The D.C. Democratic State Committee certainly didn't win any good government awards with the opaque process through which they selected interim Councilmember Sekou Biddle earlier this month, nor have more recent accusations painted the city's preeminent political party in a favorable light. A struggle is now brewing within the party over whether or not Biddle is the party's chosen candidate, bringing to light the darker side of local machine politics.
Late last week, the D.C. Democratic State Committee sent out an email advertising two locations where Biddle would be collecting signatures for his nominating petitions over the weekend. (It also tweeted the information.) Both the email and the tweet drew the attention of two of Biddle's challengers, both of whom accused the state committee of violating its own bylaws by using official means to endorse the Biddle campaign in its attempt to win the April 26 special election. A Biddle campaign official said that the email was sent independently by the committee; the campaign did not ask for the support.
In an email sent over the weekend to state committee Chairwoman Anita Bonds, Bryan Weaver, a former Ward 1 candidate and current At-Large hopeful, wrote:
While obviously the DCDSC selected Mr. Biddle for the temporary appointment to the At-Large seat on the council, the D.C. Democratic State Committee has not taken action to officially endorse any candidate and the party’s solicitation for volunteers and the use of these forms of social media from the party’s official accounts to promote his candidacy for the special at-large election are an obvious violation of DCDSC’s bylaws. There are at least 13 other Democrats who have taken out petitions seeking election for the At-Large D.C. Council position.Jacque Patterson, president of the Ward 8 Democrats and a contender for Biddle's seat, similarly chimed in an email to the committee's membership, writing, "When has the State Committee ever sent out one candidates advertisements, literature or anything else when there were more than one Democratic Candidate in the race? It was my understanding Mr. Biddle won an interim appointment, not an endorsement."
But that's not how some of the committee members see it. In an email responding to Patterson's complaints, one committee member defended the decision to back Biddle, whether or not he was formally endorsed:
One source with knowledge of local politics we spoke to stressed that the state committee seemed to be doing what any political machine does -- win the election.
"Certainly Vincent Orange, and probably Bryan Weaver, are better known than Sekou Biddle," said the source. "The entry of [Republican candidate] Pat Mara into the race and Democratic candidates like Josh Lopez and Jacque Patterson whose potential is difficult to calculate but who could cost Biddle votes, has created a circle the wagons mentality among some D.C. Democratic Party leaders and the elected officials who are backing Biddle. The obvious strategy is to narrow the field of Democrats and confront Mara one-on-one."
The problem is that in circling the wagons for Biddle, it may be Biddle that comes off looking worse for the wear. When we spoke to Biddle last week, he was quick to push back against the accusation that he was ever an insider candidate. He certainly had a point -- Vincent Orange, who Biddle defeated during the selection process, was a longtime Democratic Party insider and made no secrets of the fact that he planned on using his connections to the committee to win the interim appointment. But with the city's political establishment and preeminent political party moving earth and water to secure him more than a four-month tenure on the D.C. Council, Biddle has to fight to appeal to voters that may well be turned off by such overt political machinations.
This is especially true when it comes to the state committee, which would be violating its own bylaws in working to support only Biddle. According to those bylaws, a candidate can only be officially endorsed after a candidate forum is held and voting via open ballot grants one contender 60 percent or more of the committee's votes. Even if the January 6 process by which Biddle was selected for the interim appointment was considered a "forum" -- which would be a stretch -- Biddle still didn't receive enough votes to cross the 60 percent threshold to qualify for an endorsement, nor was the voting fully open.
In a follow-up email sent to the committee this morning, Patterson stood his ground.
Good Morning and I must say, at first glance, I agree with Chairman Bonds and really, Democrats - at this point we as a Committee have no alternative except to support Councilmember Biddle. The DCDSC made a cler [sic] choice on who the DCDSC would support for the interim appointment. Based on that I think we have no choice but to continue that support in the special election.
It would be very un-democratic for us to put forth one candidate in the appointment process and support another in the special election.
We must keep in mind that this special election process is different from a normal election wherein the DCDSC has made a preiselection[sic] of a candidate. In a normal election no such pre-selection is made.
Having made the pre-selection decision, we as an organization must support that decision. Since time is short, unless and until otherwise instructed by the full DCDSC, the DCDSC should use what ever resources we have to help Councilmember Biddle.
One source with knowledge of local politics we spoke to stressed that the state committee seemed to be doing what any political machine does -- win the election.
"Certainly Vincent Orange, and probably Bryan Weaver, are better known than Sekou Biddle," said the source. "The entry of [Republican candidate] Pat Mara into the race and Democratic candidates like Josh Lopez and Jacque Patterson whose potential is difficult to calculate but who could cost Biddle votes, has created a circle the wagons mentality among some D.C. Democratic Party leaders and the elected officials who are backing Biddle. The obvious strategy is to narrow the field of Democrats and confront Mara one-on-one."
The problem is that in circling the wagons for Biddle, it may be Biddle that comes off looking worse for the wear. When we spoke to Biddle last week, he was quick to push back against the accusation that he was ever an insider candidate. He certainly had a point -- Vincent Orange, who Biddle defeated during the selection process, was a longtime Democratic Party insider and made no secrets of the fact that he planned on using his connections to the committee to win the interim appointment. But with the city's political establishment and preeminent political party moving earth and water to secure him more than a four-month tenure on the D.C. Council, Biddle has to fight to appeal to voters that may well be turned off by such overt political machinations.
This is especially true when it comes to the state committee, which would be violating its own bylaws in working to support only Biddle. According to those bylaws, a candidate can only be officially endorsed after a candidate forum is held and voting via open ballot grants one contender 60 percent or more of the committee's votes. Even if the January 6 process by which Biddle was selected for the interim appointment was considered a "forum" -- which would be a stretch -- Biddle still didn't receive enough votes to cross the 60 percent threshold to qualify for an endorsement, nor was the voting fully open.
In a follow-up email sent to the committee this morning, Patterson stood his ground.
"I respect the right for every person of this Body to chose the candidate of their choice and campaign for them as individuals, but I question the INTEGRITY of this body and the individuals who would like to make Mr. Biddle not only the appointed candidate but also the endorsed candidate of our Party. I have been a fair and honest candidate throughout these initial stages of this campaign. I have related to every Democrat who has called me that I am in this race until the very end. Now I have people on my campaign being threatened concerning their ability to work on other campaigns in the future. I've been told by people they can't support me publicly because they don't want to lose business pending before the Council."If that wasn't enough to convince the D.C. Democratic State Committee that he'd fight this until the bitter end, Patterson dramatically concluded: "Fellow Democrats, I am in this race til the end."
No comments:
Post a Comment