summersgill

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The Stein endorsement of Mendelson is in play. There is some negotiating going on. We'll see how that works out. The short story is that mendelson got 67 of 112 votes. 60%, the number needed for endorsement is 67.2 votes. At the meeting, with these numbers openly discussed, Mendelson was declared to have won the endorsement. I had thought that the rounding went to his favor, but a fair argument can be made that he didn't get to 60%. The nitty-gritty of Roberts Rules will probably come into play on this since the challenge was not made at the meeting. A $1000 donation is at stake, as well as some other organizational support. The Ward races will be up for endorsement at their next meeting, August 14. GLAA will have their ratings meeting for all primary candidates on August 15. GLAA's process is based on the candidate questionnaire and record. It is not a matter campaign strength and organization, which is useful in its own way. I am a member of both Stein and GLAA. -Bob

Pretty much everyone running in DC is pro-choice and pro-glbt rights. GLBT people seem to be working with almost every candidate. Those probably aren't good gauges of candidate support in D.C. The Stein mayoral endorsement meeting had votes going to Cropp (who won the endorsement), Fenty, Johns, and Brown. Each of these candidates has well known gay leaders working on their campaigns (paid or otherwise). Only Orange and Milligan failed to garner any votes. Milligan is gay, but perhaps just too much of a long shot. I think he started way too late for an unknown. Orange has a weak record on gay rights on the Council and to the best of my knowledge hasn't tried to get support from the gay community. At the Stein endorsement meeting for At-Large candidates, Bolden got 35% of the vote to Mendelson's 60%. If memory serves, Bolden got 39 votes, Mendelson 67, and 6 votes for no endorsement. Bolden has claim to having supported gay rights on a few issues, but nothing as strong as Mendelson. Tommy Wells should get strong support from the glbt community. He'd have my vote if I lived in Ward 6. I can't say that I know much about Wilds. He seemed charming when I met him briefly last winter. Mark Lee was not the owner of Apex, but rather the Lizard Lounge, a Sunday evening dance party. Smokefree DC is not a gay group, of course, but does have a lot of GLBT support. Both Stein and GLAA supported the legislation as well as all the glbt health groups. The Restaurant Association of Metro Washington (RAMW) led the opposition, and they of course had gay supporters as well. -Bob

I doubt any one person could fix our schools. There are so many different problems and they are each quite complex. I do think that Janey has made a very good start on a number of issues. I met Graham when she was a Deputy Mayor. I was in an adversarial role, one department or other under her control was not doing something right (okay, the issues run together over the years ), but I remember not being impressed with her. Not a strong impression, and I certainly could be convinced. What do we know about her competition, so far that's Timothy L. Jenkins and Edward Henry Wolterbeek? http://www.dcboee.org/nws/news_frame.asp?f...20Releases&hl=t -Bob

I didn't say Cheh was going to win. I said that she is a terrific person who has done a number of things in support of human rights and political freedoms. She would make a very good councilmember. In addition to Rice, Gaull, and Strauss who also have very good credentials and would make good councilmembers, Goulet, Brooks, Gordon, and Wiss are also impressive. I think that all eight of these candidates would be good for the city and represent us well. I don't live in Ward 3, but I have met all of these candidates. Some I have known for several years. I have provided some advice, information, and contributions for a few of the candidates. Obviously I think some would be better than others, but I'd be happy to see any of the eight win. I have not met Conroy who is running as a Republican, so I won't say anything about her other than that she has a great disadvantage as a non-Democrat in this race. I haven't seen polling data in this race, and I don't have a sense of who is ahead. Is there polling data? I've only seen the polls for city wide races. I have been less impressed with the Ward 5 candidates. This is largely my lack of familiarity with them, but none have really stood out as first rate. To be fair, I live in Ward 1, and I am not being targetted by thier campaigns. Who do people like in Ward 5? -Bob I thought you said I was a super fag. One of my friends said that I was the most super fags she knows.

Perhaps more interesting, the letter to Smokefree DC isn't on http://jonathanrees.blogspot.com/ I've never hidden the fact that I am on the Smokefree DC steering committee. I worked on getting the law passed, lobbied, testified, went to way too many meetings, and finally got a bill passed 12-1. (Ok, ok, the final vote was 11-1 but Sharon Ambrose supported the bill and voted for it on first reading). I'm still on friendly terms with Carol Schwartz who fought the bill to the end. Rees, on the other hand, posted a few nasty comments against the bill until it looked like it would pass, then claimed to support it. I'll add his comments on that issue to the blog sometime soon. -Bob

Rees never heard of Tony Fisher? That's odd. Rees didn't tell me about the blog. A Rees watcher did. It is quite a sizable community. When "Tony Fisher" posted the announcement to themail, I responded to Gary Imhoff and Tony Fisher. "Ramon Rivera" responded. I'm sure that Gary didn't forward the email to Ramon. Ramon Rivera has been signing letters on Rees' behalf and then sending the pdfs from Rees' personal email account. There is no dispute that Ramon is one of the 83 names that I've collected so far in use by Rees. http://jonathanrees.blogspot.com/2006/07/m...me-of-rees.html As to the claim that Jonathan Rees does not discriminate, well the record is clear. Rees is the only candidate in the DC primary election that is running an explicitly anti-gay campaign. Rees also refuses to say where he stands on the issues. He has been telling groups who send questionnaires that he will not respond to their questions. An odd tactic. He claims that he won't share his opinions on the issues because the groups rate or endorse candidates, and he doesn't want endorsements or ratings. Of course groups like GLAA and Smokefree DC who plan to rate candidates also plan to put all of the candidate responses on their respective websites. Both groups will rate all candidates in all parties with or without questionnaire responses. Smokefree DC is a young group without a history of candiate ratings or endorsements, but GLAA has been at it since the School Board elections in the early 1970s. The First DC Council election (under the current Charter anyway) was in 1974. GLAA is at www.glaa.org for those who want to see their elections project and information and questionnaire. Check out just how radical we are. Usually the complaint is that we aren't radical enough. ;-) -Bob Summersgill

Yeah! Gays Win!