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LOU CHIBBARO J
Friday, July 18, 2008
Adam
Clampitt,
who
has
aggressively
courted
the
gay
vote
in
his
race
this
year
for
the
D.C.
Council
seat
held
by
Republican
Carol
Schwartz,
suspended
his
candidacy
Monday
and
endorsed
local
businessman
and
longtime
Democratic
Party
activist
Michael
Brown.
Clampitt
said
he
decided
to
back
Brown
after
determining
that
the
only
way
to
elect
an
“independent
voice”
to
the
at-large
Council
seat
was
to
unite
behind
a
single
candidate
capable
of
beating
Schwartz.
Schwartz
has
been
a
strong
supporter
of
gay
rights
and
AIDS
programs
in
the
nearly
16
years
she
has
served
on
the
Council.
Similar
to
Brown,
Schwartz
in
the
past
has
declined
to
support
legalizing
same-sex
marriage,
saying
she
favored
civil
unions
for
same-sex
couples.
Earlier
this
year,
Schwartz
announced
she
supports
same-sex
marriage
in
principle
and
would
not
oppose
a
same-sex
marriage
bill
if
it
were
to
come
before
the
Council.
Brown,
who
said
he
preferred
civil
unions
over
same-sex
marriage
when
he
was
a
candidate
for
mayor
in
2006,
said
his
views
have
also
evolved
on
the
issue.
In
a
statement
issued
Monday,
during
a
news
conference
where
Clampitt
endorsed
him,
Brown
said,
“I
too
believe
that
every
human
being
and
every
citizen
should
have
the
legal
right
to
marry
whomever
they
choose,
which
is
why
I,
like
Adam,
like
Marion
Barry
and
so
many
others
support
full
marriage
equality
for
gays
and
lesbians
in
the
District
of
Columbia.”
Like
Clampitt,
Brown
dropped
his
Democratic
Party
registration
to
enable
him
to
run
for
the
at-large
Council
seat
in
the
November
general
election
as
an
independent.
Under
the
D.C.
City
Charter,
which
Congress
wrote
in
the
early
1970s,
two
of
the
City
Council’s
13
seats,
including
the
one
held
by
Schwartz,
must
be
held
by
someone
who
is
not
a
member
of
the
city’s
“majority
party.”
Since
Democrats
have
always
been
the
majority
party
in
D.C.,
the
charter
effectively
prohibits
the
two,
set-aside
Council
seats
from
going
to
a
Democrat.
Traditionally,
city
Democrats
have
switched
their
party
affiliation
to
that
of
an
independent
to
run
for
the
“non-Democratic”
seats.
Gay
D.C.
Council
member
David
Catania
(I-At-Large)
won
election
to
the
other
non-Democratic
seat
as
a
Republican
and
later
became
an
independent.
Democrat-turned-independent
Ward
1
Advisory
Neighborhood
Commissioner
Dee
Hunter
is
also
running
for
the
seat
held
by
Schwartz.
However,
political
pundits
have
speculated
that
Hunter
may
not
have
sufficient
support
to
obtain
the
2,000
petition
signatures
needed
by
late
August
to
be
placed
on
the
ballot.
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