Council's Ward 6 Race Marked by Spirited Campaigning

A hard-fought partisan battle for control of Capitol Hill is taking place this month. It's over the Ward 6 seat on the D.C. Council.

Usually in the District, where nearly three-fourths of registered voters are Democrats, the decisive election is the Democratic primary in September. But Ward 6 voters have three choices on Tuesday's general election ballot: Democratic nominee Tommy Wells; Will Cobb, who is an independent; and Republican nominee Tony Williams.

No, not Mayor Anthony A. Williams, who will leave office at the end of the year after two terms. Tony Williams, 26, is a native Washingtonian and the son of journalist and social commentator Juan Williams.

Cobb, Wells and Williams have waged spirited campaigns that have intensified in the final week before Election Day.

Cobb calls himself an independent Democrat. He planned to run against Wells in the Sept. 12 primary, but he missed the deadline to submit nominating petitions and was disqualified from the ballot. So he taped over the party label on his yard signs, handed in another set of petitions -- early -- for the general election, and began walking all over the ward in a high-energy, door-to-door campaign.

Ward 6 spans the downtown enclave of Penn Quarter on its western edge and extends east to the Anacostia River, encompassing the H Street corridor, Rosedale, Barney Circle and Southwest. The precincts with the highest voter turnout are around Capitol Hill, which was the political base for Sharon Ambrose, the retiring Democratic incumbent.

Ambrose has endorsed Wells. Political analysts said he will probably win with the overwhelming Democratic majority in the ward and because voters remain wary of Cobb after his campaign misstep.

Cobb has campaigned aggressively in areas outside of the Hill, trying to build support among those who say Ambrose ignored them and in areas that showed less support for Wells in the primary. Cobb, 35, is a U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduate and management consultant. He moved to the Hill East neighborhood three years ago and has a thin résumé of community involvement. He said he decided to run for office after seeing many neighbors with young children pulling up stakes and moving to the suburbs.

The reason, he said, is dissatisfaction with D.C. public schools. "I have not heard one family say, 'I'm here because of the schools' or 'I'm staying because of the schools,' " Cobb said at a recent campaign forum at H Street Playhouse. "That's scary when you think about the thousands of families I've spoken with."

Improving public schools, a front-burner issue citywide, is a rallying cry for Cobb in criticizing his Democratic opponent, who has spent the past six years representing Wards 5 and 6 on the D.C. Board of Education.

Wells shied away from emphasizing his school board experience in the primary, promoting instead a campaign focused on "livable and walkable" communities. But lately Wells has been vigorously defending his record on education.

He often mentions his role in creating programs for 3-year-olds at four elementary schools in Ward 6 that has boosted enrollment of neighborhood families and helped spur community interest in the local schools.

Wells, 49, has a law degree and a masters in social work and has been involved in social service delivery in the city for decades. He contrasts his record of community service with those of his opponents.

Williams sets himself apart from Wells and Cobb on the issue of the government's role in uplifting disadvantaged communities. Earlier this week, Williams walked the streets of Sursum Corda and handed out fliers with his picture and this question at the top: Want one of your own on City Council?

"Tommy Wells and Will Cobb don't understand the needs of the Black Community," read the flier.

Nowhere on the paper does "Republican" appear. Williams's candidacy is notable not only because he shares the same name as the city's current Democratic mayor, but also because he is a black Republican.

At the H Street Playhouse, Wells asked Williams why he did not identify himself as member of the GOP on yard signs or in campaign literature. "I think it's no secret that in this city, the Republican Party does not have a large presence," Williams responded.

He has worked for former St. Paul mayor and now Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). In an interview, Williams noted that both the current D.C. mayor and his likely successor, council member Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), have borrowed ideas from Republican mayors such as Michael R. Bloomberg in New York.

Still, Williams agreed that he faced unlikely odds.