State Committee races a referendum on DC’s Democratic Party

Anita Bonds is getting it from all sides. Ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic primary elections, the at-large DC Council member and District-politics stalwart is facing criticism from two challengers, Marcus Goodwin and Jeremiah Lowery, particularly over her affordable housing record. The Washington Post editorial board declined to endorse her campaign, writing that “her effectiveness since joining the council in 2012 has been dubious.”

Yet these critiques of Bonds are positively tame compared to the attacks she’s incurring from candidates for the DC Democratic State Committee — the party’s local organization in the District, which she chairs. The seats are on Tuesday’s primary election ballot for Democratic Party voters.

“There’s no way that I can put this delicately: She’s been a disaster,” said Philip Pannell, a Ward 8 activist running for an at-large seat on the committee. He argues that under Bonds’ leadership the party has been plagued by incompetence, mismanagement and a total lack of vision. Young people should be more engaged and local Democrats should do more to promote DC statehood, Pannell said. “There’s an urgent need to revitalize,” he said.

Pannell is one of 42 candidates running under the banner of “DumpTrump-Dems4Action,” one of two major slates for the committee races. While their name may reference the locally unpopular Republican president, the group’s mission is really to “challenge the status quo” of their own local party establishment. As Markus Batchelor, the “DumpTrump” candidate for national committeeman, said in a video earlier this year, the goal is “a more open and inclusive Democratic Party — a party that holds our elected officials accountable to our Democratic values and prepares the next generation of leaders to take over.”

But the establishment isn’t ready to relinquish its power. In a statement, Bonds said: “I took a party that was deeply in debt and put it on solid financial footing. I led the party through three national conventions, and I have always allowed the members to have a voice.” Now she and 23 other committee candidates — including Ward 2 DC Council member Jack Evans — are running on a slate called “Democrats Moving Forward #Resist,” saying they bring experience and diversity to the race.

“We feel that the Democratic Party in the District of Columbia is strong,” said James S. Bubar, an at-large candidate on the slate. “We’re one of the most successful state committees in the country.”

In one sense, this is indisputably true. The Board of Elections reported last month that 76 percent of the District’s registered voters are Democrats, compared to 6 percent who are Republicans. Here  Clinton won 90 percent of the vote for president in the 2016 general election, compared to Donald Trump’s 4 percent. Yet in 2014, the last non-presidential election year, the Board of Elections put Democratic primary turnout at just 27 percent.

Critics say the state committee is largely irrelevant to the District’s civic life, to the point that most voters know literally nothing about its members or activities.

“DC for Democracy does a hundred times more than the state committee, and they’re just a bunch of activists,” said John Capozzi, another at-large candidate for “DumpTrump.” “The State Committee has always been the best vehicle that hasn’t been used.”

“DumpTrump” candidates want the committee used for better youth outreach — including to high school students — as well as campaigning for politicians across the country would support DC statehood. Capozzi argued Bonds is too busy with her council duties to be the chair.

“The ‘Democrats Moving Forward #Resist’ consists of the people who were complicit in supporting her as chair and are responsible for the dysfunction that characterizes the state committee today,” Pannell said.

There are some candidates running in opposition to “Democrats Moving Forward” who aren’t part of “DumpTrump.” MaryEva Candon is making an at-large bid as part of the three-person “Dems win 2020” slate. She said she’s “been very disappointed in how the party has been led and organized,” but didn’t want to join “DumpTrump,” partly for ideological reasons.

“For one thing, that slate tends to be very happy to be labeled as the ‘most progressive Democrats,’” she said. “Progressive, unfortunately, tends to mean the government should provide all services and there’s very little concern with the capitalist system and budgeting. … I am simply not as far left as they are.”

If nothing else, many Democrats hope the challenge to the establishment in these races will infuse new energy into the party. “Even before the early votes were cast, I felt like we’ve already won to some degree,” said at-large “DumpTrump” candidate Kishan Putta. “The point is to improve the party. We are, for better or worse, a one-party city. We owe it to our city to make that party as good as it can be.”

A full list of candidates is available via the sample ballots on the Board of Elections website.