D.C.’s all-important Democratic primary is just a few days away on June 4 (and mail-in/early voting has already started). In a perfect world, you’d have read each and every one of City Paper’s riveting stories on the top races on the ballot throughout this election season. But in case you haven’t, we’ve tried to sum up everything you need to know about each one, as well as the wildest and weirdest tales from the campaign trail. Check back each day this week for a story on another race, and catch up on our previous coverage here.
The Ward 4 Council race had all the makings of a classic D.C. political drama a few months ago.
Just look at all the storylines at play for political junkies: Can Janeese Lewis George, the standard-bearer for D.C.’s left flank, repeat her 2020 success in her first reelection bid? How will Lewis George’s reformist tendencies fare in a political environment reshaped by rising crime rates? Will Lisa Gore, formerly a favorite of the progressive movement, win over enough disaffected voters with a tough-on-crime message to pull an upset? And will Mayor Muriel Bowser seek to strike back after Lewis George ousted her handpicked successor in her home ward?
Theoretically, that would be enough to fill the (virtual) pages of City Paper many times over. But the race has been decidedly devoid of drama over the past few months. Neither Gore nor lesser-known challenger Paul Johnson seems to have gotten much traction, according to many politicos around the ward and other measures of campaign success.
That’s not to say the race has been a snooze. Although they share similar stances on issues around transportation and housing, Gore, and to a lesser extent Johnson, have frequently attacked Lewis George over her positions on crime. This was, perhaps, predictable given the rumors surrounding Gore’s campaign before she officially launched it. She embraced much more progressive stances on policing when she ran in the at-large race in 2022, so she seemingly had no reason to run against Lewis George if she hadn’t had a change of heart. These days, Gore mostly mimics the mayor’s more moderate talking points on the topic.
The question is whether any of that will actually work. Lewis George has softened some of her stances on public safety compared to four years ago—for instance, she raised some eyebrows on the left by telling the Washington Post that she supports the enforcement of fare evasion penalties—but she has generally defended her record of pushing for more police accountability measures, even as anxiety about crime has risen. And she has frequently observed that crime has actually fallen over the first half of the year, making the issue a bit less salient than it might have been for voters a year ago at this time. Lewis George’s support of the “Secure DC” crime bill the Council just passed, even with some critiques about certain provisions, has further insulated her from these attacks.
Just look at the absence of Opportunity DC from this race as proof of this dynamic. The big business lobbying group closely tied to the Federal City Council launched an aggressive ad campaign last year against Lewis George focusing on crime; by the time they rolled out their endorsements last week, the group didn’t even mention the Ward 4 race. The same goes for the pro-charter Democrats for Education Reform, which got burned when it went after Lewis George four years ago. Even Bowser, who privately can’t stand her ward’s councilmember and has clashed with her on many public safety issues, has stayed mum. “I’m not endorsing any candidate but I do know who I’m going to vote for,” she said, coyly, in an interview with City Cast DC.
The rest of Bowser’s Green Team has not exactly funneled money into the race, either. Gore’s raised $16,570 from D.C. residents, as of the most recent campaign finance reports filed May 10; Lewis George has pulled in more than $41,600. The Post’s editorial board, predictably enough, weighed in for Gore over the weekend, but that might’ve come too late in the game for her to take advantage.
Johnson has been mostly a nonfactor in the race, raising $8,400 as of April 10 (he has not yet filed his most recent reports). Most of his complaints with Lewis George have been around constituent services, though the incumbent does have a pretty good reputation on that front. Perhaps his most notable moment of the campaign was when he landed on TV for getting carjacked while putting up signs; Johnson left the car running, and someone hopped in and drove off. Cops found the car a short time later. This is maybe not as silly a bit of campaign drama as Gore’s recent contention that Lewis George’s supporters are tearing down her signs when people have seen them falling down; but it’s close.
Other stories you might have missed
Will Tough-on-Crime Politics Work Against Janeese Lewis George?
Candidate Fast Facts
Janeese Lewis George
Title: Ward 4 councilmember
Neighborhood: Manor Park
Key endorsements: AFSCME District Council 20, D.C. for Democracy, Greater Greater Washington, Metro D.C. Democratic Socialists of America, SEIU 32BJ, Unite Here Local 25, Washington Teachers’ Union
Most interesting questionnaire answer: Lewis George told the Committee of 100 that she has concerns about using a regional sales tax to provide Metro with dedicated funding. Instead she prefers “a regional property tax increase on very high-value homes or a regional split-rate property tax for land located nearest to Metro stations.”
Lisa Gore
Title: ANC 3/4G chair, 2022 at-large candidate
Neighborhood: Hawthorne
Key endorsements: Washington Post, AFGE Locals 2725/2978
Most interesting questionnaire answer: Gore told the Washington Post that she supports “increasing both sworn officers and civilian personnel” to help the Metropolitan Police Department. In 2022, she told the Post that she didn’t think MPD needed any more officers.
Paul Johnson
Title: former ANC
Neighborhood: Petworth
Key endorsements: N/A
Most interesting questionnaire answer: Johnson was one of just a handful of candidates to tell the Post that he did not support D.C.’s $515 million deal with Monumental Sports to rehab Capital One Arena.