The at-large DC Council contest has drawn most of the attention given to the District’s Nov. 6 general election, but voters will also decide on four ward-level contests. In three of those races, Democratic nominees face challenges from independents; in the other, the Democrat is squaring off against a Republican nominee.
All of the Democrats on the ballot are incumbent council members, with their party’s voters in the June primary having chosen to retain the status quo. In 2014, the same four candidates garnered at least 85 percent of the vote to defeat their general election opponents.
WARD 1
Brianne Nadeau
Running for her second term, Democratic nominee Brianne Nadeau said her top priority is to produce more affordable housing. In her first term, she said, she was able to direct $200 million in funding for schools in Ward 1 and directly served 5,000 constituents through her office.
Some of her opponents in the June Democratic primary, which Nadeau won with 48 percent of the vote, claimed the public wanted a council member more focused on constituent services, in the tradition of her four-term predecessor, the late Jim Graham. Nadeau defeated Graham in 2014, arguing she would bring a data-driven approach to the office and do more as a lawmaker than just addressing typical concerns over potholes and trash pickups. As she seeks re-election, Nadeau said her office has performed well in fulfilling residents’ basic needs while she has also focused on broader issues.
“I think we have one of the most effective constituent services operations in the city,” she said. “We’re … data-driven. We track everything.”
Nadeau, who chairs the council’s Committee on Human Services, touts her work helping to reform the emergency homeless system, which guarantees a right to shelter for anyone in the District during frigid weather. Despite some initial delays in building homeless shelters in wards 7 and 8, Nadeau said, “We’re moving forward.”
In addition, she said her work on the council has helped to preserve or add 500 units of affordable housing in Ward 1. “I think people are excited about the work we’re doing,” she said.
Jamie Sycamore said constituent services is his No. 1 concern. Running as an independent — he changed his party affiliation after dropping out of the Democratic primary this year — Sycamore said he views Graham’s legacy of constituent services as a model. Graham was known as a ward boss, involving himself in everything from menial constituent requests to missing trash cans. “[It’s] bridging people to their government,” Sycamore said of this focus.
Sycamore said his top two issues are affordable housing and “affordable living.” The ward needs more green spaces, he said, amid the current redevelopment boom. On the contentious redevelopment of SunTrust in Adams Morgan, Sycamore said he would like to retain a significant part of the adjoining plaza. “I would love to see affordable housing there … but at the same time, I want it kept as a community space. Something like a European town square.”
He said he prioritizes the safety of streets, which includes adding cycling lanes, fixing broken roads, and helping buses flow more quickly with “smarter streetlight” technology.
Sycamore said he enjoys the newly acquired independent label despite having been a lifelong Democrat. “I loved that independent realm; I’m not beholden to corporations or party,” he said. He said he left the Democratic primary because “it was a crowded race” and he did not want to further split the vote, giving the incumbent an advantage.
A sign language interpreter and disabilities activist for a decade, Sycamore moved to the city in 2008, he said, attending Gallaudet University. If elected, he would be the first gay man to serve on the council since Graham and David Catania left office.
WARD 3
Mary Cheh
Democratic nominee Mary Cheh is running for her fourth term as Ward 3 council member. As chair of the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, she has investigated District contracting in the Department of General Services and monitored the city’s progress on traffic and pedestrian safety.
A cyclist herself, Cheh said the District needs protected cycling lanes on “all major thoroughfares” and ought to have a comprehensive network of lanes. She said the city is doing a poor job in implementing its Vision Zero initiative, which aims to reduce all traffic-related fatalities to zero by 2024.
“We’re never going to make 2024 with zero fatalities and serious injuries,” she said in an interview prior to some of the mayor’s most recent announcements on new traffic measures. “We haven’t done enough.”
Cheh said her priorities for Ward 3 include alleviating overcrowding in public schools. In her time on the council, Cheh has conducted an annual tour of public schools in her ward, checking for class readiness and fixes that can be passed onto the Department of General Services. She also touted her work to secure funding for school modernizations, libraries and other public services.
“I know where the dusty corners are in the budgets, and I’m able to direct resources to Ward 3 and elsewhere,” said Cheh, who is also a constitutional law professor at George Washington University.
Cheh introduced a clean energy bill this fall to move the District to 100 percent renewable energy sources for electricity by 2032. The legislation came after months of lobbying and advocacy. In the wake of recent scandals over faulty graduation rates, Cheh also has introduced an education bill that would establish a research consortium to oversee public schools data, a measure that has become a source of tension between lawmakers and Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration. The mayor’s office is working with a think tank to create its own data analysis office.
“If [either bill] doesn’t make it by the end of the year, if I’m re-elected, it’s my top thing in the new year,” Cheh said.
Petar Dimtchev
With experience working a Ward 3 community liaison for Adrian Fenty’s administration and more recently in the U.S. Social Security Administration, Dimtchev said he has “a broad range of government experience.” He is running as an independent in the Ward 3 race.
Dimtchev’s top three issues are transportation, schools and constituent services. If elected, he aims to tackle school overcrowding by spearheading construction of a new high school in Ward 3, in part by using funds reappropriated from a current pool project at Hearst Recreation Center. He also said the city needs to invest more in elementary schools and close the technology gap for lesser-served schools.
His stance on schools helped him win the endorsement of The Washington Post, which wrote in a Oct. 19 editorial that Cheh’s “continued efforts to undermine mayoral control of education is worrying.” Dimtchev said he supports mayoral control of schools and opposes legislation authored by Cheh that would create an education watchdog office under the DC auditor to scrutinize data.
