Muriel Bowser (D) won Tuesday’s special election for the open D.C. Council seat in Ward 4, while Yvette Alexander (D) won her election for councilmember of Ward 7. Each defeated a huge group of candidates—19 in Bowser’s race and 17 in Alexander’s—both with ease.
The elections were held because the seats had been vacated in January by Mayor Adrian Fenty (D), who had represented Ward 4, and Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, who previously represented Ward 7. Both Bowser and Alexander received endorsements from their respective predecessors.
The newly-elected councilmembers will have to face many issues when they take office. Bowser mentioned in a phone interview that she would really like to “closely track educational reform” and develop Georgia Avenue so that people can “shop and dine in Ward 4.”
—Dylan Richmond
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An estimate released by the Washington Post last week found that Washington’s carbon dioxide emissions growth rate was more than twice the national average from 2000 to 2005.
The Post looked at utility and traffic data, and reported a 13.4 percent increase over the five-year period in Washington and its suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.
The newspaper’s conclusions were confirmed by Jonathan Cogan, a spokesman for the Energy Information Administration, an office within the U.S. Department of Energy. The national average for carbon-dioxide emissions growth is 5.6 percent.
Carol Schwartz, an at-large D.C. city council member and the former chairperson of the council’s Committee on Public Works and the Environment, said that Washington’s city government has done a good job of curtailing emissions.
“When I chaired the Committee on Public Works and the Environment, we did a great deal,” she said. Schwartz said the council has limited emissions by making car registration free to improve emissions regulation and limiting city government purchases of sports utility vehicles.
—Will Sommer
