LOCAL

Mayoral hopefuls begin courting gay D.C. voters
Williams’ decision not to run triggers shake-up

Friday, October 07, 2005

D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams’ decision against running for a third term has opened the way for a major realignment among the city’s elected officials, and candidates for mayor and council chair are actively courting the gay vote.

With the city’s September 2006 Democratic primary now 11 months away, five Democrats have entered the mayoral race. Among them is Council Chair Linda Cropp, whose Council seat is also up for grabs next year.

Cropp’s decision to give up her Council seat to run for mayor has triggered a scramble among several of her colleagues on the Council — including Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, who is gay — to consider running for Cropp’s seat. Graham said he expects to make a decision on whether to run for the seat in the next few weeks.

Graham’s second term for his Ward 1 seat ends in 2006, forcing him to choose between running for a third term in Ward 1 or to seek the Council chair seat.

“A lot of gays would like to see Jim run for Council chair,” said gay Democratic activist Kurt Vorndran. “But they are worried he could lose his seat on the Council if he doesn’t win the at-large race, which will be very competitive.”

In addition to Cropp, four other candidates have emerged so far in the Democratic mayoral race. They include Ward 4 Councilmember Adrian Fenty, Ward 5 Councilmember Vincent Orange, lobbyist Michael Brown and business executive Marie C. Johns.

Seeking gay support

Fenty and Brown have been the most aggressive so far in seeking support from gay residents. The two began running unofficially for mayor late last year and formally announced their candidacies this summer.

Some political activists have urged gay D.C. Councilmember David Catania to enter the mayoral race. Catania has said he plans to seek re-election next year to his at-large seat and continue his role as chair of the Council’s Committee on Health, which oversees the city’s AIDS programs.

Last year, Catania dropped his Republican Party affiliation to become an independent in response to President Bush and the GOP leadership’s call for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

Gay Democratic activist and former Williams adviser Peter Rosenstein is serving as Fenty’s issues adviser. Rosenstein, who also writes occasional opinion columns for the Blade, said he believes Fenty has attracted the largest number of gay supporters and financial contributors among the mayoral candidates.

Among Fenty’s supporters are John Guggenmos, co-owner of the gay bars Halo and co-promoter of the Velvet Nation dance party; and Eric Little, owner of the gay bar JR.’s.

Fenty has attended gay events throughout the city during the past year, and Rosenstein predicted many of Williams’ gay supporters would soon join the Fenty campaign.

Brown has also attended many gay events and has provided both financial and volunteer support for such causes as the D.C. Coalition of Black Gays’ effort to open the upcoming Millions More civil rights march to black gay participation, said gay Democratic activist Phil Pannell. Pannell, one of Brown’s earliest backers from the gay community, said Brown has attracted large numbers of black gay supporters, including Coalition co-chair Sterling Washington.

“He isn’t limiting his outreach to any one group,” Pannell said. “He is gaining support throughout the city.”

Among Brown’s supporters is gay businessman Robert Siegel, who has led efforts to preserve the gay businesses slated to be displaced by the new baseball stadium next to the Anacostia River waterfront.

Pannell noted that Brown’s campaign manager, Rudolfo “Rudy” Fuentes, is gay and is believed to be the first openly gay campaign manager for a D.C. mayoral candidate.

Cropp, who entered the mayoral race last month, said she would reach out to Williams’ large group of gay supporters. Mark Johnson, Cropp’s openly gay Council press secretary, said Cropp’s gay support is “substantial but less visible” than gays supporting Fenty and Brown.

Christopher Murray, another gay Cropp staff member, who administers the Council’s Committee of the Whole, which Cropp chairs, is an example of how Cropp has appointed gays to important positions, Johnson said.

Vorndran, who is also supporting Cropp, said the Cropp campaign would soon announce a list of gay supporters and plans for Cropp’s campaign outreach to gays.

Mario Acosta, the Stein Club’s current vice president, said the club would not make an endorsement in the mayoral or Council races until sometime next year.

Orange chairs the Council’s committee that oversees the mayor’s Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Affairs. He has said he is reaching out to the gay community for support and plans to bring his campaign to gay events in the coming months.

Johns, a former executive with Verizon, the city’s main telephone service provider, is new to electoral politics and has little name recognition among voters, including gay voters.

She said she is committed to aggressively enforcing the city’s human rights law, which includes protection for gays, and has been an advocate for Verizon’s longstanding internal policy of non-discrimination based on sexual orientation. Johns said she also has been supportive of a gay employees group at Verizon.

Among her supporters, she said, are veteran D.C. gay attorney Riley Temple and gay activist and businessman Everett Hamilton, a ...

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