“But we know what the school data says, and it says we need more resources in classrooms,” Dimtchev said.
Dimtchev faults Cheh for not providing stricter oversight over the DC Department of Transportation. He said not enough dollars are spent on repairing streets in the ward, which has “some of the worst streets in the city.”
Dimtchev became an independent in 2016, as he “noticed the country was becoming too partisan,” he said. With Cheh’s fundraising advantage, Dimtchev said he is running a frugal campaign with about 50 volunteers and close advisers, including John Ray, a former council member and mayoral candidate.
Dimtchev moved to the District at a young age and grew up in Palisades and Glover Park. After attending School Without Walls, he studied government at Georgetown University. He has a law degree from Catholic University of America.
WARD 5
First elected in a special election in 2012, Democratic nominee Kenyan McDuffie is running for his second full term as council member. He chairs the Committee on Business and Economic Development.
Over his term, McDuffie helped push through a public-health approach to dealing with violence, notably through the Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results Amendment Act, known as the NEAR Act. Most recently, McDuffie co-authored a bill that seeks to stall the closure of Providence Hospital in Northeast. The legislation, McDuffie and Ward 7 Council member Vincent Gray argue, empowers the District to prevent the closure of a hospital.
McDuffie did not respond to requests for an interview.
“I’m proud of all that we’ve accomplished, but our work is not done especially in areas such as job training, affordable housing, public safety and education,” he says on his re-election website.
Amone Banks
Originally from South Carolina, Amone Banks said he has lived off and on in DC for 17 years, working for different federal agencies. He has lived in Ward 5 for over five years.
His top priorities include reducing Metro fares — which are “getting out of control and too high” — and improving graduation rates in DC schools. He supports giving power back to the elected State Board of Education on matters such as selecting candidates for chancellor. “We shouldn’t leave all power [in] one hand,” he said regarding mayoral control of schools.
“In 2019, I think we’re projected to spend almost $1 billion on education, but we still get the same returns,” he said.
Banks said he hears from residents in the community that McDuffie isn’t responsive enough. “When I’m out in the street corner, a) they don’t know who [he] is, or b) [they say that] he doesn’t really come out and address issues,” Banks said.
Banks said he has “always been a Democrat” but became an independent after coming to believe that the “Democratic Party might not have had the best interests for black Americans.”
He described his campaign as bare bones: just himself, his table, and the fliers he creates. The campaign also has no visible online presence, aside from a few tweets from political observers featuring his posters.
Kathy Henderson
Kathy Henderson is a longtime advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 5 who is running as an independent against McDuffie.
“I am a 20-year, effective Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner that has delivered for my community,” she wrote in a message. After a brief phone call, she referred to her website for information about her platform.
Constituent services, public safety and education are listed as some of her top priorities. She also wants to increase “access to jobs” and promote “strategic economic development” in Ward 5.
“We do not need more industrial eyesores,” her website says.
WARD 6
Charles Allen
Coming off a competitive contest in the Democratic primary, incumbent Charles Allen said he is taking the general election seriously and wants to continue his “shared progressive vision” for Ward 6.
“I do think that the District, we’re at [one] of those crossroad moments … when we are experiencing a lot of growth, a lot of change, and a lot of that is exciting, and a lot of that is also scary,” he said.
Allen said he has focused on affordable housing as one of his top issues since being elected to the council in 2014. In his term, he said, thousands of affordable units have been built in Ward 6.
He said he wants to boost the hiring of local residents and to establish tax breaks for small DC retail businesses. He supports incentives that would help ensure more of the city’s police and fire forces live in the District. Allen also holds education as a top priority, saying he’s focused on improving the pipeline from pre-K to high school graduation. During the Democratic primary, he touted helping to secure $80 million in funding to modernize Jefferson Middle School in Southwest. He also talked about preventing the sale of the Southwest Library, finding $18 million to rebuild it by 2020.
As chair of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, Allen authored a reform of the Youth Rehabilitation Act after a Washington Post report found many repeat violent offenders were receiving lenient sentences. He said he aimed to ensure “accountability” while also creating “pathways for people to successfully return to their communities.”
Michael Bekesha
Michael Bekesha, running as the GOP nominee, describes himself as an “urban Republican.” He mentions that he is Jewish and his wife is a Democrat. His mom is a public school teacher and his dad a small-business owner. “A Massachusetts Republican is very different from a Southern Republican,” he said.
He wants tougher oversight of the Bowser administration. “We’re not taking that job seriously,” he said of the council, explaining that it should use its power, when appropriate, to withhold funding on mayoral initiatives.
Bekesha faults Allen for voting in favor of shifting authority over funds for at-risk students so that it rests with the DC Public Schools central office rather than principals. He is concerned about the amount of money granted to Events DC, the quasi-public agency in charge of DC entertainment and sports facilities. The agency had been criticized for the rising construction budget for its recently completed Ward 8 Sports and Entertainment Arena project.
Bekesha lists affordable housing, safe neighborhoods and small businesses among some of the priorities on his website.
In Democrat-heavy DC, most candidates have had a difficult time winning with an “R” next to their names. Since the election of President Donald Trump — whom Bekesha has said he either repudiates or prefers not to talk about — it’s only become harder.
“Unfortunately, because of the president, people expect [to feel] this particular way about a person being a Republican,” he said. “I’m focused on local issues in Ward 6.”
On the other hand, shunning Trump has upset some DC Republicans. “There are people who are disappointed I’m not fully embracing the president,” Bekesha said.
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