WHO SHOULD IT BE THIS TIME

[from September 2004 issue]

We voters here in the District know that the only election day that, with rare exceptions, actually matters is Primary Day. So, if there are any candidates who are going into the primary without any challengers for their party’s nomination and if those same candidates won’t be facing any notable opposition in the November General Election--especially if they are Democrats and this is, after all, an electorate that votes overwhelmingly for Democrats--some would say we don’t even need to use up any column inches on them. And, since the focus of this newspaper is pretty much restricted to neighborhoods inside Wards 1 and 2 and of those two wards, only the Ward 2 council member is facing re-election this year, why bother to say anything about him?

For a very good reason. Even though Ward 2’s Jack Evans has no primary opponent, we believe it is very important that he receive a strong voter turnout in his favor so as, if for no other reason, to send a strong message to Mayor Williams and his administration that the council member continues to be someone that the bureaucracy must seriously reckon with and not decide that he can be easily dismissed as no longer relevant. Why is this message-sending so crucial?

It is crucial because of the crucial work that Evans has so ably carried out on behalf of all us beleaguered taxpayers for several years as chairman of the council’s influential Committee on Finance and Revenue. He has used his position as chairman to effectively preserve and strengthen the city’s not-so-long-ago emergence from virtual bankruptcy and to act as a guardian against frequent, ill-considered efforts by the mayor to tax and spend us back to insolvency. At the same time, he has been a strong advocate on behalf of all of us wage earners as well as property owners for responsible tax relief, often successfully resisting various forces in the city that continue to push the notion that municipal problems can be solved by taxes rather than eliminating operational fiscal sloppiness, which continues apace here in DC.

Evans has succeeded in building a bi-partisan partnership with the two Republicans on the council, at-large members David Catania and Carol Schwartz; they, too, have been enormous assets for us on matters of fiscal and tax policy. So, when Evans speaks, the bureaucrats listen up because they know he’s not a lone voice and that he is cognizant of where every errant dollar is lurking and who should indeed be held responsible for fiscal misdeeds.

So, too, Carol Schwartz who is also running for her party’s nomination, deserves to be returned to the council. Her record of service as an at-large member, representing all the citizens across the city has been for many years, and continues to be, a model of a conscientious and effective public servant, treating all citizens with fairness and compassion, while at the same time working to establish and maintain effective government services. Her efforts chairing the council’s Committee on Public Works and her attention to constituent problems and her search for innovative solutions, has made her a valuable member of our council; it would be a far less effective legislative and oversight body without her presence.

The other very important primary election contest is, of course, that for the at-large council member seat held by Harold Brazil, a seat he has held for many years. Unfortunately, we fear that he never fulfilled the initial promise of influential leadership we had first discerned when he was thought to be one of the “young Turks” way back when he was first elected.

He has two challengers, both of whom have been making notable impressions in their own ways--Kwame Brown and Sam Brooks. They are both young and clearly energetic and that each has a special brand of appeal is not in question.

As we focus on Kwame Brown, who has received the lion’s share of press coverage at the expense of Sam Brooks, we have to express some serious reservations--not necessarily with respect to his platform, but, rather, with the man himself. For example, we are given pause by his biography itself, in which he points to strong connections with a number of the old-line pols who represent the “old days” and whose ideas, while possibly appropriate in years past, in the modern world of a more mature DC, are not what we want to see passed on to be once again resurrected by our local legislature. Consider the names he proudly points to as persons he obviously admires: former Councilmembers John Ray (currently back in the spotlight as being the advocate, if not actual strategist, for the sleazily engineered and heavy-handed attempt to con us into putting slots on the November ballot) and Charlene Drew Jarvis (who never met a commercial interest she didn’t love and who was finally booted out by her long-time constituents); and--practically from the grave--former Mayor Marion Barry. No thank you.

Then there is the very troubling business of his dissembling when it came to 'fessing up to his virtual non-voting record in the city that he wants to now serve as a voting member of the council. But even more troubling was his misrepresentation about having a degree from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth; he merely once attended there for two whole weeks. Shades of former Ward 1 Councilmember Frank Smith whose years of publicly claiming to have graduated from the prestigious Morehouse College in Atlanta was blown wide open by this newspaper’s own exhaustive investigative report at the time he was running for reelection in a contest that newcomer Jim Graham won.

That leaves a real newcomer, Sam Brooks, a DC native. He may be very young, but he reveals the most amazing maturity and aura of true responsibility rarely seen in persons of his years. Further, not only does he have a warm and open demeanor and the ability to relate easily with persons of all backgrounds and circumstances, but is he incredibly smart--both in terms of real-life grass-roots political savvy and also with an amazing grasp of public policy issues, large and small. This guy is an “idea” guy, clearly an up-and-coming “doer”; we have no hesitation in singing his praises. We believe would be a major contributor to the debates in the council--he is amazingly articulate, yet thoughtful and measured--and would be a terrific addition in the city’s political landscape.