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The promise ranked choice voting (RCV) proponents made nearly two years ago was that new people would get elected to more offices with more votes. If the June primary is any indication, that was all talk. For the most part, the winners…

“The council is bringing this on itself,” Jack Evans, a former Ward 2 legislator and expert on District finances, said earlier this week during an interview with me about yet another congressional encroachment into the local government’s…

It could be, as some people have suggested, that Elissa Silverman's arrival back to the John A. Wilson Building as an at-large councilmember is karma's work. She might claim otherwise, saying that hard work and determination are what…

Since 2020, when Mayor Muriel Bowser and her deputy mayor for health and human services, Wayne Turnage, decided to reorganize the city’s multibillion-dollar Medicaid managed care program in the middle of an unprecedented global pandemic,…

Between the DC Council’s first budget vote on June 9 and its second earlier this week, its proposed spending jumped by $50 million — ultimately exceeding by nearly $500 million Mayor Muriel Bowser’s initial proposal. That add-on…

DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson may not seem a Yoda doppelganger: He lacks pointy ears; he is also considerably taller and much younger than the Star Wars Jedi Master. What’s more, compared to the Galactic Republic, DC’s government is…

On Sunday, just two days before the DC Council voted unanimously to give initial approval to the city’s nearly $22 billion Fiscal Year 2027 Budget and Financial Plan, I asked Chair Phil Mendelson whether it would be fair to say that he and…

Next week, the DC Council is expected to take the first of two votes on Mayor Muriel Bowser’s proposed $21.2 billion Fiscal Year 2027 Budget and Financial Plan. Don’t expect a smooth landing. The budget, combined with concerns…

“While change is good, prepared leadership is better,” Kevin Chavous said as he introduced himself during the DC Office of Campaign Finance’s at-large primary debate late last month. He is one of nine Democrats hoping to hit the lottery…

“It’s nice to see everyone so willing to work together,” journalist Michael Brice-Saddler quipped while moderating the recent debate sponsored by the DC Office of Campaign Finance principally for candidates certified under the Fair…

At a recent mayoral forum, moderator Dwayne Lawson-Brown asked the candidates to use three words to describe their political style. “Principled. Resilient. Effective,” said Ward 4 DC Councilmember Janeese Lewis George. “Bold.…

Earlier this week, Wesley Williams, operations and policy officer for the DC Office of Campaign Finance, confirmed that his agency has opened an investigation into whether the relationship between Janeese Lewis George’s mayoral campaign,…

A diverse crowd of nearly 300 people squeezed into the auditorium at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library on Monday evening; it was a standing-room-only setting at the latest DC mayoral forum, one sponsored by The 51st, The…

It was a breathtaking revelation: In a clear violation of local ethics laws, DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson used government resources, including equipment and staff, as he engaged in prohibited political campaign activities in his office…

One of the more fascinating races in the June 16 Democratic primary may be the contest for DC Council chair. Incumbent Phil Mendelson is pitted against his former colleague and friend, Jack Evans, who represented Ward 2 for nearly three…

In DC, many people have asserted that the June primary will usher in a generational shift in the city’s political class. What does that really mean? Is it simply that several politicians who have been around for decades are finally leaving…

When DC for Democracy, a far-left-leaning local political advocacy group, held a virtual forum earlier this year, candidates for DC delegate repeatedly used the words “fight” and “statehood.” Were they simply tapping into a key policy…

There is no escaping this reality: The midterm elections are months away and even if the Democrats win the U.S. House of Representatives, as many predict, they won’t take control until January 2027. During the interim period, District…

Just as Mayor Muriel Bowser and the DC Council were ending their breakfast meeting earlier this month, at-large Councilmember Anita Bonds asked her how she intended to handle funding for the city’s Fair Elections Program — a…

Earlier this week, during a breakfast meeting with members of the DC Council, Mayor Muriel Bowser and senior managers of her administration reported on the dismal state of the District’s current and future finances, going into particular…