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Taking note . . .

Observations about public affairs in the nation’s capital
by the editor of The Common Denominator

BROWN GETS WARD 4 NOD: As the Democratic primary campaign for at-large D.C. City Council heats up, Councilman Harold Brazil began showing the pressure of a serious challenge during an Aug. 5 candidates' forum sponsored by the Shepherd Park Citizens Association. While challengers are expected to attack an incumbent's record, 13-year incumbent Brazil surprised several people among the standing-room-only crowd at Shepherd Elementary School when he launched personal broadsides against challenger Kwame Brown for allegedly inflating his academic credentials and failing to vote in major D.C. elections. On both counts, Brazil came out looking more sullied than his opponent.

"We need to have honesty in our politicians," Brazil asserted, after charging Brown with lying about having graduated from Dartmouth College. Brown countered that he was a graduate of the Business Executive Program and Advanced Business Executive Program at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, but had not earned an academic degree there. "This is exactly what we mean about lack of leadership, accountability and oversight," Brown retorted. "You cannot make decisions … based upon inaccurate information."

Brazil's attempt to characterize Brown, a native Washingtonian, as an inactive local citizen merely gave Brown extra time to emphasize that the District is "my hometown" -- a dig at Brazil's Ohio roots. Brown said that he, "like many other native Washingtonians," couldn't afford to live in his hometown when he finished college, so he took up residence in Virginia and voted there.

"I really want to focus on the issues," Brown said at one point, in response to Brazil's attempt to again bring up the Dartmouth issue.

A straw poll taken by the citizens association at the conclusion of the forum, which was co-sponsored by Ward 4 Democrats, gave Brown the most overwhelming survey victory he has so far received in the campaign -- which began with Brown and challenger Sam Brooks managing to split votes enough that no one could receive a clear-cut endorsement. The Ward 4 poll gave Brown 77 votes to Brazil's 22 and Brooks' 17.

DIVINE INTERVENTION? Ward 8 Councilwoman Sandy Allen, running for re-election against six opponents in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary, gets the prize for perhaps the most creative press release of the campaign. After candidates' representatives participated in an Aug. 4 drawing at the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics to determine ballot position, the incumbent's campaign issued a two-paragraph press release asserting that Allen "has been endorsed from 'Way on High'" by virtue of drawing the seventh position -- at the bottom of the ballot.

"When she learned of her spot on the ballot, she was visibly moved and said, 'I know all is well because I have just gotten the nod from above.' When asked what did she mean, she quickly quirked, 'Didn't you know that the number seven is not only the number of Promise, but also God's number of Completion,'" the campaign's press release said.

Copyright 2004, The Common Denominator