City Paper Endorsements

Ward 3
Too often during this political season, commentators have talked about an embarrassment of riches in the Ward 3 council race. Bullshit. Voters in the city’s wealthiest ward will find their champion through process of elimination.

Paul Strauss: This man is currently the city’s shadow U.S. senator, an unpaid position responsible for lobbying Capitol Hill for D.C. Statehood. It’s a joke of a position. If Strauss somehow won the Ward 3 race, the elections board would be in the unprecedented position of having to organize a special election for a shadow senator. No way, Paul.

LL is very sad to purge Bill Rice. He has written for the Washington City Paper, and his propensity for gossip is unrivaled among true D.C. political geeks. Rice entered the race after resigning his post as spokesperson for the D.C. Department of Transportation, and as a candidate, he’s adopted the kind of ridiculous bravado he’s mocked in others. His campaign lit stated, “Only Bill Rice can fix the D.C. Schools.” He touted his experience at DDOT by saying that as spokesman he was intimately involved in a turnaround of that agency. Sorry, Bill.

Sam Brooks is a smart and energetic guy. But Brooks’ second run, after moving a few blocks into Ward 3 in January, only proves what worries LL about the young hunk: Brooks is desperate to get elected to something because he wants to get elected to something. Get a job for a few years, Sam.

Erik Gaull failed to sell voters on his long résumé of public-safety bona fides. He joins Rice in the trying-a-little-bit-too-hard-for-his-own-good club. See you during the 2010 election, Erik.

That leaves George Washington University Law School professor Mary Cheh, a smart, fresh face untainted by years of political chicanery. She will undoubtedly be frustrated by all the petty maneuvering on the council. But she’ll also bring the same crusading zeal to the council that Patterson did.

Say “yay” to Cheh.


What a about Robert Gordon, Cathy Wiss and Jonathan Rees?