Intellectually Dishonest At-Large Democrats

Democrats running as Independents

A majority of the At-Large Candidates running for DC Council in 2020 are Democrats who avoided their party’s primary election.

The DC Home Rule Act states the following:

“…not more than two of the at-large members (excluding the Chairman) shall be nominated by the same political party.

In this year’s general election, 12 of the 19 remaining “Independent” candidates have run as Democrats in the past, have worked for other Democrats, or have financially supported other Democratic candidates. Essentially, their victory would take the At-Large spot from a candidate from a DC registered party (Republican, Libertarian, Statehood Green) and give it to another Democrat, violating the spirit of the DC Home Rule Act and suppressing a voice from a minority party.

By visiting the candidate’s websites, checking Board of Election records, FEC records, and other open-source sites, I discovered that some candidates proudly display their Democratic affiliation, while others hide it. Here’s a chart of my results:

CandidateDetails on party affiliation
Vincent Orange Ran as Democrat in 2016 against Robert White, former DC National Committeeman
Ed LazereRan as Democrat for Chair of Council in 2018
Marcus GoodmanPresident of DC Young Democrats
Christina HendersonWorks for Sen. Schumer (D-NY), former volunteer for Hillary Clinton
Franklin GarciaFormerly Worked for Hillary Clinton
Markus BatchelorFormer VP of Ward 8 Democrats
Eric RogersCampaign manager for CM Mendelson (D), worked for Democrats on DC Council
Monica PalacioCalls herself “Independent Democrat” on website
Mario CristaldoCalls himself “Independent Democrat” on website
Claudia BarraganFormer policy analyst for CM Trayon White (D)
Will MerrifieldDonated to Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard
Alex PadroDonated to Joe Biden
*can I call myself an “Independent Republican”?

The candidates who didn’t have obvious Democratic affiliation are Chandler Jayaraman, Calvin Gurley, Kathy Henderson, A’Shia Howard, Jeanne Lewis, Michelangelo “Dr. Mic” Scruggs, and Keith Silver.

The candidates who are nominated by a real DC political party are:

Registered PartyCandidate
DemocratRobert White
RepublicanMarya Pickering
LibertarianJoe Bishop-Henchman
Statehood GreenAnn C. Wilcox