Oct 20, 2006  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

Gay D.C. Councilmember David Catania (I-At-Large) is reminding his supporters that they may vote for two candidates in a Council contest in which Catania is favored to win re-election to one of two at-large seats up for grabs on Nov. 7.

Although Catania has drawn strong support in all of the city’s eight wards, he received nearly 40,000 fewer votes than his at-large Council colleague, Democrat Phil Mendelson, in Catania’s successful 2002 re-election bid.

Experts in D.C. electoral politics say that did not necessarily happen because Catania, a former Republican, was less popular than Mendelson. Instead, political activists attribute Catania’s lower vote count in 2002 to the city’s overwhelmingly Democratic voters who likely cast their ballot for Democrat Mendelson and forgot or chose not to exercise their right to vote for a second at-large candidate.

“It’s our message number one that you get two votes,” said Catania campaign manager Ben Young.

As chair of the Council’s Committee on Health, Catania has been credited with pushing through reforms long sought by gay and AIDS activists in the city’s Administration for HIV Policy & Programs, which is an arm of the Department of Health.

The Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance gave Catania and Mendelson a rating of +10, the group’s highest possible score, for their records and positions on gay- and AIDS-related issues. Catania received the endorsement of the Washington Post in his last two election races in 1998 and 2002.

Catania withdrew from the Republican Party to become an independent in 2004 when President Bush endorsed and became a strong advocate for a federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

The city’s second openly gay Councilmember, Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), is running unopposed after winning the Democratic Party primary in September by a lopsided margin.


Stein Club issues
endorsements

In other election developments, the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest gay political group, endorsed former D.C. City Administrator Robert Bobb for president of the city’s Board of Education. At an Oct. 11 endorsement meeting, the club chose Bobb over Carolyn Graham, the school board’s vice president and, like Bobb, another former high level official in the administration of Mayor Anthony Williams.

The Stein Club also endorsed Lisa Raymond for a District III seat on the school board and backed Jacque Patterson for a District IV seat on the board. District III consists of Wards 5 and 6, and District IV includes Wards 7 and 8.

Bobb and another candidate for the school board presidency, Laurent Ross, each received a +6 rating from GLAA, with Graham receiving a +3.5 rating. In the District III contest, GLAA gave candidate Mac Borbely a +7.5 compared to the +5 rating for the Stein Club backed Raymond. District III candidates Stephan Baldi received a +3.5, Robert Brannum received a 0.5, and Mary Baird-Currie received a “0” for not returning a questionnaire which GLAA uses to assess candidates.

In District IV, the Stein-backed Patterson received a “0” GLAA rating, also for not returning the questionnaire. Candidates Jackie Pinckney Hackett and Jimmy Johnson also received a “0” for failing to return the questionnaire. Candidate Cardell Shelton received a +0.5 and candidate William Lockridge received a +1.5 in the District IV race.

The Stein Club, which backed D.C. Council Chair Linda Cropp in the mayoral primary in September, voted on Oct. 10 to endorse Ward 4 Councilmember Adrian Fenty, who won the mayoral primary in a landslide. Fenty is considered the odds-on favorite to win election as the city’s next mayor on Nov. 7. Fenty has been a strong supporter on gay and AIDS issues and won the vote in gay neighborhoods by large margins in the primary.


Shaw ANC race
is hotly contested

With few, if any, surprises expected in the mayoral and Council races, some gay activists have turned their attention to the hotly contested Advisory Neighborhood Commission race in the city’s Shaw neighborhood.

Openly gay incumbent Alex Padro and two openly gay challengers have joined D.C. attorney and civic activist Kevin Chapple in challenging controversial ANC 2C incumbent Leroy Thorpe and two of Thorpe’s allies on the ANC. Thorpe emerged as one of the lead opponents of BeBar, a gay bar that opened recently on 9th Street, N.W., near the D.C. Convention Center.

As chair of ANC 2C, Thorpe pushed through an ANC resolution informing the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board that the ANC opposed ...