jonetta rose barras: Chasing the mayoral dream in DC

“I don’t need to hold sessions to hear what the community wants,” declared independent mayoral candidate Rhonda Hamilton during a Sept. 22 debate sponsored by the DC Office of Campaign Finance’s Fair Elections Program. “I’ve been on the ground for years. It’s time for action.”

A small-business owner with a record of advocating for more equitable mental healthcare and statehood for DC, Hamilton is one of three candidates running for mayor in the Nov. 3 general election. Robert Gross, a member of the Statehood Green Party who describes himself as an eco-socialist, and Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist who is in her second term as Ward 4 councilmember, are the other two vying to become the eighth chief executive of the nation’s capital under home rule.

The current officeholder, Muriel Bowser, decided to retire rather than seek a fourth term.

A large number of other political offices are being contested, including DC delegate to Congress, attorney general, council chair, two at-large council seats and four ward representatives — 1, 3, 5 and 6. In addition, there are four nonpartisan State Board of Education races and hundreds of advisory neighborhood commission seats at stake. 

Voting started on Oct. 9. Ballots can be put into drop boxes placed around the city. Early voting will be held Oct. 26 through Nov. 1, with centers operating from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Election Day is Nov. 3; polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

Hamilton’s debate comment was a slap against Lewis George, the Democratic Party mayoral nominee, who essentially wiped the floor with her principal challenger in the June primary. She won 76,318 (54.12%) of the votes against at-large Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, ​​a more senior and, in the view of many, a more seasoned politician; he received 46,439 votes (35.06%) in the primary. 

Lewis George and McDuffie were the chief beneficiaries of the city’s Fair Elections Act. Implementing it for this election cycle, the council authorized $12 million to be given as cash awards and grants to candidates who were certified for the program after meeting matching requirements. Nearly half of those funds went to the two top mayoral aspirants — both Democrats.

Each stirred controversy about how their campaigns operated, although Lewis George drew a formal complaint from a DC resident who accused her of a variety of violations of local campaign finance laws, not the least of which was extensive coordination with an independent, union-financed political action committee. After investigating, the DC Office of Campaign Finance (OCF) found merit in several of the accusations and levied four fines totaling $16,000 against her and her campaign.

Last week, during a de novo hearing, the outcome of which, in my opinion, seemed predetermined, the Elections Board unanimously overturned the OCF’s ruling, reaching a single conclusion that Lewis George and the PAC had not colluded while dismissing all fines, including those unrelated to that specific allegation. 

Nevertheless, that action removed a cloud that had been hanging over the Democratic nominee. It also knitted a case in 2022 that many blamed for then-at-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman’s loss to McDuffie. The Elections Board also overturned the OCF’s ruling in that instance. 

Were the Silverman and Lewis George cases similar? That’s a conversation for another day.

Even before the Elections Board’s decision, it seemed that Lewis George and her supporters were selecting her inaugural gown and measuring the drapes for the mayoral suite. They and the press often describe her as the presumptive next mayor or likely winner, and sometimes even as mayor-elect. 

She and some chief political advisers, including campaign chair and former Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells and former DC Attorney General Karl Racine, huddled behind closed doors, creating a short list of potential transition team members and possible executive-level appointees, according to knowledgeable sources.

Were they getting ahead of their own story?

After all, as many as 78,279 voters, registered as political independents, are expected to enter the arena for the general election. Further, more than 62,000 people who voted in the Democratic primary did not choose Lewis George as their candidate. And roughly 60% of registered Democrats didn’t even bother to vote. Then, there is ranked choice voting. 

How will those elements impact the mayoral race? Can either Gross or Hamilton  upend the presumption of victory for the Democratic Party nominee in a town whose politics are dominated by the majority party?

Whatever the odds, Gross and Hamilton have proceeded with passion and determination. During the debate, Gross introduced a platform he called a “Human Life Standard,” which would demand measuring “whether a policy is actually having an impact in the daily lives of residents.” He said he also wants to modernize the government using artificial intelligence, improve budget accuracy, streamline the permitting process, and enhance the overall public delivery system. 

Hamilton said that she wants to get children off the street and argued that despite two school systems — charter and traditional — the city is “failing to educate our children.” She also asserted that it is “time to clean up corruption and greed” in the District.

Lewis George offered, among other things, that she is “running to put people first … to show what government can do. We deserve a government that responds to our needs when we call.”

