News & Politics

DC Pols at Work

Briefs from the campaign trail

Mayoral candidates must collect 2,000 signatures of DC residents to place their names on the September 12 primary ballot. Council chair Linda Cropp’s campaign paid some workers $1 for each signature they collected—a tactic that has backfired for others.

Adrian Fenty: The Ward 4 council member has built a strong record for defending DC’s disabled residents. When a coalition of disability advocates held a campaign forum, he declined to attend.

Marie Johns: The July 4 parade in DC’s Palisades neighborhood is the season’s premier political campaign event. Cruising MacArthur Boulevard, Johns waved to the crowd from the seat of a 1961 Cadillac soft-top—with Virginia plates.

Mary Cheh: DC Council seats are “part-time” jobs, though they pay $92,000 a year. Most candidates pledge to work full-time, but Ward 3 hopeful Cheh told a forum she would keep her teaching job at the GW Law School because teaching would require only as much time as does jogging three hours a week—angering both voters and her GW colleagues.

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