As of Friday morning, 124,641 of you have already cast your ballot—about 2/3 by slipping it into a dropbox and the rest by USPS. That’s 40% of the total votes cast from 2016. DC is well on its way to historic turnout! Don’t forget to track your mail ballot to make sure it was received.
If you haven’t received your mail-in ballot, need to register, or would just prefer to vote in person, early voting starts this Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 8:30am. I’ll be voting in person at Raymond Recreation Center in Ward 4 first thing Tuesday (because our cat marked up my mail ballot, woops).
With the last day to vote less than two weeks away, the local DC press have turned their attention to this year’s races. Here are some of the more interesting reads:
Finally, I wanted to invite you to join me later THIS afternoon, Saturday at 3pm, for a virtual Get Out the Vote Rally featuring Janeese Lewis George, Karl Racine, Elissa Silverman, Ed Lazere, and more. If you want to hear their progressive vision for the city, RSVP here.
As always, thanks for reading! Please share Dear District, and especially these articles I’ve linked, with friends and neighbors who might need help filling out their ballot. Feel free to get in touch if you have questions about voting.
—Dan
Dear District is an independent project of me, Dan Essrow. I’m a designer, writer, and doer of democracy living in DC’s Ward 1.
(Disclosure: I do paid design work for Ed Lazere and Janeese Lewis George. I’m proud to work for them because they are good people with good politics.)
There’s a fall crisp in the air and ballot drop boxes are popping up all over the city. It’s time to make a plan and vote EARLY. Here’s everything you need to know:
How to Cast Your Ballot
If you are a registered voter in DC, you hopefully received your mail-in ballot last week. You can check your registration status here and track your ballot here. To vote by mail, simply fill out your ballot (don’t forget the back!) and return it one of these ways:
Place it in a secure drop box starting Monday, October 5 (Locations)
Return it to any Early Voting Center starting October 27 (Locations)
Return it to any Election Day Voting Center on Nov 3 (Locations)
If you didn’t receive a mail-in ballot or would rather vote in person, make a plan to do so EARLY!! Early voting in the June 2020 Primary was extremely sparse, but the lines on Election Day lasted for HOURS. In-person voting starts Oct. 27 and will be open through Election Day Nov 3. Here’s a map of Early Voting and Election Day Vote Centers. You can vote at any Voting Center regardless of where you live.
See more details about voting in the DC Voter Guide, or from the DC Board of Elections. And feel free to shoot me an email if you have a question. The most important thing is to have a plan and vote EARLY.
#2 Vote: Robert White or Write-in “Fair Elections”
This is the marquee race on the local ballot this year. First, some background on the seat itself: you get TWO votes for this race, and the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, will be elected to the Council. One of the two seats is generally won by a Democrat, while the other—per DC’s Home Rule Charter—must be reserved for the non-majority party. Robert White, Jr. won an uncontested Primary in June to appear on the ballot as the only Democrat. The remaining 23 (!) candidates are mostly Independents, many of whom changed their party ID from Democrat to Independent to run for this seat.
Given that Robert White is an incumbent and the only Democrat on the ballot in this citywide race, he is extremely likely to be the #1 vote-getter and win reelection. In effect, the remaining candidates are competing against each other for the #2 slot.
You get two votes, but make sure to use them strategically. If you vote for two competitive candidates who aren’t Robert White, your vote may effectively cancel itself out because you would be voting for candidates who are competing against each other. If you strongly prefer one candidate, I would recommend voting for that candidate only OR voting for that candidate + Robert White OR voting for that candidate + a candidate with good politics but little chance to win (like Markus Batchelor or Will Merrifield).
If you’d like to get a better sense of the full field of candidates, how much grassroots support they have, and who has endorsed them, check out the DC Voter Guide.
Ed is the consensus progressive candidate in this race, having been endorsed by Attorney General Karl Racine, Ward 4’s Janeese Lewis George, At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman, and the lion’s share of DC’s unions and grassroots progressive organizations. Ed is a budget expert and the founding Executive Director of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, where he has studied racial and economic inequality in DC for 20 years. Ed has helped lead citywide coalitions to raise the minimum wage, implement Paid Family Leave, and target affordable housing programs to those most at-risk of being pushed out of the city. I will be enthusiastically voting for Ed because I am inspired by his call for DC to double its investment in affordable housing, divest from policing in favor of community supports, and to use our budget and tax code to serve those who have been most harmed by COVID and the decades of structural inequality that preceded it.
