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Native Intelligence
	Lots of trouble for incumbents (Published July 26, 2004) By DIANA WINTHROP

Some political observers say disgruntled D.C. residents who have been toiling for nearly six months on a petition drive to recall Mayor Anthony A. Williams seem to have the necessary signatures to force a recall vote in November.

Barbara Lett Simmons, the District's Democratic national committeewoman who is leading the "Save Our City" recall effort, plans to fly back to the District from the national party convention in Boston to turn in the petitions at the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics before this week's filing deadline. Not surprisingly, Simmons has earned the ire of many Democrats, who claim the campaign to recall a Democratic mayor in the nation's capital during a presidential election year detracts energy from efforts to return Congress and the White House to Democratic control.

Simmons is more cautious than some in her prediction regarding the recall campaign's success. She says she is "hopeful" they have the magic number -- roughly 35,000 signatures of registered D.C. voters, including 10 percent of registered voters in each of five wards. She indicated she would not turn in the petitions by the July 27 deadline unless the campaign gathers not only the requisite number, but at least a 10,000-signature cushion.

Some of the mayor’s people watching this petition drive -- among the same people who boasted months ago that the recall effort would fail -- tell me they think the recall group may have the necessary number of signatures. The mayor’s political operatives and lawyers are prepared to comb through the petitions, looking for ways to invalidate signatures, if the need arises.

Ron Drake, the lawyer who has been working with the anti-slots people and has filed one of the challenges to the video slots initiative petitions, also has been working with the recall campaign. Recall supporters say Drake -- who obviously knows the petition rules -- and campaign volunteers have been checking to ensure that the people signing the recall petitions are on the voter rolls and the petition circulators are qualified.

Regardless of the recall outcome, the political fight will not be over for the 77-year-old Simmons. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Mayor Williams -- who is quickly becoming known as the payback king in D.C. politics for the inordinate amount of time and effort he devotes to seeking revenge on his critics -- is working to defeat Simmons in her effort to seek re-election as Democratic national committeewoman.

Williams' new incoming chief of staff, Alfreda Davis, characterizes the mayor's opposition to Simmons' re-election as a months-long effort "to find an individual who will provide the necessary leadership to have people positively work together and get things done for the party."

Former Verizon executive Marie Johns and Office on Aging Director Veronica Pace are two of the many women lobbied by the mayor to run for the job, according to political insiders. Williams backed off his search for awhile when party activist Mary Burke Washington, widow of former mayor Walter E. Washington, took out petitions to challenge Simmons.

But less than 24 hours before petitions were due to place candidates on the Sept. 14 Democratic primary ballot, when the mayor realized that Washington had dropped her challenge, up pops Marilyn Tyler Brown as a new challenger. Brown, a former D.C. Public Schools official who has served on an advisory committee that helps the mayor select his appointees to the school board, had to obtain 500 signatures from registered Democrats in a day to secure a spot on the ballot.

She turned in 800 signatures, with the help of city workers.

Sensitive to pending charges against outgoing mayoral Chief of Staff Kelvin Robinson for allegedly pressuring city employees to help with the mayor's 2002 re-election campaign, incoming chief of staff Davis went to great lengths to explain that the people who helped Brown were on leave from their city jobs.

"We are extremely sensitive to the Hatch Act provisions [which prohibit partisan political activity by D.C. government employees], but it is extremely difficult to find people in the city who don’t work in government," Davis says.

A philosophical Simmons says that "if my 45 years in the Democratic Party has been worth nothing, then it is time for me to go. People get the government they deserve."

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While much of the political talk around town has centered on whether incumbent Ward 8 D.C. City Councilwoman Sandy Allen can prevail in her re-election bid against former mayor Marion Barry and six other challengers, Democratic Party activists say two other council members also face serious trouble.

Name recognition and healthy campaign coffers may not be enough to help Ward 7 Councilman Kevin Chavous and At-Large Councilman Harold Brazil squeak through the Sept. 14 Democratic primary. The "young Turks" -- a name penned in their early days on the council because of their calls for reform of the city government -- also are fighting against the dreaded political mantra: "It’s time for them to go."

Even some Chavous supporters acknowledge he has been hurt by his advocacy for school vouchers, which helped President Bush force them on the District. For the first time, Chavous is facing a formidable challenger in Vincent Gray. Gray, the highly respected executive director of Covenant House who also is president of the Ward 7 Democrats, is generating some serious money, though not as much as Chavous. Among those helping Gray raise campaign cash is Barbara Wells, a policy analyst and wife of District III school board member Tommy Wells, who recently held a fund-raiser at the couple's Capitol Hill home.

Some observers say Chavous seems less enthusiastic this time around than in previous campaigns, and he has failed to win his usual endorsements, including the AFL-CIO's nod. Gray has picked up that key endorsement and has been able to block Chavous from winning others.

Brazil has failed to win any endorsements so far, including on his home turf in Ward 6, and is currently under investigation for alleged ethical missteps involving his council staff. Challenger Kwame Brown, the Hillcrest resident who served in the Clinton administration and who has spent the past 19 months wearing out shoes by knocking on 15,000 doors, recently picked up key endorsements from the AFL-CIO and from the Ward 1 Democrats.

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Virginia Williams, the mayor's colorful mother who is unequivocally more popular than her son, has her very own apartment now. Since coming to Washington almost five and a half years ago, she has lived with Patricia Elwood, vice chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission and a member of the D.C. Democratic State Committee.

Elwood, whose own mother died some years ago, says she loved having Virginia Williams live with her, though the one proviso they both agreed to was not "to talk politics at home." Apparently the stairs at Elwood's Ward 3 home were responsible for Mrs. Williams deciding to find another place to live. She recently had knee surgery, which made it somewhat urgent to have her residence on one floor.

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Diana Winthrop is a native Washingtonian. Contact her at diana@thecommondenominator.com.

Copyright 2004, The Common Denominator