Dear Nonvoters:
You probably haven’t voted yet in the primary election. I know that I
haven’t. There is a distinct lack of enthusiasm in all of the races for
any of the candidates. The turnout at the early voting centers has been
abysmal, leading to predictions of an historically low voting rate for
this election.
But the candidates have also shown a distinct lack of enthusiasm for
the voters. There has been little energy put into traditional
get-out-the-vote efforts. The only voters who are being actively courted
by the candidates this year are felons, who have been euphemistically
renamed “returned citizens.” All the candidates show much more concern
and care for the perpetrators of crime than they do for its victims.
Aaron Davis described his effort in his article in the Washington
Post, “In DC Mayor’s Race, Vincent Gray Has Secret Weapon: Support
of Growing Ex-Prisoner Vote,”
http://www.tinyurl.com/qehnk8g. Cortney O’Brien, in Townhall.com,
comments that, “Gray insists he is not courting former inmates for
political gain, yet with the April 1 Democratic primary fast
approaching, it’s hard to believe in his, as well as the other
candidates’ supposedly noble motives. I hope these DC politicians sleep
well at night. Maybe if they were actually concerned with serving the
District and not just winning votes, they would focus more of their
energy on voters who haven’t spent time behind bars.”
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Over the past two weeks, I wrote profiles for themail of two
candidates for mayor, Muriel Bowser (http://www.dcwatch.com/themail/2014/04-03-14)
and Jack Evans (http://www.dcwatch.com/themail/2014/04-13-19).
In this issue, I’ll cover Tommy Wells. From 2001-2006, Wells was a
member of the DC school board, serving Wards 5 and 6. As a board member,
he was considered a lightweight, with limited knowledge or understanding
of education issues. Although he was supposed to represent two wards,
his attention and focus was almost exclusively on education issues in
Ward 6.
Wells was elected to the council in 2006 to replace Sharon Ambrose,
who was retiring for health reasons. He was her hand-picked successor.
In Wells’ run for mayor, however, Ambrose has been vocal in expressing
her disappointment over his tenure on the council. As a result, she is
instead supporting David Catania’s independent run for mayor in the
November general election.
On the council, Wells is considered shallow and not very substantial.
To date, his major legislative accomplishments in include the nickel bag
tax, the decriminalization of marijuana, and advocacy of the DC
Circulator bus line and new streetcars on H Street, NW. He has seldom
worked on the bread-and-butter issues affecting the daily lives of DC
residents. Instead, he has focused on mostly middle-class quality of
life issues (dog parks, bicycle lanes, streetcars, and corporate
contributions to candidates). His legislative agenda center around
issues of “smart growth,” summarized in this motto of “building a
livable, walkable DC.” Adding to the high level of distrust most
councilmembers have for Wells is the fact that he is quick to issue a
press release or hold a press conference to take credit for pressing any
issue. In addition, as a result of his social worker background, he
tends to have a missionary zeal and an “I know what’s best” superior,
sanctimonious attitude about his positions. He is called “Saint Tommy,”
both by City Paper columnist Will Sommer and by his colleagues.
At the council, he has a reputation of introducing bills that do not
stand a chance of passing simply to grandstand and to embarrass the
other councilmembers. His only close working relationship on the council
appears to be with David Grosso, as both Grosso and Wells identify
themselves as “progressives.”
At mayoral candidate forums, Wells takes credit for the
revitalization of southwest in and around the baseball stadium, which
opened in March 2008. He didn’t play a key role in the redevelopment of
the area, since he didn’t join the council until January 2007. With
regard to economic development in Ward 6, Wells has largely focused his
attention on the southwest and H Street corridors, leaving Shaw and
Reservation 13 (the old DC General campus in the Capitol Hill East
neighborhood) to await later revitalization.
Many longtime minority business owners on H Street, NW, have been
highly critical of Wells for some time. When the streetcar project along
the corridor tore up the sidewalks and streets, and made access to their
businesses difficult, Wells and his office initially turned a deaf ear.
Many believe that Wells has favored the new, white-owned businesses over
the longer-standing black-owned businesses in the corridor. This racial
criticism of Wells has also come from many black residents throughout
Ward 6, who believe that Wells has favored Capitol Hill and new white
residents over black neighborhoods and residents.
Wells defines himself as a progressive. On several occasions I have
asked him to define his use of the term, especially as it relates to DC
politics. He has been largely unable to explain what he means by it. The
one progressive issue he has championed in recent years has been a ban
on campaign contributions from corporations and limited liability
corporations. He was unsuccessful in getting his council colleagues to
support such a ban in the rewrite of the District’s campaign finance
legislation last year, and his effort to spearhead a citizen-led effort
to ban corporate campaign contributions through Initiative 70 failed
when he and the initiative’s organizers weren’t able to secure the
requisite number of signatures to place the initiative on the ballot.
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McMillan Park
P.L. Wolff, Managing Editor,
intowner@intowner.com
Just to supplement Daniel Wolkoff’s thorough review this past week [themail,
March 19] of the situation re this important historic site, readers
might find informative the lead story in last October’s InTowner,
“Historic McMillan Park Site in Bloomingdale Set for Big Development;
Neighbors Object to Plan, Seek to Retain and Restore Open Space.” It can
be found at
http://tinyurl.com/nh3oa65.
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