(Disclosure: I do paid design work for Ed. I’m proud to work for him because he is a good person with good politics.)
#2 Vote: Robert White or Write-in “Fair Elections”
I personally will not be voting for Robert White because I am disappointed he opted out of DC’s public financing system. Candidates who use DC’s Fair Elections program have contributions capped at $100 (instead of the usual $1,000), and can’t accept corporate or PAC contributions. Donations from DC residents are then matched 5-to-1 by public dollars. As candidate Markus Batchelor put it, “It's a better investment for the city to pay for a four month campaign than to get robbed over the next four years.” Robert White has funded his campaign the old-fashioned way: his average contribution is $307, 22% of his money is from corporations and PACs, and only 6% is from DC residents giving $100 or less. It is likely White will run for Mayor in 2022, so the way he chooses to fund his campaign matters. Fundraising aside, White has been a relatively reliable progressive vote on the Council and has led on issues of expanding voting rights and increasing funding for childcare and public housing repairs.
Brooke Pinto unexpectedly won the crowded Democratic Primary for the Ward 2 Council seat in early June. Two weeks later, she went on to win the Special Election to fill the remainder of the term vacated by disgraced ex-Councilmember Jack Evans. Pinto holds the seat now through the end of the year, and is extremely likely to win the General Election for a full term that would run Jan 2021–2025. However, in her short time in office, she has proven herself to be moderate to conservative on issues of taxation, transit equity, and more. She has been criticized for sloppy (at best!) campaign finance reporting practices, and for running in social circles that overlap with the Mar-a-Lago crowd.
Independent candidate Randy Downs is challenging Pinto from the left and has picked up some support from the progressive and urbanist community. Downs is unlikely to win, as Pinto has the advantage of being an incumbent with (D) next to her name on the ballot. Still, it is important for voters to send Pinto a message that they are paying close attention and will not tolerate corruption or regressive policy. Voting for Randy Downs or Independent candidate Martín Miguel Fernández is the best way to send that message.
Following her resounding victory in the Ward 4 Democratic Primary, Janeese is all-but-assured to win the General Election for the Council seat in Ward 4. Vote for Janeese and get used to hearing her name!
Vince Gray is a moderate Democrat running unopposed for re-election to the Ward 7 Council seat. He previously served as DC Mayor and Council Chair. Gray is one of the more conservative members of the Council, voting most in line with Brandon Todd, Anita Bonds, and Kenyan McDuffie. He’s running unopposed after winning the Democratic Primary against a wide field with just 45% of the vote.
Trayon White, Sr. is likely to win reelection to the Ward 8 Council seat after winning the Democratic Primary and facing only nominal opposition in the General. White is a relatively reliable progressive vote and an incredible voice for his community. Follow him on Instagram for real talk about his community, his family, and his role on the Council.
DC State Board of Education
The State Board of Education (SBOE) is a non-partisan elected body that helps set education policy in DC. They don’t have a ton of power because DC has mayoral control of the schools and the Council conducts a lot of the budgeting and oversight. Still, the SBOE plays a role in shaping education policy in the District and is an important ideological battleground for the debate around privatizing education. The corporate-funded privatization lobby consistently invests in SBOE races. My recommendations in the SBOE races are based on endorsements from the Washington Teacher’s Union, who I consider the most important voice in DC on what our students and educators need to succeed:
DC’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission is a citywide network of hyperlocal citizen elected officials who advocate for their neighborhoods, weigh in on zoning and licensing issues, and make policy recommendations to the Mayor and Council. DC has 296 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners who represent “single-member districts.” The Commissioners are organized into 40 different Commissions that work together to represent broader neighborhoods. About 60% of ANC races are uncontested this cycle, 36% are contested, and a few have no one running :/ Given the number of seats, there’s no single source for candidate info, but check out the ANC Finder to look up which district you fall in, browse Open ANC to see a list of candidates and contested races, and see interviews of Ward 6 candidates in The Hill is Home. Local activists Aaron Landry and James Harnett have also highlighted some great ANC candidates. If you have questions about your district, feel free to crowdsource on Twitter. There are some cool people running—including 3 Deaf candidates!
Initiative 81: YES on 81 (on the back of your ballot)
Incredibly, organizers were able to gather the 10s of 1000s of signatures required to get a referendum on the ballot this year, despite the pandemic! Initiative 81 will help DC residents who use natural plant medicines such as psilocybin mushrooms or mescaline from cactus. These medicines are often used to treat anxiety, depression, and PTSD. If Initiative 81 is approved, it would not change DC’s penalties for possessing these plants and fungi, but would make it the lowest priority for enforcement, allowing public safety interventions to be focused on more pressing needs.
