Sep 07, 2007  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

Two candidates, both straight, who have formed exploratory committees to challenge Republican Carol Schwartz for the at-large D.C. City Council seat she has held for 16 years are making aggressive outreaches for the gay vote.

Adam Clampitt, a public relations executive and Ward 6 community activist, and Dee Hunter, an attorney and Ward 1 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, both have launched their campaigns for the at-large seat more than 15 months before they expect to face Schwartz in the November 2008 general election.

The two said they believe Schwartz’s once solid support in the gay community is eroding and that she will be vulnerable in a presidential election year when D.C.’s overwhelmingly Democratic electorate will likely be angry at the outgoing Republican administration of President George W. Bush.

Schwartz’s gay supporters take strong exception to that assessment, saying she has a long record of support on gay rights and AIDS issues that dates to her years on the Washington school board back in the 1970s. They note that Democrats, including gay Democrats, have crossed party lines to vote for Schwartz in large numbers in past elections and have never linked her progressive politics with conservative Republicans in Congress or the White House.

Gay Washingtonians, observers say, are fortunate to have a plethora of elected officials and candidates that strongly support gay legislation. Gays in the city generally favor pro-gay incumbents, voting patterns show. That leaves newcomers with few ways to distinguish themselves among gay voters.

Clampitt recently changed his party registration from Democrat to independent and Hunter said he plans to do the same. The move allows the two to challenge Schwartz for one of two at-large Council seats reserved by the D.C. City Charter for non-majority party candidates. With Democrats holding 11 of the Council’s 13 seats, the seat held by Schwartz must go to a non-Democrat.

Clampitt and Hunter each said gay voters, along with the electorate as a whole, are looking for a change on the Council.

“People want a fresh face, someone energetic and someone with innovative solutions to the problems the city faces in 2008,” said Lane Hudson, Clampitt’s campaign manager, who is gay.

Clampitt, 32, a political newcomer, said he and Hudson have mapped out a high-energy campaign modeled after that of Mayor Adrian Fenty. Fenty’s 2006 mayoral campaign has been hailed as one of the best grassroots campaigns ever waged in the city.

A native Washingtonian, Clampitt has a master’s degree in public policy from the University of California in Los Angeles and works as an account executive with a public relations, consulting and political polling company in Washington. He is also a lieutenant in the Navy Reserves and took part, among other duties, in U.S. emergency relief efforts in Indonesia following the 2004 tsunami.

Among the issues he would champion on the Council, Clampitt said, is same-sex marriage for gays, something he and Hudson are quick to note that Schwartz has yet to support.

Schwartz, while supporting the expansion of the city’s domestic partnership law to include all the rights and benefits of marriage, has said she stops short of supporting gay marriage. She said she would also support a D.C. civil unions law for same-sex couples.

“Philosophically, I support gay marriage,” Clampitt said. “So I see nothing wrong with trying to exercise our own home rule in saying that we, as a city, support this … My inclination would be to go for it.”

Clampitt said he also supported Fenty’s public school reorganization plan, the smoking ban law approved by Council, and city financing for the new baseball stadium, measures that Schwartz opposed.

Hunter, a resident of Ward 1 for more than 20 years, is a graduate of Howard University Law School and operates a private law practice. He is also an elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in the ward, where he said he has won with the support of large numbers of gay voters who live in his ANC district.

In 2002, Hunter ran unsuccessfully against gay D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) in the Democratic primary. Hunter supported Graham’s re-election bid in 2006.

He has also worked as an aide to gay D.C. Councilmember David Catania (I-At-Large) and said, if elected, he would emulate Catania’s practice of carrying out thorough and tenacious oversight of the workings of city government agencies.

Similar to Clampitt, Hunter backs same-sex marriage recognition by the city and said ...