InShaw's Post Election Commentary: Ward 5
Over in Ward 5 things just weren't as exciting as Ward 2. But that's fine, as elections bring a certain level of nastiness and ill feeling towards one's fellow human being. Not to say it was all flowers and sunshine over here. Nope. The Eckington listserv got difficult to read with the Cleopatra Jones vs Kris Hammond fight.There has been an upset a flurry of new people. Going in order, Anita Bonds replaces 5C01's Jim Berry, who didn't run this year so Anita went unopposed but I am curious of what the 35 write-ins were for. The contentious fight with accusations and possible sign defacement in 5C02 was won by newbie Kris Hammond. Hammond beat incumbent Cleopatra Jones* 197 votes to her 154. In 5C03 entrepreneur and owner of the hopefully soon to open (please for the love of G'd open) Big Bear Cafe , Stu Davenport won over Andrew C. Pollard 53.63% to Pollard's 23.52%. There was a write in campaign, and the name of the write-inee escapes me, but Write-In got 22.86%. I'm a little fuzzy on any particulars of the 5C04 race with John T. Salatti beating incumbent Robert "Bob" Brannum, 357 votes to Brannum's 144. If I remember correctly, wasn't Brannum the guy who threw a wrench at the EC-12 project? Mary Farmer-Allen kept her 5C07. Yes, I skipped over 5C06 with 100% of the vote, all 37 of 'em, going to write ins. Anyway, there were 3 names on the ballot for 5C06 and Farmer-Allen got 48% of the vote over Michael Henderson's 36%. A third person, stepped down from the race (I think) but her name still appeared and she got 61 or 15% of the vote. In the rest of 5C Barrie Daneker (5C07), Marshall R. Phillips, Sr (5C08) and Silas H. Grant, Jr. (5C09) ran unopposed.
*As far as I know, not related to 70s fictional crime fighter Cleopatra Jones.
**Small change, url for Big Bear was wrong, it has been changed.
posted by Mari @ 8.11.06
7 Comments:
Anita's been around a long time. She advised the Ken Mundy defense team for the Vista sting trial.
I voted for Kris Hammond in 5C02 mostly because he actually came to my door. I am alittle disappointed he didn't point out his party affliation. (He's republican and works for the national young republican committee) I hope he'll work hard to get some stuff done around 5C02. We need alotta help around North Cap, New York Ave, and Florida NW and NE.
Well, I guess I should disclose that for the longest while I was a registered Republican and I still keep some of the party's ideas close to my heart, despite trading my R for an I.
The ANC races are nonpartisan, so it doesn't and shouldn't matter if a person is a Democrat (like 90% of the city), a Republican, Statehood Green, Communist, or independent. What should matter and what people have hopefully voted for is someone who will work for those issues that tend to be ignored by national parties, like where group homes and homeless shelters are placed, zoning issues, ABC licenses, parking, and trying to get city services (the ones you should get anyway without asking, but you got to beg and plead for them).
Yesterday my neighbor B. used the excuse that the city is a one party city as one reason (he had a couple of others) not to fullfill his civic duty and vote. The result is that you don't get a decent variety of choice for the general election. It was so exciting a few years back when the Statehood Green party ran a strong slate.
Tenchiindc would you have dismissed Hammond and what he had to say if you knew?
Brannum wasn't able to throw a wrench into the EC-12 Firehouse development, but he tried. He has said that he was just trying to get the process more transparent.
I don't understand though. The video of him testifying against the EC-12 plan chosen by the Deputy Mayor for Planning and E.D. (not that kind of E.D.!) staff is on the web, and he's definitely there accusing and posturing for some reason.
But the wrench didn't work. It went forward anyway.
Now when's the work going to start on the building???
JTE
Glad you guys are finally rid of Thorpe. My only in person experience with him was an ABL meeting, but I've heard plenty of stories. Did you see the City Paper piece?
Hey Mari,
I agree that party affiliation shouldn't matter at the ANC level. I am a registered republican myself but I feel like the party has been hijacked by special interests in the Clinton years. Foreign Policy is all F'd up. And the thing that annoys me the most about the GOP is that they use the special oversight of Congress in DC to their own ends. Senator Brownback of Kansas actually attempted to void all DC's gun laws. I hate that. The party that's supposed to be against federal intervention is doing it's best to keep the city screwed up. I hope Kris will bring some energy to the job. Not announcing your party affiliation smacks of ulterior motives.
tenchiindc,
You wrote: "I agree that party affiliation shouldn't matter at the ANC level. . . Not announcing your party affiliation smacks of ulterior motives."
If party affiliation doesn't matter, why should the candidate announce it to a voter at the door? One has a very limited window to capture the voter's attention.
ANC candidates all across D.C. campaigned, and I doubt that they took care to state whether they were Democrat, Republican, Green, or Independent, because most were Democrat. Why should the burden be on the tiny minority party to bring up party affiliation?
Walking door to door in a 95% Democrat district taking care to announce that I'm a Republican is just the sort of thing that would turn the voter off so he/she never hears my message.
If asked, I provided my party affiliation. Also, flyers were distributed by anonymous people at precinct 75 announcing that I was a Republican and assigned to me a bunch of policy positions no one ever asked me about.
Drop me an email, I'd like to get re-acquainted!
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