Day: November 8, 2006

Over in Ward 5 things just weren’t as exciting as Ward 2. But that’s fine, as elections bring a certain level of nastiness and ill feeling towards one’s fellow human being. Not to say it was all flowers and sunshine over here. Nope. The Eckington listserv got difficult to read with the Cleopatra Jones vs Kris Hammond fight.
There has been an upset a flurry of new people. Going in order, Anita Bonds replaces 5C01’s Jim Berry, who didn’t run this year so Anita went unopposed but I am curious of what the 35 write-ins were for. The contentious fight with accusations and possible sign defacement in 5C02 was won by newbie Kris Hammond. Hammond beat incumbent Cleopatra Jones* 197 votes to her 154. In 5C03 entrepreneur and owner of the hopefully soon to open (please for the love of G’d open) Big Bear Cafe , Stu Davenport won over Andrew C. Pollard 53.63% to Pollard’s 23.52%. There was a write in campaign, and the name of the write-inee escapes me, but Write-In got 22.86%. I’m a little fuzzy on any particulars of the 5C04 race with John T. Salatti beating incumbent Robert “Bob” Brannum, 357 votes to Brannum’s 144. If I remember correctly, wasn’t Brannum the guy who threw a wrench at the EC-12 project? Mary Farmer-Allen kept her 5C07. Yes, I skipped over 5C06 with 100% of the vote, all 37 of ’em, going to write ins. Anyway, there were 3 names on the ballot for 5C06 and Farmer-Allen got 48% of the vote over Michael Henderson’s 36%. A third person, stepped down from the race (I think) but her name still appeared and she got 61 or 15% of the vote. In the rest of 5C Barrie Daneker (5C07), Marshall R. Phillips, Sr (5C08) and Silas H. Grant, Jr. (5C09) ran unopposed.

*As far as I know, not related to 70s fictional crime fighter Cleopatra Jones.
**Small change, url for Big Bear was wrong, it has been changed.

Oh good, that’s now over with.
Well the main show for our little corner of DC was the 2C02 race between incumbent Leroy Thorpe and his challenger Kevin Chapple. According the the preliminary election results (unofficial count) put out by the DC Board of Elections Kevin won by 18 votes. 18 people made the difference, which is why I’m going to hold any enthusiasm for when the official results are in. In 2002, according to the Board’s election data, Thorpe was challenged by Randy Wells and it was also a close race. Wells got 211 votes (45.87%) of the vote, 31 votes short of Thorpe’s 242 (52.61%). So the neighborhood was divided, and it wasn’t like 1998 when Thorpe had 75% of the vote over Steve Donkin’s 22%. The neighborhood is changing, and if the Chapple victory is real, then that change has been reflected in the vote. The real fun will be when the 2010 census is done so we can see the actual change.
Alex Padro kept his 2C01 seat with 70.08% of the vote, or 253 votes over Mary Sutherland’s 102. It seems people are happy with Alex, and with a large majority of the vote I feel safe in saying that.
Also holding a majority was incumbent Doris Brooks with 291 votes over John Tinpe’s 126. I guess the people of 2C03 are happy with their leadership or very unwilling to try the unknown.
Babs Curtis had 138 votes over challenger Rich Rodgers’ 103. Thirty five people made a difference there.
So in 2C there are many of the same faces, except one (provided there aren’t a lot of absentee votes out there to change it). The Single Member District races tend not to get a lot of press because they are so small. The Washington Post has the Fenty results (big surprise) smack dab in the middle, and nothing, nothing about the SMD races anywhere in the paper, maybe it will appear in the Thursday District section. It was great that the Washington City Paper gave some ink, and I think that made a difference.
Over on the other side of New Jersey Ave NW, there was a huge upset. Newcomers all over the place. But I’ll give it its own post later.

Please leave your ignorant state and come to DC. Specifically, come join the diverse and (largely) welcoming community of Shaw. It’s a great location in DC, has good public transportation options, lots of opportunities to fix up a nice rowhouse and absolutely no rednecks.

Think about it.

I’m feeling icky and going to bed but before I do:
2c01 Alex Padro w 70%
2C02 kevin Chapple w 51% (still maybe a little too close)
2C03 Doris Brooks w 68%
2C04 Barbra Curtis w 55%
5C01 Anita Barnes w 90%
5C02 Kris Hammond w 54% (close)
5C03 Stu Big Bear Davenport w ‘open the g-dmn coffee shop 53%
5C04 John sallati w 69%
5C06 Mary Allen w 47%

Night night.