D.C. COUNCIL ELECTIONS
Board Certifies Win Of Michael Brown
The GOP faulted Brown's run as an independent for an at-large seat.
(Ricky Carioti - Twp)
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics certified the Nov. 4 general election yesterday, including the election of Michael Brown as an independent at-large member of the D.C. Council.
The three board members voted unanimously for certification over the objections of the District's Republican Party, which has argued that Brown's candidacy violates a D.C. law prohibiting four at-large members from all belonging to the majority party.
Brown, the party argues, is not a true independent but a Democrat in an overwhelmingly Democratic city.
According to the board, 62 percent of registered voters, or 266,871 residents, cast ballots in the race that included the historic election of President-elect Barack Obama. The turnout is second only to 1984, when there was a 77 percent turnout, said Dan Murphy, board spokesman.
"We are disappointed but not surprised about the board certification of Michael Brown," said Paul Craney, executive director of the local GOP, which is considering pressing ahead to the D.C. Court of Appeals.
"Michael Brown ran as a Democratic, was a Democrat and is a Democrat," Craney said. "He only changed his party affiliation to run for office, but he is still a Democrat, and District law states that not more than three at-large members may be affiliated with the same party, and that includes the chairman of the D.C. Council."
Murphy said the board had considered the Republicans' challenge "and determined that Mr. Brown was eligible to run for office as an independent."
"My voter registration card says that I am independent, my petition says that I am independent, but my heart and values rest in the democratic principles that this country was founded on," Brown said yesterday.
"There have been several examples nationally and locally in my situation," Brown said, "from Sen. Joseph Lieberman to council member Carol Schwartz, who ran as an independent write-in candidate after she was defeated in the September primary as a Republican."
D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, who endorsed Brown, said, "I think that Michael Brown is clearly an independent in the District, regardless of his history and past ideology, but the more fundamental question is, why should we have such a rule in the first place?"
