jonetta rose barras: The absence of political diversity in DC and its dangers

Every week, it seems, someone is announcing for some political office in DC. Marcus Goodwin, a rising neighborhood developer in the city, threw his hat in the ring last week. He is vying for the at-large seat that became wide open when incumbent David Grosso said he would not seek reelection. 

Counting Goodwin, there now appear to be as many as eight individuals campaigning as independents for the November general election in DC. More people may announce since qualifying petitions for that race are not due until Aug. 5. 

That kind of huge interest may seem like cause for celebration. Except what ails the DC Council isn’t a dearth of fresh faces. 

The ultimate distress to the legislature and DC’s body politic is the lack of political diversity. Rhetoric notwithstanding, there is little difference between incumbents and challengers. Their platforms and solutions to seemingly intractable problems of scarce affordable housing, unequal public education and community violence mimic each other.

When DC Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt announced a cumulative $798 million adjustment in revenue estimates through 2023, candidates and sitting elected officials, including Mayor Muriel Bowser, all talked about spending the extra $280 million in 2019 revenue either on affordable housing or on education, as if the more than $2 billion currently available to deal with those issues is insufficient. No one suggested any real alternative — certainly not a radical approach of revenue distribution, as is done in Alaska. 

The answer among the majority of elected DC officials and those seeking office to the problem of obesity among poor African Americans is a tax. Taxes are best used to ensure that everyone in a community helps to finance the needs of that community — not to punish any particular segment or deploy as an economic whip to force changes in people’s dietary behaviors.

Unfortunately, homogeneity in discourse and vision is created when political diversity is essentially discouraged — even though it’s as important to a community’s civic health and development as racial, class and cultural diversity. Segregation of any kind has been and continues to be, in my view, an obstacle to genuine growth and advancement of a humane society.  

For decades, local Democratic leaders have behaved like playground bullies. They have essentially prevented an opportunity for all voices to be heard and all ideas to be fully entertained in the public square. For example, they have repeatedly declined calls for open primaries. Currently, individuals who are registered as non-party or independents can vote only in a special election or a November general election.

Equally troubling, they have turned a blind eye to the flagrant abuse of the city’s Home Rule Charter or constitution. That document requires that two of the four at-large seats be reserved for individuals who are not members of the dominant party; in effect, given the District’s party registration patterns, that means they should not be Democrats. 

Over the years, various political challengers, many of whom were members of the Democratic Party, resorted to labeling themselves so-called “independent Democrats” — see at-large Council member Elissa Silverman, as well as Grosso, as examples of the theory in action. They wore that independent moniker to successfully pass the minority party requirement while simultaneously aligning themselves with the dominant party. Obviously, all of that defeated the purpose of what I call the diversity clause of the charter. Those independents, Silverman and Grosso, are two of the strongest far-left voices on the council.

Interestingly, when Goodwin ran in 2018 for the at-large seat on the council, he sought to defeat incumbent Anita Bonds in the Democratic primary. I thought he and two others in that race were impressive and probably had a larger role to play in the city’s political future — although Goodwin came in third. 

Goodwin subsequently became president of the DC Young Democrats, a position he relinquished only this week. While he may be attempting to cast himself as a moderate, it’s difficult to buy into the notion that he is an independent. Nearly everyone running this year for the at-large seat — Markus Batchelor, Eric Rogers, Franklin Garcia, Christina Henderson, Jeanne Lewis, Chander Jayaraman and Mario Cristaldo — is playing the same game. If DC Fiscal Policy director Ed Lazere enters the race, as some expect, his name likely will be added to the list of opportunistic shapeshifters. Jayaraman himself has noted the phenomenon, telling a Washington Informer reporter that he’s the only “true independent” in a race filled with recent Democrats.

The behind-the-scenes machinations in this year’s political campaigns, including those at the ward level, suggest the push for a singularity of voice and vision may be getting worse among some advocates and elected officials, who self-identify as progressives or far-left members of the party. There is a citywide strategy that makes clear they want to assume greater control of the legislature, and eventually the executive branch. Endorsements have been fashioned and organized among certain groups to enhance visibility and popularity of certain candidates, for example. 

Once upon a time, District residents and the government benefited from a measure of political diversity. Consider, for example, that moderate Republicans like the Rev. Jerry A. Moore Jr., Carol Schwartz and David Catania all held at-large seats on the council. As the contemporary history of the city indicates, the DC Republican Party has been led, for the most part, by moderates — not the scurrilous kind of GOP flag-bearers that Americans are witnessing at the national level. The three mentioned here were fiscal conservatives, protecting taxpayers’ wallets while pushing for social improvements including education reforms.

As voters begin to interact with candidates, signing qualifying petitions or attending forums, they should fully examine the question of political diversity and the inclusion of minority voices — not just racially, but ideologically. Residents may want to find out more about who is supporting a candidate and why — not just whether that individual is or isn’t accepting contributions from large donors or contractors. 

Moreover, they may want to begin to demand fidelity to the Home Rule Charter’s requirement, which was designed to preserve and promote diversity. After all, we know from experience that deliberate and accepted violation of the law, even under the guise of seeking equality for all, can be a dangerous thing. 

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jonetta rose barras is an author, a freelance journalist and host of The Barras Report television show. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.