The Next Election
Dear Voters:
Larry Lesser, below, asks for recommendations about whom to vote for
in the April 23 special election. There’s time for one more issue of
themail before the election, so your advice would be welcome. I don’t
have any. DCWatch doesn’t do electoral endorsements, but in this
election I’m particularly enthusiastic about not endorsing any
candidate.
But if you find this a difficult choice to make, wait until you see
your choices in next year’s election for councilmembers, council chair,
and mayor. The primary election will be just a year from now, in April
2014. The earliest names being circulated are very familiar. Mayor Gray,
who is still being investigated for irregularities in his 2010 election
campaign, shadow campaign, and the handling of the lottery contract
while he was council chairman, is the leading candidate for mayor.
Incumbent councilmembers Jim Graham in Ward 1, Mary Cheh in Ward 3,
Kenyan McDuffie in Ward 5, and Tommy Wells in Ward 6 are all probable
candidates, although Wells is still exploring running for mayor. David
Catania and whomever wins this year’s special election will be the
leading candidates for the two at-large council seats. And Phil
Mendelson will assuredly run to be reelected council chairman.
Also being mentioned as candidates are Kwame Brown, who resigned as
chairman of the council, accepted a plea of bank fraud, and received a
token sentence of one day in the custody of the federal marshals, six
months of home detention, and two years of community service. Harry
Thomas, who pled guilty in May 2012 to theft of funds regarding federal
programs and filing a false tax return, was sentenced to thirty-eight
months in prison. But both Brown and Thomas resigned from their offices
before they were sentenced, and the weak ethics reform bill that the
city council enacted in January 2012 provided that the only thing that
could preclude someone from running for elected office is being
convicted of a felony while he is in office. That doesn’t mean that he
committed the felony while he held office, but that he was convicted
while he still held the office. Brown and Thomas will both be available
to be candidates as soon as they are released from prison — Kwame today,
and Harry after thirty-eight months, if he has to serve his full term.
People are already calling around on Kwame’s behalf, just as people from
Michael Brown’s aborted campaign in this election are calling around to
secure support for his future run.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Why Do We Settle for Being Less Than Full
Citizens?
Ann Loikow,
aloikow@verizon.net
A proposed charter amendment on "budget autonomy" will be on the
ballot on April 23. The ballot’s summary statement of the amendment
states that, "Currently, the Home Rule Act requires affirmative
Congressional action with respect to the entire District budget (both
federal and local funds). This Charter Amendment, if ratified,
enacted and upheld, would permit the Council to adopt the annual
local budget for the District of Columbia government; would permit the
District to spend local funds in accordance with each Council approved
budget act; and would permit the Council to establish the District’s
fiscal year." (emphasis added)
As DC Attorney General Irvin Nathan wrote the DC Board of Elections
on January 2, and Wayne Witkowski, a former DC Deputy Attorney General,
and Keinard Becker, former General Counsel to Mayor Anthony Williams,
wrote in a Post Op-ed on October 28, 2012, a charter referendum
on budget autonomy, like so many of the "interim" measures pursued in
recent decades, is of doubtful legality. Attorney General Nathan urged
the Board of Elections to tell voters that "serious legal concerns have
been raised about the validity of the amendment, its passage could
result in Congressional action disapproving the amendment or in extended
litigation and uncertainty about the validity of the District’s budget,
and could jeopardize the legal status of individual employees of the
District government who expend locally raised government funds in
accordance with the amendment but without Congressional authorization."
He also pointed out that even if the charter amendment passed, "the
federal Anti-Deficiency Act would still apply" to the District of
Columbia government. This act carries administrative and criminal
penalties for individual DC government employees who violate it.
Why then are we wasting our time, money, and political capital on a
legally doubtful action, instead of working hard to get Congress to pass
the New Columbia Admission Act? For the first time since the mid 1990’s,
there is a statehood bill in both houses of Congress (H.R. 292 and S.
132). Statehood would permanently give District residents all the same
rights enjoyed by other Americans, including full Congressional
representation and state budget and legislative autonomy. It is clearly
constitutional and the simplest, requiring the passage of a single law,
and most complete way to give us the full right to govern ourselves.
Without statehood, Congress can do anything it wants to, any time it
wants and enact, amend, or repeal any law affecting the District of
Columbia, including completely revoking the home rule charter. Section
601 of the charter ("Retention of Constitutional Authority") reiterates
this. Don’t be deluded and think that if the referendum passes that
Congress wouldn’t continue to meddle with the District’s budget. During
the District of Columbia’s first seventy-four years, there was
considerable and varying degrees of local autonomy, but in 1874 we lost
our territorial government and all local suffrage for almost a century.
