NEWS LOOSE LIPS
Feeling ’22 Roughly a year out from the 2022 Democratic primary, the most interesting action hinges on the attorney general’s office and the Ward 5 Council seat.
We’re 376 days away from the 2022 primary election. A slew of local pols must reapply for their jobs including the mayor, attorney general, the chairman, and six councilmembers. Not a single challenger has officially emerged, and, reader, Loose Lips is getting impatient. Conventional wisdom says it takes about a year to build and run an effective ward-level campaign—perhaps longer for a citywide race. Factor in early voting and the clock ticks louder. But LL’s concern could be premature. After a year of lockdown, potential challengers may be hesitant to launch a campaign while some voters are still easing back into a society where handshakes are acceptable. D.C. is also just starting the once-every-decade process of redistricting, which the pandemic significantly delayed. Under normal circumstances, the Council would have voted on new ward and Advisory Neighborhood Commission boundaries this summer, months before the primary; in deeply Democratic D.C., that contest is decisive for most races. But census numbers won’t be available until late September, so the vote on redistricting could get pushed back to December. D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and Attorney General Karl Racine are the only incumbents who’ve filed campaign paperwork (though Racine has since backed away from seeking a third term). Councilmembers Brianne Nadeau (Ward 1), Mary Cheh (Ward 3), Charles Allen (Ward 6), Anita Bonds (At-Large), and Elissa Silverman (At-Large) confirm to LL that they’re planning to run for reelection. Meanwhile, Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie and Mayor Muriel Bowser have been frustratingly silent about their election plans. LL spent the past few weeks talking with political strategists, those currently in office, and potential challengers about who is safe, who is vulnerable, and who is whispering about making a run. The most interesting
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By Mitch Ryals @MitchRyals
Attorney General Karl Racine action hinges on Racine’s plans, which could set into motion a domino effect for the Ward 5 seat—McDuffie is rumored to have his eye on the AG’s office. Add to the current uncertainty the fact that this is D.C., where multiple terms are hardly guaranteed. “I think D.C. politics is very flat and in recent years the population has shifted tremendously,” says historian George Derek Musgrove, the co-author of Chocolate City and an associate professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “Therefore I don’t think anyone is invincible.” Bowser has attracted a nominal challenger in comedian Rodney “Red” Grant, but the smart money says she’ll coast to a third term if she wants it. Her approval rating is strong, she has avoided major scandals up to this point in
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her second term, and her handling of the city’s coronavirus response, though not perfect, won praise from tough critics such as D.C. Auditor Kathy Patterson. Even Chuck Thies, a political strategist and frequent critic of the mayor, has to give her props. “She took an approach that I respect,” Thies says. “An abundance of caution. She kept the metrics down, she kept the body count low, and when the body count was higher among African Americans, she addressed that and talked about long-standing inequalities in the healthcare system.” Bowser also benefited politically from her acrimonious relationship with Donald Trump, according to Thies. As the District’s economy ground to a halt and protests over racial injustices and police violence persisted
throughout the summer of 2020, Trump was a perfect target. “Any time there was a problem—not enough vaccine? Protests in the streets? Restaurants closed?—‘Donald Trump did it,’” Thies says. Until Racine announced in March of 2020 that he planned to run for reelection, he was the odds-on favorite to challenge Bowser. At-Large Councilmember Robert White’s name is also being tossed around. He’s shared his mayoral ambitions in the past and has strategically seized opportunities to jab at Bowser over the past few years. Plus, he just coasted to reelection in 2020 and wouldn’t need to worry about giving up his seat. White tells LL in a text that a number of constituents have asked him to run, but he hasn’t made any official decision yet. “I have to be sensitive to how intense a
