From the onset, Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) and her former D.C. Council colleague Kenyan McDuffie have emerged as front-runners in what is the District’s most consequential mayoral race in decades.
As these two candidates fight for the top spot, other candidates, like former D.C. Councilmember Vincent Orange, continue to make their case to voters. If elected, Orange pledges to reverse much of what he calls the damage done by Lewis George and McDuffie on the council.
“They helped create the narrative of ‘defund the police,’ and in creating that narrative, they were able to keep the police force around 3,100, but they continued to budget for 4,500 officers,” Orange told The Informer. “So over the past four or five years, what happened to the monies for those 1,400 FTEs [full-time employees]?”
Orange, a lawyer and certified public accountant, had choice words for McDuffie, questioning the degree to which he’s been able to effect change on the council.
“He really pushes the baby bonds bill,” Orange said about McDuffie’s landmark legislation. “You would think the baby bonds bill has been enacted and it’s funded. It’s not. You’ve been there for almost 13 years. You’ve been there at least eight years as chairman pro tempore. You have not been able to get that bill funded.”
The former council member also criticized Lewis George’s strategy for revenue generation.
“She has gone on record saying she’s going to raise taxes,” Orange said, later expressing his opposition to congestion pricing, which Lewis George told Greater Greater Washington she supports. “You need folks to come into the city, because the only tax they pay is our sales tax when they buy things. You don’t need a tax to prevent people from coming in here.”
Orange, who’s in his third run for District mayor, launched his bid in February, touting a record of service that includes two stints on the council between 1999 and 2016. In 2016, after his unsuccessful re-election bid, he resigned from his at-large seat to become president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce.
His mayoral vision, called “The Orange Plan” starts with public safety as the foundation. Other priorities include: quality education from age 3 to high school graduation, “real” pathways to the middle class for graduating high school seniors, fiscal discipline, the creation of workforce housing, quality health care, home rule preservation and pursuit of statehood, and making the District a family-friendly tourist destination.
As the council debate about the youth curfew rages, Orange said that the District’s residential and commercial jurisdictions need equal attention.
“I need public safety for our neighborhoods, but I also need public safety for economic development, and for tourism,” he told The Informer. “I can’t have a person going to the ballgame and getting carjacked. I can’t have a person going to a restaurant and getting shot.”
In the realm of education and workforce development, Orange expressed plans to incentivize high school graduates’ matriculation to the University of District of Columbia. He also identified the D.C. government as an incubator for local talent.
“You can get an apprenticeship at the Office of Tax and Revenue. If you want to get into event planning, you can get an apprenticeship at the convention center with Events DC,” Orange said as he outlined his vision. “If you want to be into sports management, we’re going to get you over at Audi Field, Nationals Park, or the new stadium that’s being built. If you’re into the environment and science, I’m going to get you an apprenticeship at the Department of Energy & the Environment.”
While on the campaign trail, Orange has highlighted his council experience, which includes helping navigate the District through its Control Board era. He’s also touted his facilitation of deals that brought Home Depot, Costco and other retailers to the District, along with his role in the incremental minimum wage increase, the reopening of McKinley Technology High School and modernization of Noyes Elementary School, Turkey Thicket Recreation Center, North Michigan Park Recreation Center, and Brentwood Community Center.
His experience, he said, eclipses that of Lewis George and McDuffie.
“They can’t be the leading candidates in terms of record,” Orange told The Informer. “When I make the statement that I’m the most accomplished, the most trained, the most educated and have delivered the most, they cannot engage in conversation with me on that subject matter. They just sit there.”
Rini Sampath: A Young Professional Focused on Building Better Systems
Other mayoral candidates are: veteran and real estate professional Gary Goodweather, Friends of Frank Reeves Center Chairman/CEO Ernest Johnson, federal contractor Rini Sampath, and Hope Solomon, a native Washingtonian with experience in the private sector and federal law enforcement.
Attorney Yaida Ford also launched a write-in bid in criticism of the D.C. Board of Elections’ (DCBOE) signature collection process she said precluded her from securing ballot access.
Whoever among the field of candidates wins the June 16 primary will likely go against a line-up of general election candidates that includes Rhonda Hamilton, a housing advocate who’s making her second attempt at the mayor’s seat. The Informer unsuccessfully attempted to interview Solomon, while Johnson’s camp declined comment for this multi-candidate feature.
If elected as mayor, Sampath will be the first-ever South Asian to lead the District. Earlier this year, she declared her candidacy out of frustration with the District’s response to “snowcrete.” Sampath, whose experience includes stints as a consultant at Deloitte and Booz Allen Hamilton, expressed plans to tackle what she called improper governance.
“We are trying to make a point here that the D.C. government mismanages our funding over and over again,” Sampath told The Informer. “You have in this race, Janeese Lewis George, who’s proposing a slew of new programs with truly not a solid plan to pay for them. Or you have Kenyan McDuffie, who’s effectively an extension of the Bowser administration.”
In between her appearances at candidate forums and Metro stop blitzes, Sampath has launched mobile apps aimed at increasing public spending transparency and helping the D.C. government better respond to residents.
