By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 2, 2006

The D.C. Republican Committee is calling this year's slate of candidates for the District general election the strongest ever.

The lineup for mayor, an at-large council seat and two ward D.C. Council seats lacks the party's most popular and successful Republicans -- council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), who does not have to run this year, and council member David A. Catania (I-At Large), who is running as an independent after leaving the party in 2004.

But for the first time, there are viable candidates for four seats and the party has a chance to make inroads in the wards, said Bob Kabel, chairman of the local committee. "We have really solid candidates running for several positions," he said.

David W. Kranich, a real estate agent, is running for mayor against Adrian M. Fenty (D), and Marcus Skelton, a security systems specialist, is vying for the at-large seat against Democratic incumbent Phil Mendelson (At Large). Republicans Theresa Conroy and Antonio "Tony" Williams are challenging Democrats in the Ward 3 and Ward 6 races, respectively.

Williams has been included on a list of black Republicans who are being tapped by the national GOP as an opportunity to draw blacks to the party, said Tara Wall, director of outreach for the national party and senior adviser to party Chairman Ken Mehlman.

Mehlman attended a fundraiser last week for Williams. The event raised only $5,000, Williams said. But local party leaders called the event unprecedented for its national involvement.

Wall said Mehlman's appearance is part of his efforts to get more blacks into the party. "This chairman is very aggressive about African American outreach," she said, noting his speeches to members of the NAACP and Urban League.

The candidacies of Republicans in predominantly black communities, like the District, are the party's way of chipping away at the Democrats' dominance in urban centers, she said.

"It's a long-term investment," Wall said. "It's not going to happen overnight."

In the District, the GOP has long suffered in the shadow of the Democratic Party, which can claim 74 percent of registered voters in the District.

"I was originally a Democrat. I was born a Democrat," said Williams, 26, who left his job working for Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) to run for office. "At least in D.C., if you're black, you're a Democrat."

Williams said he began to question the Democrats' reign in the District and the city's fiscal policies. "They talk about affordable housing, but it was a Democratic mayor and a Democratic council that was responsible for the loss of our affordable housing."

He said he became an independent and then a Republican.

Skelton, who is also black, described a similar transformation from independent to Republican and questioning the city's Democratic leadership. "It would be funny for the Republicans to be the party of reform in D.C.," said Skelton, 26, as he knocked on doors in Deanwood last week.

The slate is rounded out by Kranich, 34, who said he sees this election as a chance for the Republicans to prove that they can be competitive, and Conroy, 54,who barged her way into all-Democratic debates during the primary.

Improving public schools is a top issue for the entire slate with Kranich and Skelton advocating a mayoral takeover.

In the Ward 3 race, Conroy says on her Web site that she will fight massive development in Ward 3 and will be a full-time council member -- two swipes at Democratic front-runner Mary M. Cheh, 56, who says that she believes in "smart growth" around Metro stations and that she will remain in her job as a George Washington University law professor.

In Ward 6, Williams is pushing more community involvement by promising to establish a 24-hour hotline and monthly meetings.