FBA Debate: Can­di­dates Exceed­ing Expectations

Over 60 peo­ple attended the Oct 30 FBA Debate which fea­tured can­di­dates for the two open At-Large Coun­cil seats. Those par­tic­i­pat­ing included Incum­bent Carol Schwartz, run­ning as “write in” Incumbent Kwame Brown, GOP can­di­date Patrick Mara, and Inde­pen­dent Mark Long.

Joy How­ell, FBA Pres­i­dent, presided over the evening, first intro­duc­ing Christina Cul­ver, Repub­li­can chal­lenger to Ward 2 Demo­c­rat incum­bent Jack Evans.

Cul­ver, a Kalo­rama res­i­dent and new­comer to local politics, shared her pri­or­i­ties. These included pre­serv­ing our neigh­bor­hoods and mak­ing the city more family-friendly by enhanc­ing pub­lic schools and fos­ter­ing safety and diver­sity, encour­ag­ing small busi­ness devel­op­ment by reduc­ing tax­a­tion and red tape, and end­ing the cul­ture of crony­ism and waste within Dis­trict government.

Evans returned to the FBA and fol­lowed Culver’s com­ments with his own, reiterating his long­time expe­ri­ence and con­tri­bu­tions to shoring up Dis­trict finances and ask­ing for our votes.

How­ell thanked Evans and Cul­ver for com­ing and then moved into the at-large can­di­date por­tion of the pro­gram. Writ­ten ques­tions from the audi­ence ranged from .can­di­date posi­tions on bud­get short­falls to rent pay­ments for the sta­dium, from afford­able and work­force hous­ing to GW con­tain­ment and pub­lic safety—with a spe­cific focus on com­mu­nity polic­ing. [The sen­si­tive mat­ter of the poorly han­dled trans­fer of Dis­trict 2’s Lt. Lan­ciano to Dis­trict 6 while he was on vaca­tion remained a highly charged sit­u­a­tion posed to these would-be and cur­rent pub­lic servants].

Carol Schwartz empha­sized the impor­tance of hav­ing “expe­ri­ence” on the Coun­cil where eight of the cur­rent 15 mem­bers are new. Schwartz’s expe­ri­ence in par­tic­u­lar, speaks to the soul of Foggy Bot­tom res­i­dents. She worked to save the White­hurst, to get reg­u­lar trash pickup, and voted against the GW $388 mil­lion rev­enue bond in 2000.

She has been a sta­bi­liz­ing force on the City Coun­cil and wants our vote to stay there to con­tinue work­ing on our behalf.

Patrick Mara quite can­didly shared how much he had learned about the issues sur­round­ing the home­less, and how the Fenty administration’s “Hous­ing First” is an impor­tant step to begin address­ing the home­less issue not just in Foggy Bot­tom but through­out DC.

Kwame Brown also weighed in on the homeless, emphasizing the impor­tance of hav­ing bun­dled sup­port ser­vices to allow the home­less to train for and become job­hold­ers. Brown shared one of his bright spots: the reopen­ing the Phelps, a voca­tional train­ing high school that he per­son­ally com­man­deered. [Phelps Archi­tec­ture, Con­struc­tion and Engi­neer­ing High School is the first pub­lic school in the coun­try where all three fields of archi­tec­ture, con­struc­tion and engi­neer­ing are com­bined in one school.]

A bat­tery of ques­tions and thought­ful answers filled the 90 min­utes allo­cated. There were also some spontaneous, personal com­ments by this group of can­di­dates. Vet­eran Carol Schwartz took the micro­phone and shared that can­di­dates there had already par­tic­i­pated in 24 of these neigh­bor­hood forums/debates for this elec­tion. “Mark (Long) was always the first per­son to arrive, and the last to leave.” She con­tin­ued, “he attended this FBA debate, even at the risk of miss­ing his own fundraiser tonight,” and stressed with as lit­tle fund­ing as he had, what a sac­ri­fice this was, and would we excuse him if he left.

The audi­ence read­ily con­ceded and Joy asked for any clos­ing remarks. Mark Long, whose open­ing state­ment pos­tured him as a com­mu­nity activist, an edu­ca­tion­ally and pro­fes­sion­ally accom­plished man, a 4th gen­er­a­tion Wash­ing­ton­ian with a quiet pas­sion for serv­ing the Dis­trict, eas­ily shifted to give tremen­dous acco­lades to Schwartz, Mara, and Kwame Brown, those can­di­dates he shared the dias with that night and the 23 other times. He shared how much he admired each one of them as they began to become acquainted through this process, and how much pas­sion each one brings to Dis­trict pol­i­tics. It appeared as though Long had com­pleted his remarks. Patrick Mara nudged and then whis­pered some­thing to Long, who read­dressed the audience, “I’d like your vote”.

The FBA Debate proved to unveil community-based pas­sion and respect among and for fel­low can­di­dates, whether Demo­c­rat or Repub­li­can. It is what the sys­tem and pol­i­tics is sup­posed to be about. Tak­ing each other’s ideas and build­ing upon them, reach­ing across the aisle for support. Politely acknowl­edg­ing dif­fer­ences on some things, but embrac­ing those things that are shared and push­ing them for­ward. If for no other rea­son than to expe­ri­ence this reas­sur­ing tes­ta­ment to the cal­iber of men and women com­ing for­ward to serve at a local level, the evening was a blaz­ing success.

Also present for the evening was Davis Kennedy, pub­lisher of THE CURRENT, weekly news­pa­pers. — S.T.