“When I saw that 311 was one of the biggest complaints that I kept hearing from residents on the ground, we thought, ‘Let’s just redesign it ourselves. Let’s make a real working prototype,’” said Sampath, who modeled the app based on similar work done for San Diego’s government. “We’ve got another app…which is a ‘Where’s My Money Going?’ dashboard. The whole idea is we have sourced all of the budgets and the publicly available data and information and put it into a dashboard where you can enter how much money you made in a particular year on our website, and then it’ll tell you how much money was allocated to all of the different agencies.”
Sampath, federal civilian director for the cyber vulnerability research firm known as Tharros, immigrated to the United States from India at the age of 7. At the University of Southern California, Sampath managed a $2 million operating budget and 180 staffers as student body president. Though she’s lived in the District for more than a decade, Sampath, as she explained to The Informer, didn’t entertain the thought of running for mayor until January’s snowstorm.
“Seeing the failures of D.C. government for two-and-a-half weeks where delivery drivers weren’t earning an income, [and] people with disabilities weren’t able to navigate the city,” Sampath said. “The mayor is truly the chief executive of the city, and so I see that as a perfect fit with my skillset and also the reason and the purpose why I decided to do this.”
Sampath’s platform centers on efficient governance. In the realm of housing, she said she wants to spur housing production and move families into public housing units faster. When it comes to public safety, Sampath expressed a desire to foster professional policing, quicker emergency response, youth opportunity and better system coordination. For education, Sampath said she will aim for higher student in-school attendance and academic performance, center young people’s voices in policy decisions, and boost the quality of school buildings.
A key place Sampath said she wants to tackle her goals is in alignment with the Office of the D.C. Auditor.
“A third of…the recommendations haven’t even been started, and that’s where you see the issues like [processes at] the Office of United Communications broken,” Sampath told The Informer. “You’ve got residents dying because they’re sending EMS to the wrong quadrant. We’re discovering issues like the $400,000 spending on a violence interrupters program [for] personal use by a contractor because so much of the city government’s contracting ends up becoming a kickback scheme.”
While Sampath continues to make her name known to District voters, super political action committees (PACs) are spending millions of dollars in support of Lewis George and McDuffie, both of whom are enrolled in the District’s Fair Elections Program.
Opportunity DC, for instance, has pledged $1 million in support of McDuffie, and A United DC Research Council is funding campaign ads in opposition to Lewis George’s plan to fund child care via a business tax. As McDuffie’s camp also collaborates with anti-lobbying consulting firm Global Strategy Group, the coalition of labor unions, progressive organizations, and District residents known as Safe & Affordable DC is producing content in support of Lewis George.
This week, the conversation around campaign spending intensified when Lewis George supporter Ed Lazere filed a D.C. Office of Campaign Finance (OCF) complaint against McDuffie about his 2022 independent at-large campaign. Per Washington City Paper’s Tom Sherwood, the OCF has also opened an investigation into allegations of collusion between Lewis George’s campaign and unions that are running Safe & Affordable DC.
Earlier this month, Sampath took to social media in criticism of how Lewis George and McDuffie have amassed outside financial support while leveraging public dollars. She reiterated her standpoint while speaking to The Informer.
“On June 16, Washingtonians have a real choice,” Sampath said, “but that choice is fundamentally being distorted when there’s millions in taxpayer-funded matching dollars through the Fair Elections Program being used by these candidates, while they’re also benefiting from unlimited dark money spent on their behalf.”
Sampath gave a call to action to Lewis George and McDuffie.
“There’s one thing [to do], of course: disavow the super PACs,” she said. “I haven’t heard these candidates disavow the support they’re getting.”
Gary Goodweather: A Veteran and Real Estate Maven Who Wants to Work for All Washingtonians
February 19 marked one year since Goodweather threw his hat into the ring for the mayor’s seat. He told The Informer that he made the plunge in response to a system he didn’t see work equitably for all District residents.
Goodweather’s crusade for equity continued this week when, in advance of a televised debate between Lewis George and Lewis George, he questioned the eligibility requirements set by the Ward 7 Democrats for participants to secure at least 100 campaign contributions from two zip codes.
Tyrell Holcomb, president of the Ward 7 Democrats, wasn’t immediately available for comment.
As Goodweather explained weeks earlier, he wants to build a local government that works for all District residents.
“We have all this intellectual capital,” Goodweather said, “but we haven’t elected leaders that really think about how the policy affects other people, how they’re going to fund the policy. Leaders who really know how to do things and manage people that know how to get it done.”
As Goodweather recalled, he found trouble during the pandemic trying to secure mental health resources for a tenant who didn’t pay rent, conducted illicit activities out of his apartment, and threatened neighbors.
He said his role as a landlord prevented him from helping the man without the threat of legal repercussions.
“It was traumatic for us,” Goodweather told The Informer. “That is an example of even when we try to do the right thing, we’re told we’re not allowed to, or we’re, we want to help. Instead we’re told the city would penalize us.”
