March 12th, 2014
I pay almost no attention to District politics, but Galley Friend X, who does, sends the following gleeful note:
The best political story of the year started yesterday, and it has nothing to do with Congress or the President. DC Councilman David Catania announced that he’s running for mayor.In case you guys don’t follow this, Catania is the openly gay councilman, who’s been an at-large member of the Council since 1998. He used to be a Republican, but since 2004 he’s been an independent.
Catania throws two major curve balls into DC politics:First, he’s running as an Independent in the general election. Which means that this time, the “real” election isn’t the Dem primary. The Dem nominee — be it Mayor Gray or anyone else — is actually going to have to win a general election.
Second, and much more importantly, Catania’s run explodes the entire DC political equilibrium. White liberals are going to support Catania, while urban blacks are going to support Mayor Gray (or whichever black person gets the Dem nomination).
So Catania versus Gray basically detonates every political fault-line in DC:
— White versus Black
— Elite versus Urban
— Reform versus Corruption— NW (Dupont Circle) versus Ward 7 (the East)
— Rich versus Poor— Gay versus Straight
The race angle may well be the most explosive: keep in mind all of the hand-wringing since 2011 as African-Americans lose their majority status in Washington: see, e.g., NYT, Wash Post, City Paper, NPR, and NYT (again). CNN did an entire story last December about how the “Chocolate City” might get a white mayor — and that was even before the possible white mayor they had in mind was Catania.
You can bet that the Post will throw in with Catania, most likely saying that he’s a “reform” candidate who will clean up the DC political swamp. And that means they’ll actually start cracking down seriously on Gray’s corruption scandals.Rich white gay guy versus Urban black straight guy? This is the liberal political equivalent of the Hunger Games.
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Excellent. Let the Games begin.
ZeeWulf March 17, 2014 at 12:11 pm
May the odds be never in their favor.