That was the same message she gave during the primary, suggesting she has not surprisingly embraced the adage, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”

After the debate, I requested a one-on-one interview with each of the candidates. Hamilton and Gross accepted my invitation. Gross twice failed to show for the conversation via Zoom, however.

In keeping with behavior exhibited ahead of the primary, neither Lewis George nor her campaign manager nor her communications director responded to my multiple emails requesting an interview during this general election period.

Is Lewis George taking cues from the actions of President Donald Trump? He has snubbed or even expelled members of the press who dared to ask critical questions or write unflattering articles. 

“What is happening on the national level gets fixed by focusing on the local level. We want people to get excited again by engaging at the local level,” Lewis George told Ward 3 residents on Sept. 24, at yet another stop on her “Building the People’s Government” listening tour, this one held on the grounds of St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral. 

Predominantly white and for the most part affluent, Ward 3 was the only community Lewis George didn’t win in the primary — although she came within a few hundred votes of doing so. Still, her campaign workers apparently felt the need to recast that history by boasting that they had to set up an outside tent to accommodate the large crowd — never mind that it appeared a number of individuals at the town hall-style event were campaign volunteers and/or residents who lived outside of Ward 3.

Strutting confidently, wearing a purple blazer and black slacks, with a handheld microphone, Lewis George smiled and joked with the audience, even as she sought to capture the myriad challenges facing the city.

“I am imploring people to start doing work on the local level,” continued Lewis George, adding that the work should “center people” rather than “profit” or “national interests.”

She asked residents whether they felt safe in their community, relaying a definition of public safety that extended beyond the typical aspects of police, crime and prosecution — although she made clear that she intended to end cooperation between the DC Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Lewis George also raised concerns about the quality of education District children are receiving, especially those with disabilities. She emphasized her top platform issue: affordability.

Residents were then invited to participate in small-group discussions inside the church that were facilitated by campaign workers. “When you identify issues, I hope you will identify solutions,” said Lewis George. “This is what grassroots organizing looks like.”

That is not Hamilton’s assessment of what organizing should encompass — although she and Gross have raised concerns about many of the same issues: housing affordability, small-business vitality and success, improved public education, responsible management of government resources, citizen safety, and public integrity, among others. Their approaches may be different.

Consider that on Oct. 16, the council is holding a public roundtable to consider tax increases as its principal response to the city’s fiscal challenges outlined by Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee. Lewis George has called for creation of a business activity tax. “We need to close the tax loophole that benefits Maryland and Virginia businesses,” she said during the debate.

Neither Gross nor Hamilton supports tax increases. Gross has called for an audit to capture duplications, waste, fraud and abuse.

Lewis George said she would implement a “forensic audit of every District agency, looking for savings.” She also said she would better “leverage federal dollars” and establish a stronger system of checks and balances for the government’s many contracts. None of that would supplant her call for tax hikes, however.

“No one was calling for an audit until I said it,” Hamilton told me. She reiterated her debate assertion that she wouldn’t raise taxes. “Our government has failed to have proper oversight.”

Hamilton criticized other current leadership, including at-large Councilmember Robert White, who she said took the “Defend DC” advocacy handle she created in spring 2025; he did not give her credit for that initiative when he convened a group under that moniker this summer after the primary. White did not return multiple emails I sent to his campaign, even as recently as last week, to comment about Hamilton’s allegation.

She also noted her concerns around oversight and accountability in public education. Hamilton recalled telling Council Chair Phil Mendelson at a meeting  that the system wasn’t providing students with disabilities the required individual education plans known as IEPs. “He said [the affected families] need to get pro bono legal representation. That was his answer, and he oversees education,” added Hamilton.

While citing her own decades of work with rental housing tenants across the city, particularly those east of the Anacostia River, and her efforts to reimagine mental healthcare services in part by establishing two nonprofit organizations, Hamilton reserved her strongest criticisms for her chief mayoral opponent.

“[Lewis George] has been around for almost six years; the issues are not new,” said Hamilton. “What do you need to hear that you don’t already know?”

She said that Lewis George’s association with Democratic Socialists of America is not necessarily in the best interests of DC residents. “I always saw her as being a puppet to their agenda,” Hamilton continued. “If you’re not in the bed, you are certainly propping up the pillows in the room.”

Other independents had hoped to run for mayor, but none was able to collect the requisite signatures on nominating petitions. Hamilton said she and her team knew they had to obtain enough so they could “make it to the ballot. So we could get to this moment.”

Here’s the larger question, however: Can she make it across the finish line in first place?

jonetta rose barras is an author and DC-based freelance journalist, covering national and local issues. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.