For more than a decade, the local AFL-CIO has backed D.C. Council member Harold Brazil. But this year, the city's preeminent labor organization bypassed the veteran Democrat and instead threw its support to his chief opponent, 33-year-old political newcomer Kwame Brown.
Brown also is outshining the at-large council member among local Democratic activists, winning endorsements in Wards 1 and 5 and a straw vote in Ward 4. Brown is even giving Brazil trouble on his home turf: In a vote last month, the challenger drew sufficient support among Ward 6 Democrats to deny Brazil an endorsement.
Council member Harold Brazil has lost out on some endorsements.
(Gerald Martineau - The Washington Post)
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"I think this city has reached a point where it has Harold Brazil fatigue," Joslyn N. Williams, president of the Metropolitan Washington Council of the AFL-CIO, said of the incumbent, who first won office in 1990. "There comes a time when you need new blood, new faces, new ideas. We just thought it was time for a change."
Change could be in the air. With less than a month until the District's Sept. 14 primary election, half of the six council members seeking reelection are facing serious opposition. In all three races, the challengers stand a fighting chance to win the Democratic nomination and effectively boot the incumbents out of office, according to political analysts.
In addition to Brazil, Ward 7 council member Kevin P. Chavous is battling a slew of challengers led by Vincent C. Gray, a former human services official who has raised more than $50,000 and won key endorsements. And Ward 8 council member Sandy Allen is trying to hold off a challenge from former mayor Marion Barry, among others.
The incumbents are, in general, dismissive of the threat.
"Every time I've run, there's been at least five or six people in the race. So this is not new to me," Allen said in an interview.
Said Brazil: "The voters are smart. They'll flirt around at the dance, but they're going to 'leave with the one that brung them.' "
But others sense the first rumblings of what could be a major shake-up on the 13-member council. As much of the city experiences an economic renaissance, some voters east of the Anacostia River, in Wards 7 and 8, are feeling left behind by the current leadership. Brazil, meanwhile, seems to have lost some luster after nearly 14 years in office. He also may be suffering from revelations this year that he used council staff members to assist in his private law practice and that a woman with whom he had a personal relationship was given a new city job and a raise.
"There's a great sense of restlessness with the D.C. electorate," said A. Scott Bolden, chairman of the D.C. Democratic State Committee. "They are very interested in better leadership, whether from the incumbent or the challenger. And that means every candidate will have to work harder for their votes."
This year's races are even more "spirited," Bolden said, because voters see legitimate challengers whose campaigns are better organized and financed than in years past.
"There are viable alternative candidates," Bolden said. "It will be interesting to see [what happens] because if there are changes with those three, it's going to represent a major paradigm shift on the D.C. Council."
Brazil, Chavous and Allen have raised more money than their opponents. But over the past decade, energetic challengers have repeatedly defeated better-known and better-funded incumbents. In 2000, for example, Adrian M. Fenty outcampaigned 21-year-veteran Charlene Drew Jarvis for her seat in Ward 4. This year, Fenty (D) did not draw a challenger.
When they first ran for office, Brazil, Chavous and Allen also danced onto the political stage as feisty underdogs. Chavous narrowly beat incumbent H.R. Crawford in 1992. Brazil ousted Nadine P. Winter from her Ward 6 seat in 1990. And Allen beat incumbent Eydie D. Whittington in 1996 after losing by a single vote in a special election in 1995.