In the 1990’s, Congress again took away many of the District
government’s post home rule powers and gave them to a Federal control
board, the statutory power for which still exists. It could easily
happen again. Mere budget autonomy would not make District residents
full American citizens with the same right to govern themselves as other
Americans. Only statehood can do that.
The bottom line is that freedom is an all or nothing proposition. We
are either free people with the right to self-government in all its
aspects or we are not. It is just that simple. On this 151st anniversary
of DC Emancipation Day, we should be seeking the emancipation of all the
people of DC through statehood.
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Protecting Our Neighborhoods
John Chelen,
john@chelen.net
Most of you probably have heard about the struggle to prevent the
construction of a glass-walled multistory building on Connecticut Avenue
just south of Chevy Chase without at least some fine-tuning of its more
egregious flaws. Leaving aside the merits of that case, Councilmember
Mary Cheh appears to have risen to the occasion by proposing new
legislation to grant "review-by-right" for large residential
construction projects. Perhaps I’m too cynical, but to me, as with her
position on DC ethics standards, this appears as little more than an
effort to assuage Ward 3 voters while offering limited substantive
value. If the new zoning changes proposed by the Office of Planning (OP)
are implemented, her bill most likely will have little effect, since it
will be blocked by Home Rule limitations imposed by Congress.
If Councilmember Cheh were serious about protecting our
neighborhoods, why isn’t she condemning OP, whose zoning recommendations
undermine neighborhood self-determination? OP’s proposals either
eliminate, or water down, citizen, ANC, neighborhood association, and
city council abilities to guide development. Why isn’t Councilmember
Cheh calling for a moratorium on this vacuous and dangerous zoning
rewrite now underway?
The DC council has the authority to stop the zoning rewrite dead in
its tracks and call for a second look, much in the same way many of us
called for a second look at our recent weak ethics law that
Councilmember Cheh supported. Please join me in urging Councilmember
Cheh to take a serious look at what OP is proposing and take steps to
counter a grave threat to our wonderful neighborhoods.
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Why I
Will Vote for Elissa Silverman for Council
Tom Grahame,
tgrahame@mindspring.com
Gary, you saw, far before I did, the strength of the conviction of
DC’s Planning Office, and the DC government as a whole, to be
antithetical to residents who own cars. The idea is to make DC a very
green city, which means less greenhouse gases, which means less cars and
driving, as I now understand it. I try to be a live-and-let-live kind of
person, so I didn’t see it when you did. I was OK with the inconvenience
of bike lanes to drivers (I still am, bikers should have a safe lane),
and I didn’t understand the full import of the massive fines for being
over the speed limit. Now I think of these two things as part of a
larger package.
It wasn’t until new young residents, commenting on a local blog in
favor of the city’s new zoning proposal to eliminate the need for
developers to provide parking spaces in new residential buildings within
half a mile of a Metro stop, that I got it. These people told me that if
have trouble parking my car, perhaps I should consider leaving DC and
moving to a more car friendly environment. They told me I was mistaken
if I said I needed my car. Only then did I understand the depth of the
city’s apparent attitude that cars really are a problem, as opposed to a
necessity if you want to continue your own life style, rather than
switch to one which emphasizes biking and walking (which I in fact love
to do) in place of driving. No more seeing friends in the suburbs. No
longer playing bridge in the suburbs (where the only good games are). No
more walking on the C&O Canal towpath. You can’t get to any of these
with public transit, and if you could it would take far longer in any
case. Switching your lifestyle on someone else’s behest is especially
difficult as we get older, of course.
This is why I will vote for Elissa. She understands the issue from
the viewpoint of long time residents. Here is a snippet of a longer
E-mail she wrote in response to my questions: "My concern about
eliminating parking minimums. . . : [They don’] address concerns of
neighbors, in that where are condo/apartment residents going to park?
Even near Metro, as in my case, households still may choose to own a
car. Street parking is finite, and if there’s no underground parking for
condo residents they will compete for spots on the street. . . ." I’ve
taken a few words out to make it shorter, but haven’t altered the
meaning. Hopefully, if elected, Elissa can start to put some common
sense into what the city is doing. Vote for Elissa Silverman for
council.
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At-Large Council Candidates
Larry Lesser,
lblesser@aol.com
I agree with Mary Rowse [themail, April 14] that Elissa Silverman
comes across badly and unappealingly in her ads and in Kojo Nnamdi’s
candidates forum last week on WAMU. I got a negative impression also of
Anita Bonds (playing the race card pretty blatantly) and Mark Zukerberg
(trying too hard albeit with some effectiveness to discredit Silverman
and with legalization of marijuana as his main campaign plank). So who
is the best candidate — Frumin? Mara? Redd? I could use a little help
here.