In another situation that Goodweather reflected on, the D.C. government, according to him, assessed a building in a way that thwarted a nonprofit’s attempt to construct a STEM innovation hub. Such experiences, he said, inspired mayoral ambitions he said sparked nearly three years ago.
“Trying to just get a building permit or get a license takes so fricking long and there’s so much uncertainty,” Goodweather said. “There’s no urgency with the D.C. government. The city penalizes you for trying to do the right thing, [and] that’s the opposite of what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Weeks before D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser released her final budget proposal, Goodweather— the first mayoral candidate in District history to qualify for fair election campaign funds without previously holding public office— conveyed a vision where the District fosters the best economic environment possible for small businesses.
“The mindset of the D.C. government has to be to be able to create new tax revenue by supporting residents and businesses so that they thrive, so that we are generating more tax revenue for the city,” Goodweather said. “It has to stop creating requirements, creating a system where D.C. residents and businesses can’t meet those requirements and then just penalize them for it.”
Goodweather, who lives in DuPont Circle with his wife, said his mayoral platform reflects 30 years of experience as a District resident and professional. Key elements include: quicker housing production and a path to permanent home ownership, elimination of Metro fare for all District residents, and the launch of a citywide civic service initiative to increase residents’ sense of belonging.
Goodweather also said he wants to boost child literacy and facilitate the construction of Advanced Technical Centers in every ward. Other priorities involve a comprehensive artificial intelligence (AI) and workforce protection framework, investments in clean energy and a robust response to rodent infestation. He said accomplishing these goals requires the education of a citizenry that feels connected to the District.
“We need to make sure that we are providing dollars to educators and letting educators do what they’re passionate about and what they’re good at, which is teaching our students,” Goodweather said, tying his education goals to a civic service initiative inspired by the Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program and his military experience. “We would have an education branch in the Capitol Corps, and it’s going to create belonging and responsibility and accountability, and it’ll provide skills for lifelong learning and lifelong success.”
Goodweather’s nearly three decades of professional experience includes stints at real estate firms CBRE and OTO Development, where he served as vice president and real estate manager, respectively. More recently, Goodweather has served as a managing principal at GME Investments, where he’s been involved in the acquisition, development and redevelopment of properties in the Mid-Atlantic and southern parts of the U.S. Since jumping into the race, he has utilized lessons learned from that company to make his name throughout the District.
If elected, Goodweather said he will make similar strides on behalf of all District residents.
“This campaign is allowing me to do what I’m going to do as mayor,” Goodweather said, “which is to utilize all the folks here in our city, to be able to develop solutions with all of their expertise. To be able to create a city that really, really does work for everybody. I’m passionate about trying to create a better life for people.”
Yaida Ford: An Attorney Fighting the Machine
Early on in her mayoral campaign, Ford lambasted those who she deemed responsible for the defunding of city services and the creation of a student populace that’s not meeting critical math and reading benchmarks.
In this juncture of her attempt to become the next city executive, she has maintained the same tone toward those she criticized as power-hungry career politicians.
“The same ol’ people are running for the same ol’ things,” said Ford, a civil rights attorney and write-in mayoral candidate. “One minute you’re running for this. The next minute you’re running for that. What is your story? People are tired of seeing the same old thing and nothing changes in the city.”
Ford is currently representing the family of Deon Kay in their fight for the release of the $665,000 settlement awarded to them for Kay’s 2020 police-involved killing. Earlier this year, during the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, she announced her candidacy. Her campaign platform centers on: education and workforce development as engines of economic development, housing affordability, and expansion of homeownership opportunities.
In the realm of local education, Ford said she wants to redistribute decision-making power.
“I would like to explore ending mayoral control and empowering the State Board of Education to do what they’re supposed to do,” she told The Informer. “Elected members of the state board basically have no power. It’s a very stressful job to be a representative with no power.”
As it relates to her housing policy goals, Ford cited her years representing tenants and tenant associations in their fight against poor living conditions and negligent landlords. She said the problems her clients encountered often stemmed mostly from a city executive who failed to hold District agencies accountable to residents.
“There’s nobody at the government saying, ‘Look, we have housing code regulations and you have to adhere to them or there are consequences,’” Ford said. “That’s easy to say as the mayor. As a lawyer, it’s harder because somebody has got to file suit. That costs money.”
As the District reels from federal law enforcement cooperation codified by Bowser, Ford said that overcoming the Trump administration will require cooperation between the three branches of local government.
Such a strategy, she said, didn’t happen during last summer’s federal surge.
“There had been conversations between the mayor and the attorney general about filing this lawsuit against President Trump,” Ford said. “The mayor was of the mind that it should have been filed after the end of the public emergency. Attorney General [Brian] Schwab didn’t listen to that, so he went ahead and filed suit with marginal success. The National Guard is still here. The president’s task force is still here.”
If elected, Ford would be making a return to the Wilson Building, where she served as former Ward 1 D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham’s legislative counsel during what she called a better time in local politics.
“Somebody could walk off the street and come into the office and ask to speak to a constituent services person and we had to serve them,” Ford told The Informer. “Now, you have council members that have office hours…once a month. When I was at the council in 2011, no council member did that. I can say that without equivocation.”
