Mayor Anthony A. Williams, stung by a voter revolt east of the Anacostia River that ousted three D.C. Council incumbents, said yesterday that his administration must do a better job of communicating its achievements and reaching out to residents who feel shut out of the city's economic revival.
Williams (D) rejected the notion that Tuesday's election represents a condemnation of his leadership during the past six years. But the mayor said he will reexamine his agenda in light of what he described as an outpouring of "frustration" from the city's eastern wards, paying particular attention to policies regarding affordable housing, minority-owned businesses and the distribution of city jobs to city residents.
"Clearly, there is a message being sent here," D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams said of the votes.
(Jay Westcott -- The Washington Post)
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"I think it'd be a mistake to just extrapolate grandly and say that this is a total, overwhelming rejection of the direction of the city. I think that's wrong," Williams told reporters during his weekly news conference. "But I also think it would be myopic and stupid and idiotic, certainly on my part, to just say, 'Oh, all we need to do is just adjust the drapes and the air conditioning.' Clearly, there is a message being sent here."
One day after voters dropped their bombshell on City Hall, Williams and other city leaders were trying to decipher that message. Some, including the mayor, said incumbents citywide should take the election results as a wake-up call from the disgruntled and the dispossessed. Others, such as D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D-At Large), argue that voters are simply displeased with the performance of individual politicians who were criticized for treating public service as a part-time job.
While they debated the election's political implications, the surviving incumbents began jockeying for position on a council with major committee posts suddenly up for grabs. Meanwhile, the most well-known of the Democratic primary winners, former mayor Marion Barry, plunged directly into the fray, declaring that, if elected to the council, any attempt to use taxpayer funds to pay for a Major League Baseball stadium would be done "over my dead body."
"Clearly, it's a new day," council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5) said as he hurried into his office shortly after noon. "There's going to be a lot of discussion about how we can become a cohesive government again."
Tuesday's election marked the second time in six years District voters have turned out three members of the 13-member council. This time, the mayor and others said, the shake-up seems to signal broad dissatisfaction, particularly in the largely African American communities east of the Anacostia River where rates of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment remain high.
Two of Tuesday's losers in the Democratic primary represented those communities. In Ward 7, incumbent Kevin P. Chavous lost to Vincent C. Gray, former director of the Department of Human Services. And in Ward 8, Barry, a charismatic populist with folk-hero status, crushed incumbent Sandy Allen.
In the third race, Kwame R. Brown, a former Clinton administration Commerce Department official who had never before sought elected office, scored a resounding victory over Harold Brazil, who had been serving in his citywide post since 1996. Brown, who lives in the Hillcrest neighborhood in Ward 7, would be the first person living east of the Anacostia to be elected citywide.
All three men will face Republican or Statehood Green Party opponents Nov. 2. But in the District, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 10 to 1, the Democratic nominee usually prevails in the general election.
As they savored their victories yesterday, the three candidates vowed that help will soon be on the way for average families disgusted with the state of D.C. public schools and troubled by the skyrocketing cost of housing.
Brown, 33, said his priority would be passing legislation to force housing developers to set aside a quarter of new units for low- and middle-income buyers. Barry, 68, said he would propose a bill to guarantee summer jobs for every youth in the District. And Gray, 61, said he wants to improve health care for the poor and increase the number of vocational education programs throughout the city.
Of Barry and Brown, Gray said: "We have an opportunity to work together and talk about the needs of East Washington, instead of Wards 7 and 8, because the needs are very similar."
While the winners plotted a new trajectory for city policy, some incumbents seemed genuinely mystified by the upheaval. Two years ago, no incumbents were defeated, a fact that might have left many city officials feeling complacent, said council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large).
