Final list of candidates for September primary released

Photo courtesy of
‘Ballot’
courtesy of ‘Berto Garcia’

The filing deadline for the District’s September primary has passed, and the Board of Elections and Ethics has released the final candidate list. You can download the entire list as a PDF from the DC BOEE web site. For the Mayoral race, both Vincent Gray and incumbent Adrian Fenty submitted their petitions back in June. Leo Alexander and Sulaimon Brown also had their petitions in before the deadline, rounding out the first and second tiers. Assorted others, including White House party crasher Carlos Allen turned in enough signatures to appear on the September ballot. In total, there will be seven Democratic candidates for Mayor: Adrian Fenty, Vincent Gray, Leo Alexander, Sulaimon Brown, Carlos Allen, Michael Green, and Ernest Johnson.

There aren’t any big surprises here. For Chairman of the Council, four Democratic candidates turned in their petitions before the deadline. Kwame Brown, Vincent Orange, Dorothy Douglas, and Calvin Gurley. For the At-Large Council seat there are also four candidates including incumbent Phil Mendelson, Clark Ray, Will Ross and another Michael Brown. Not to be confused with Michael A. Brown, a current At-Large member of the Council. No, this is Michael D. Brown, the Democratic Shadow Senator for the District.

Ward 1 candidates include incumbent Jim Graham, Bryan Weaver and Jeff Smith. In Ward 3, Mary Cheh is unopposed. The Ward 5 race has five candidates, incumbent Harry Thomas, Jr., Kathy Henderson, Delano Hunter, Kenyan McDuffie, Tracey Turner. Sadly for Ward 5, George “Action” Jackson did not file his petition before the deadline. In Ward 6 we have incumbent Tommy Wells, Kelvin Robinson and Randy Brown.

DC Delegate Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton will face one challenger, Douglass Sloan. For the shadow Representative slot, incumbent Mike Panetta will face Nate Bennett-Fleming.

The Republican side of the primary is about as sad as expected. There were no petitions filed for Mayor, Council Chair or At-Large Councilmember. Marc Morgan will run unopposed for Ward 1 Councilmember, Dave Hedgepeth for Ward 3, Timothy Day for Ward 5, and Jim DeMartino for Ward 6. For DC Delegate to the House, there’s Marjorie Reilly Smith and for shadow Representative Nelson Rimensnyder.

As expected, the primary will be the de-facto election with the Democratic nominee likely sailing to victory. There’s always the possibility of a write-in campaign, perhaps lead by Don Peebles or some such, but most likely this it. Races to watch are Mayor, Council Chair and Ward 5 Councilmember. The Ward 1 and 6 races have the potential to get interesting, but we’ll see.

Dave has been following DC news and politics for nearly eight years and previous authored the blog “Why I Hate DC.” Dave tries to give a voice to those frustrated by the “politics as usual” in the area. By day he works in the technology department of a non-profit, by night he writes about news and politics and works at a local hardware store. Dave is also a contributor for Greater Greater Washington. You can follow him on Twitter or read his personal blog.

5 thoughts on “Final list of candidates for September primary released

  1. at least there are only 5 candidates in ward 5, instead of the clusterf–k of 9 or so from last time around.

  2. Pingback: Tweets that mention Final list of candidates for September primary released » We Love DC -- Topsy.com

  3. It is a shame that Vincent Orange will stoop so low. Mr. Orange will try anything to get his name placed first on the ballot and try to knock off his biggest challenger “Calvin Gurley”. Mr. Orange had a dear friend Alonzo Edmondson file a challenge petition against a candidate running for Chair of the Council. Mr. Orange failed to check out Mr. Edmondson legal voter regristration address. Although Mr. Edmondson relative lives at the address he once regristrar at, he still does not live there and the Commission excepted him as a legal voter of that address even though the landlord signed a certified legal document stating that Mr. Edmondson has not lived there since 2007 and does not currently lives at his rooming house property since 2007.

  4. It’s sad when a candidate who is saying that he is so qualified and is advertising his 20 years of experience as an accountant, and can’t audit his own nomination petitions(only 2000). Also, standing up at Forums misquoting facts. The fault falls on Mr. Calvin Gurley and his inadequate staff (all three of them) for his disqualification. Instead of being so underhanded in attempting to nullify the rights of a citizen, who voted in the District of Columbia and continues to, they should have spent their time gathering additional valid signatures of legitimate DC voters.( oh yeah and checking the validity of them) This is all that we don’t need. Another wannabee politician quick to point the finger back at someone who exposes a weak attempt to play in an arena in which they are not thorough enough or qualified.(See Board of Elections Decision) He should fix his own “STUFF” first, then try to fix the Billion Dollar problems of the DC citizens. Fact is, Mr.Gurley had an opportunity to drop from the race(save face) and not be embarrassed by the challenger or the Board of Elections. Instead, again, he challenged the ability of the Registrar of Voters to count and recite voting policy. His arrogant, I’m never wrong, policy pushed him to doctor a letter for an illiterate individual and present it before a group of intelligent individuals.(The Board of Elections) Yes, they saw right through it. Perhaps he could bring Ms. Bowling,(Since I didn’t spell check either, maybe U can check mine while you check your own, the word is accepted not excepted,(U must be in the Gurley Camp), who is so wise with her comments, to help him count as he collects signatures rather than doing background investigations(where she could you use some more instruction and expertise) and then there wouldn’t be any poor sports or crying (Gurley Camp) to talk about…. By the way, if he’s off the ballot, Why did I see him in NE still holding up a sign as if he is really campaigning for Council Chair. Is he contemplating a continued run or is it for some other office…. hmmmmmm Must be some more Gurley “STUFF”

  5. Calvin Gurley is a joke. He can’t even get his name on the ballot but yet thinks he is capable of running this city. Oh ok….