline.
But the sheer number of candidates doesn’t necessarily mean that either race will be neck-and-neck down to the May 1 finish line. With Mayor Adrian Fenty, the former Ward 4 council member, having endorsed Democrat Muriel Bowser in Ward 4, some observers have declared that race all but over.
Bowser had raised more than $196,000 for her campaign coffers as of her January filing, surpassing her closest competitor, Michael Brown, by about $150,000. Fenty is scheduled to speak at a fundraiser planned on Bowser’s behalf Sunday, campaign manager John Falcicchio said Thursday.
“We take everybody seriously, of course, especially in a special election like this,” Falcicchio said.
Brown, who ran a failed campaign against Fenty in the 2006 election, said he is not fazed by Bowser’s fundraising. He said he has raised a little less than $100,000 so far.
“I’ll never raise what she raises, but I don’t need to because I don’t have the same name recognition challenges she has either,” Brown said.
Former Ward 7 Council Member Vincent Gray, who graduated to the chairmanship in January, might also have influenced the outcome in that ward when he endorsed neighborhood activist and Democrat Yvette Alexander a little less than two weeks ago.
Alexander could not be reached Thursday. She had $1,800 left on hand as of her Jan. 31 disclosure report.
Alexander might face her biggest challenge from Victor Vandell, a former Fenty volunteer who has raised a little more than $20,000. Vandell has received some criticism because he has only lived in his ward for about two years.
“Those who equate leadership with time spent in a community are those who are trying to run a ruse on people on the true definition of leadership,” Vandell said Thursday.
