Since launching his bid to reclaim the D.C. Council seat he gave up under pressure in January, Democrat Jack Evans has been scolded by former constituents and abandoned by longtime allies. A former council colleague said no when Evans asked for a donation.
“People cussed me out. People walked around me,” said Trantham, a neighborhood commissioner in Southeast Washington. “I’ve been abused verbally, disrespected and told shame on me.”
But friends and associates say Evans is feeling more confident after submitting hundreds of signatures Wednesday to qualify for the Democratic primary ballot in June and is preparing for his first public appearance — at a candidate forum Thursday — since announcing his comeback bid.
“He got a good taste of what it’s going to be like going door-to-door. Because people say, ‘Oh, you need to get out,’ ” said one associate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. “He doesn’t want to be a lobbyist or practice law. This is all he wants to do, so he’s going to try to hang on.”
In January, Evans gave up the Ward 2 seat he held for 29 years, as his colleagues prepared to expel him for repeated ethics violations involving his private consulting work for businesses with interests before city government.
Just 10 days later, he filed to reclaim the seat in the June primary and in the special election to complete his term. He faces seven Democrats and a Republican.
On Wednesday, Evans gave his first interviews to news outlets since resigning. He told DCist, “A week ago people thought Joe Biden was dead in the water, so I mean, politics is a funny business, you know?”
He declined to speak with The Washington Post.
Evans skipped a candidate forum hosted by the Sierra Club in February, has not promoted his campaign on social media and did not make his traditional appearance at a popular Groundhog Day event — where critics displayed a large sign denouncing him as corrupt.
“A damaged politician going into the election wants there to be as little news as possible because it reminds people you are embattled,” said Chuck Thies, a political operative who has informally advised Evans.
Instead, Evans and supporters who remain loyal have been working to collect signatures and small donations under the city’s new public financing program, according to interviews with activists in Ward 2, operatives and Evans’s rivals. Evans personally collected signatures outside grocery stores, civic association meetings and farmers markets, and by going door-to-door, according to multiple people who have spotted him.
Leroy Thorpe, a Shaw community activist close to Evans who volunteered to collect signatures, said he saw a racial divide in support for the lawmaker’s comeback bid.
“Couple of whites were a little angry, and some said they would support him but didn’t want to sign,” Thorpe said. “Black people have no problem signing.”
That lines up with a poll conducted by The Post in November before Evans resigned. It found that most voters disapproved of Evans, but black residents were more willing to be forgiving.
MaryEva Candon, a longtime Democratic activist and friend of Evans’s, said he will focus on asking voters for forgiveness and reminding them of his accomplishments — including securing money for parks and helping to pull the city back from the brink of bankruptcy.
“Even people who don’t intend to vote for him don’t deny all his accomplishments for the ward,” Candon said. “He’s going to talk to people and say that he made a mistake and ‘Please, I hope you can trust me again.’ ”
In a Feb. 7 fundraising letter obtained by The Post, Evans asked supporters for a second chance.
“I recognize that I have personally tarnished my legacy of public service,” Evans wrote. “I also recognize that D.C. residents are a generous and redemptive citizenry and extend second chances. . . . I would greatly appreciate an opportunity to redeem myself in the eyes of the voters and my colleagues on the D.C. Council, and make amends for my mistakes.”
Yvette M. Alexander, a former council member, is not in a mood to be forgiving. She said that Evans called her to ask for a donation but that she declined.
“The friend in me most certainly would give. But the council member in me would be a little torn,” Alexander said. “Not that we don’t like Jack and appreciate his service, but what are the consequences for what you did?”
Evans has also lost longtime supporters in the D.C. business and LGBTQ communities.
The Gay and Lesbian Activist Alliance declined to include him while scoring candidates, citing his ethics troubles despite his longtime support for LGBTQ rights. Lobbyist David Julyan encouraged executives and fellow lawyers to back Patrick Kennedy, a 28-year-old neighborhood commissioner from Foggy Bottom who chaired Evans’s 2016 campaign but now is running against him — and to his left.
Evans “continues to be a friend, but he is not going to return to the council and supporting his effort will bring confusion and likely ensure a far-uber progressive will take the seat,” Julyan wrote in a Feb. 18 email to business advocates obtained by The Post and first reported by the D.C. Line.
David Catania, a former council member who lobbies for business interests, held a fundraiser and meet-and-greet for Kennedy at his lobbying offices Tuesday morning.
“The business community, like everybody else, is done with Jack,” Kennedy said. “I have support from people who are democratic socialists, who are in the business community and LGBTQ community, and education activists.”
Evans is to appear with his primary opponents for the first time at a forum Thursday evening at Foundry United Methodist Church, which he has attended for years.
With three months until primary day, he also faces the prospect of new developments in the various ethics scandals surrounding him.
Federal authorities who have issued subpoenas related to Evans and searched his home have not charged him with a crime, but they have not said whether the case is closed. The city ethics board has reactivated a case against Evans that was halted because of the federal probe.
Tom Lindenfeld, a political strategist in the District, said D.C. voters are willing to be forgiving — but perhaps not so quickly.
He cited the example of Marion Barry, who failed to win a 1990 council election after his conviction on drug charges but returned to the mayor’s office and the council after his release from prison.
“There’s a cooling-off period that’s necessary,” said Lindenfeld, who himself returned to mainstream politics after pleading guilty to a political corruption charge in 2014. “Even Marion tried it too early and lost, and that’s somebody who people thought was unbeatable.”