Council Hopeful's Car Is Set Afire

Henderson Refuses To Leave the Race

Kathy Henderson, a Ward 5 candidate for the D.C. Council, awoke Friday morning to find her car on fire. Her campaign signs also were removed from supporters' yards. She is not the only local activist who has been victimized. (By Rich Lipski -- The Washington Post)

D.C. Council candidate Kathy Henderson awoke early Friday to the loud crackling sound of her 1991 Mercury Capri burning out of control.

It was the second time someone had attacked her car, and it was a message that could not be ignored. The fire destroyed the car. Henderson, an advisory neighborhood commissioner, is seeking the Democratic nomination to the Ward 5 council seat.

"The flames were so illuminated and bright that they lit up my room," said Henderson, who lives in Carver Terrace in Northeast Washington. "It was scary. I felt awful."

The next day she found that her campaign signs had been removed from supporters' yards.

She is not the only local politician and activist who has been victimized.

"Even if you're caught up in the heat of political battle, I don't think another candidate would go up into people's yards," said Henderson, who has more than a dozen opponents for the nomination. "I do think it's someone who doesn't want me to be in the race and is trying to send me a none-to-subtle message that I need to cease and desist and move."

But she has no plans to do that. Henderson is a vocal and visible opponent of drug dealers in her neighborhood. She took D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey on a tour of the area. Although police and fire officials have told her the car fire was an act of arson, Henderson has chosen to ignore the message and vowed to continue her campaign and anti-crime efforts.

"I'm not going to get out of the race," she said. "Not only am I not going to get out of the race, but I'm going to redouble my efforts. . . . Why should I let a neighborhood terrorist win?"

D.C police spokesman Kenneth Bryson said Monday that the fire is being investigated as an arson case and that no one has been charged.

Henderson received support from the incumbent Ward 5 council member, Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D), who said he was disturbed that Henderson has been targeted again.

"I'm extremely concerned," Orange said, adding that running for political office in the District can be a hazardous undertaking. He gave $100 to Henderson to kick off a fund to help her get another car.

Orange, a candidate for mayor, said he can identify with Henderson: His campaign vehicle has been vandalized twice. He said the rear driver's side window was shot out this year, one day after he proposed banning BB guns in the District. Another time, a brick was thrown through the passenger-side rear window while the vehicle was parked in the busy U Street NW corridor, near the African American Civil War Memorial.

Henderson's car was first vandalized at her house last year, when the convertible top was slashed and someone put firecrackers in the gas tank, causing a small explosion. No arrests have been made, Henderson said.

Henderson campaigned for recently approved legislation that establishes criminal penalties for anyone threatening the life or property of ANC members. She pushed for the bill after learning that she was not the only activist being tormented for anti-crime efforts. Other advisory neighborhood commissioners also complained of receiving threats over the years.

Commissioners Robert V. Brannum (Ward 5) and Gladys Mack (Ward 6) said they feared that their political activities have endangered their lives. Brannum said his family went into hiding for a few days after he received a written death threat more than a decade ago. He was not an ANC commissioner at the time; he was president of the Bloomingdale Civic Association. Mack said her telephone lines were cut, her dog was blinded by a flying brick, and last year, a bullet was shot into her living room. Former Ward 6 commissioner Albrette "Gigi" Ransom said she stepped down nearly 10 years ago after losing 18 tires to slashings in eight months.

Despite those incidents, Gottlieb Simon, executive director of the Office on Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, said Monday that attacks on commissioners are not widespread.

Henderson moved to Carver Terrace, a neighborhood nicknamed Little Vietnam because of the violence there, in 1998 and ran for the ANC seat later that year. She worked for the D.C. government for six years until this past spring, when she resigned as a program analyst for the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services to run for the council seat Orange is vacating. The Hatch Act prohibits D.C. government employees from participating in partisan politics. ANC commissioner jobs are nonpartisan, unpaid positions.

Henderson said she believes her car was struck again because of her council campaign and continued efforts to rid her community of criminals.

"I was getting a lot of resistance from people invested in keeping the neighborhood the way it was," Henderson said. "A handful of thugs had just held the neighborhood hostage. They figured that I was the point person for this reemergence of the right to enjoy a safe neighborhood."