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Council Candidate Perry Redd, DC Public Schools, and News Coverage
of the Special Election
Scott McLarty,
scottmclarty@hotmail.com
Perry Redd, the DC Statehood Green candidate on the April 23 special
election ballot for At-Large Councilmember, received an enthusiastic
endorsement in The Examiner because of his support for public
education in DC,
http://tinyurl.com/c5j685o.
Alone among the candidates, he strongly opposes plans to shut down
fifteen public schools and supports Empower DC’s lawsuit against this
action. Mr. Redd has drawn a connection between the dismantling of
public education and powerful business interests, especially advocates
for school privatization and public-property grabs associated with the
Federal City Council, DC’s elite and secretive business lobby,
http://tinyurl.com/d24tn7y.
In other media, Perry can’t get a break: NBC4’s Tom Sherwood labeled
him a "minor candidate" on April 8,
http://www.nbcwashington.com/blogs/first-read-dmv/Special-Election-Raises-Concerns-About-Racial-Balance-in-DC-Politics-201358811.html.
What qualifies Mr. Redd as "minor"? If it’s his party membership, then
Republican Pat Mara is minor, too. During the past decade, the Statehood
Green Party has emerged as DC’s second party in terms of election
results, collectively receiving more votes than the GOP even when both
parties have run the same number of candidates (as in 2006). In the
November 2012 general election, Statehood Green candidates got nineteen
thousand more votes than the Republicans. The Statehood Green Party
enjoys the same major party status in the District as the Democratic and
Republican parties. Statehood Greens have faced affronts before in some
of DC’s major media: In the Washington Post’s annual Voters Guide
published on November 1, 2012, the party affiliation of Statehood Green
candidates was omitted; the Post did not return calls and no
correction was published, see .http://tinyurl.com/d9huhoy.
Readers of themail and other voters should judge candidates based on
their merits and positions, not on the editorial tendencies of some
newspapers and broadcast media. More about Perry Redd:
http://www.redd4council.com
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InTowner
April Issue Content Uploaded
P.L. Wolff,
intowner@intown.com
The April issue content is now posted at
http://www.intowner.com, including the issue
PDF in which will be found the primary news stories, community news,
letters to the editor, and museum exhibition reviews — plus all photos
and other images. Not included in the PDF but linked directly from the
home page is the What Once Was feature (this month about the Washington
Club’s historic Patterson mansion on Dupont Circle), as well as Recent
Real Estate Sales, Reservations Recommended and Food in the ‘Hood.
This month’s lead stories include the following: 1) "Proposed U
Street Liquor License Overwhelmingly Opposed at Meeting Called by Four
ANCs Covering More Than 70,00 Ward 1 and Ward 2 Residents"; 2) "Marie
Reed School Students, Adams Morgan Youth, DC Soccer Enthusiasts to
Benefit from Major Gift"; 3) "Earthquake Damage Restoration Completed at
Historic National City Christian Church." Our editorial this month
offers our thought on the mayor’s proposed budget and what we believe to
be a positive for life in the city. Your thoughts are welcome and can be
sent by clicking the comment link at the bottom of the web page or by
E-mail to letters@intowner.com.
The next issue PDF will publish early in the morning of May 10 (the
second Friday of the month as usual). For more information, either send
an E-mail to newsroom@intowner.com or call 234-1717.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Large Adams Morgan yard sale, multi-person, held two or three times a
year for the last three years. Saturday, April 20, 2013 9:00 a.m. to
6:00 p.m., driveway of 1851 Columbia Road, NW, across the street from
The Grill From Ipanema. Rain date: April 27. See more at
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/gms/3728654131.html.
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Spring Recitals Are Beginning
Myrna Sislen, info@middlecmusic.com
The schedule for our spring recital series at Middle C Music, 4530
Wisconsin Avenue, NW, includes:
Sunday, April 14, 5"00 p.m., guitar and ukulele recital given by
students of Nelson Dougherty
Saturday, April 20, 6:00 p.m., guitar students of Tom Kitchen
Sunday, April 28, 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., piano recital given by
students of Gjinovefa Sako
Sunday, May 5, 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., guitar recital given by students
of Magdalena Duhagon
Tuesday, May 7, 8:00 p.m., guitar recital given by students of Dave
Baise
Saturday, May 11, 6:00 p.m., percussion recital given by students of
Lindy Campbell
Friday May 17, 6:00 p.m., piano, voice, clarinet, and flute recital
given by students of Jean Cioffi
Saturday May 18, 6:00 p.m., saxophone, piano, and guitar recital given
by students of Alicia Kopfstein and Gary Joynes
Sunday May 19, 5:00 p.m., guitar, piano, and bass recital given by
students of Brock Holmes
Friday May 31, at 6:00 p.m., guitar and voice recital given by students
of Esther Haynes
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