Sep 05, 2008  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR  | COMMENTS     

D.C. Council members Carol Schwartz (R-At-Large) and Jack Evans (D-Ward), who have strong records of support for the gay community, are facing their strongest opposition ever in the city’s Sept. 9 primary, and the local gay Republican and gay Democratic groups are urging their members and supporters to go to bat for the two veteran Council members.

Officials with the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club and Log Cabin Republicans of D.C. have reiterated their longstanding assessment that nearly all candidates running for public office in the District who have any chance of getting elected have good-to-excellent positions and records on both gay and transgender related issues.

Mario Acosta-Velez, president of the Stein Club, has joined other local activists in noting that gays in D.C., in marked contrast to other parts of the country, have had an embarrassment of riches concerning the degree of strong support on gay and transgender issues from Washington’s local elected officials.

While this has ensured that the local city government — from the mayor to the Council — has been friendly to the gay and trans communities, local activists say they sometimes find themselves in the awkward position of having to choose among friends when pro-gay candidates run against each other.

In the case of Evans, who represents neighborhoods with a high concentration of gay residents, such as Dupont Circle and Logan Circle, the Stein Club voted to give its endorsement to Evans, even though his challenger, attorney and community activist Cary Silverman, has backed gay rights related efforts and supports virtually all of the Stein Club’s positions related to gay rights and AIDS.

“We appreciate the fact that so many of the candidates are good on our issues, but in the case of Jack Evans, the matter was simple because he has been a strong ally of this community for so many years,” Acosta-Velez said after one of the club’s endorsement meetings earlier this year.

Schwartz, who has received strong support from gay voters in past elections, faces a far different situation from Evans, who is running against Silverman in the city’s Democratic primary. She is competing against challenger Patrick Mara in the city’s Republican primary, where her fate will be decided by Republican voters, who make up just 7 percent of the city’s registered voters.
In the past, Schwartz faced little or no serious opposition in Republican primaries. She then relied upon crossover Democratic voters, many of whom were gay voters, to help her win in the November general elections.

Log Cabin Republicans of D.C. and the D.C. Republican Committee, which has a number of gay GOP members, have endorsed Schwartz. But Mara, a political newcomer, has received the endorsement of a number of influential business groups who have criticized
Schwartz for backing what they say are anti-business measures. Schwartz disputes those claims, saying she has long been a fiscal conservative who has helped reign in what she calls the city’s tendency to overspend and overtax its residents.

Schwartz faced a setback on Wednesday when the Washington Post endorsed Mara, a development that startled some political observers. Post endorsements often have influenced voters in close races, according to local political observers.

Local activists took notice this week when longtime gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein, who worked on Mayor Adrian Fenty’s campaign, endorsed Silverman over Evans.

But Evans has received the endorsement of most of the city’s gay Democratic leaders, along with gays involved in Ward 2 civic associations and neighborhood groups.

“Mr. Silverman likes to claim he has the support of people in the neighborhoods, but I can tell you that Jack Evans has far more support in the neighborhoods,” said Alexander Padro, a gay Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner.

Gay candidate faces uphill race

In other races in the Sept. 9 primary, longtime gay Democratic activist Phil Pannell is challenging incumbent Paul Strauss in the city-wide race for shadow senator. Pannell has attracted support from gay and civic activists who believe Strauss and other city officials haven’t been aggressive enough in pushing for congressional voting rights for the city.

Local gay groups have noted that Congress on several occasions has stepped in to overturn or block gay-related bills passed by the D.C. Council. The Stein Club and the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance have said they give high priority to the city’s voting rights efforts, in part because gays have been the target of anti-gay lawmakers in Congress.

Strauss disputes Pannell’s charge that he hasn’t been aggressive enough in pushing for D.C. voting representation, saying he regularly lobbies Congress for a pending bill that would give Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) the ...