To the majority of Americans, talk of Washington, D.C. politics conjures one name?Marion Barry?and that name represents almost comical levels of corruption and mismanagement, overshadowing sometimes-great accomplishments. These days, Barry has for the most part left public life in the city he ran for nearly two decades, but events this summer proved his specter remains in the worst ways.
Washington Mayor Anthony Williams kicked off his reelection campaign in June promising “one city, one future,” an ambitious and admirable vision for a city plagued by continuing racial and economic divisions. But two weeks later, Williams’ campaign for unity crashed on takeoff. Under D.C. law, as in most jurisdictions, candidates are required to complete a petition to earn a place on the ballot. Anthony Williams needed the signatures of 2,000 registered D.C. voters to get a spot for the Sept. 10 primary election.
He failed, in grand fashion.
Of the 10,240 signatures initially submitted by the campaign, more than half were collected by one man, Scott Bishop, Jr., and his daughter-in-law. It appears that the Bishops forged a great number of those signatures shortly before the July 3 deadline in order to meet a promised quota, and to earn a $1 per signature bonus. 80 entries were signed on the non-existent date of June 31, and the signatories included United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and actor Kelsey Grammer?neither are Washington residents. Of the remaining signatures, the D.C. Board of Elections judged the fraud to be so rampant that Williams’ petition was thrown out entirely earlier this month, and subsequent legal appeals have failed to overturn that decision.
This has left Williams to mount a write-in campaign for the Democratic primary less than three weeks away. His campaign signs admonish voters to “do the write thing,” and pencil the mayor’s name on their ballots. The debacle also earned his campaign a fine of $277,700 and possible criminal charges against his staffers, as well as opened the once-uncontested incumbent to a challenge from prominent minister Willie F. Wilson.
The irony is that Anthony Williams is no Marion Barry, by any stretch of the imagination. His personal character is nearly untarnished, and he has avoided scandal, if not controversy, during his first term. Furthermore, Williams have proven himself an able, if not excellent, administrator. (capitolcorridor.org) The District is in relatively good financial health; the delivery of city services has seen noticeable improvement; and improvements in the city’s troubled school and public housing systems have begun. When Williams took office in 1999, the city, through a financial control board, was effectively under the control of the federal government. Nearly a year ago, the city was doing well enough financially under Williams that the board was disbanded.
In spite of all this, Williams is still nearly certain to win another term, but there is a tragedy beyond the tarnishing of his personal reputation. Before 1973, the federal government ruled D.C. in manner little different from a far-flung colony. Since then (with the exception of the period under the financial control board), Washington has enjoyed a measure of “home rule,” electing a mayor and city council. However, we still do not enjoy the right to elect senators or a representative to Congress, which would require a constitutional amendment?an amendment unlikely to pass as long as the city carries a reputation of fraud, corruption and irresponsibility. These events have irreparably harmed our city’s reputation, and thus its chances for full representation anytime soon, and no number of “taxation without representation” license plates will change that.
And for that, Mayor Williams should be ashamed. He should have done the “write thing” all along.