President and Vice President
We know what we need to do.
Delegate to the House of Representatives: Eleanor Holmes Norton
Del. Holmes Norton has been DC’s non-voting member of Congress since the 1990s. She is a Civil Rights and DC Statehood icon and will likely hold this seat for as long as she wants to serve.
United States Senator (Shadow): Paul Strauss
DC elects two “Shadow Senators” who are not actually members of the Senate but focus their time on advocating for DC statehood. Senator Strauss is currently holding the position and running for reelection.
United States Representative (Shadow): Oye Owolewa
This is another statehood advocacy position. Oye Owolewa is the Democratic candidate.
And that should cover it! Feel free to reply to this email if you have questions. Please forward this to friends, neighbors, and anyone else you think would appreciate it! You can subscribe to Dear District or read this issue online here, and don’t forget to check out DC Voter Guide for more info on voting in the At-Large race. Thanks for reading, and, more importantly, voting EARLY!
—Dan
Dear District is an independent project of me, Dan Essrow. I’m a designer, writer, and doer of democracy living in DC’s Ward 1.
DC is a city plagued by gun violence. Often, that violence is concentrated in neighborhoods that have been brutalized by years of disinvestment, segregation, and structural racism. If you live in a part of town that has received more than its share of investment, DC’s gun violence can feel a world away. It isn’t. Davon was a child of this city and he deserved so much better.
Davon had just completed his first year at Kramer Middle School in Southeast DC’s Anacostia. He was a dedicated athlete and leader on his Metro Bengals football team.
Davon’s mother, Crystal McNeal, serves our city as a violence interrupter. She works with DC’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement to deescalate community violence. On Saturday, Crystal was hosting a neighborhood cookout to build trust in the community where she worked.
Saturday night, Davon was struck in the head by a stray bullet as he walked inside to grab earbuds and a phone charger.
The writing about Davon’s life reveals that both he and his mother were making their communities better by their examples. Still, they were both motivated to escape their neighborhood in search of safety and security.
“We just had a real genuine kid who wanted to get out of the neighborhood. That’s all he said is, ‘I’m gonna make it.’ ” —Kevin McGill, Davon’s football coach.
No community in DC should be one you are lucky to survive. No neighborhood should require escape.
What to do: Bear witness to Davon McNeal’s life and to his tragic death. Read about him and look at his photos. Share in his family’s grief and pain. Fight for a city where a zip code is not a death sentence.
Today is the day! The Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety will hold a police budget oversight hearing at noon. You can stream the hearing on facebook or via the Council’s slightly clunky streaming platform.
You still have time to submit your written, audio, or video testimony! Testimony will be collected for the official record through 5pm on TUESDAY June 16. Last week’s Dear District is pasted below in case that’s helpful.
More than 15,000 (!!) people have submitted testimony so far. During today’s hearing, 90 public witnesses will deliver live testimony, out of 500 who applied for a slot. Last year, there were 22 witnesses. The hearing will be overseen by Councilmember Charles Allen, who represents Ward 6 (Capitol Hill, Shaw, Southwest) and chairs the Judiciary Committee.
How much does DC spend on cops—and does it make us safer?
Dear District,
This year, DC’s 2021 budget process has collided head first with the dual public health crises of COVID-19 and police brutality against Black people.
In this issue of Dear District, I’ll give a quick refresher on how the DC budget works, explain how it’s been affected by COVID, and add some context to the call to defund DC’s police department. I’ll also give a quick rundown of how the politics of police militarization played out in the resounding victory of the Janeese Lewis George in the Ward 4 Council race.
Ready to add your voice to DC’s debate about police funding?Here’s a handy resource for how to submit testimony to the Council’s Committee on Public Safety. More details on that below. TUESDAY June 16 is the last day to submit testimony.
There are three main centers of power during DC’s annual budget debate: the Mayor, the Council, and you. The Mayor kicks things off each year by submitting a draft budget to the DC Council. The Council holds a series hearings around different budget priorities, tinkers around with the numbers a bit, and then passes the budget as law. Generally there isn’t a huge amount of movement between the Mayor’s budget and what gets eventually passed by the Council—but the Council has real power to shift money and reshape priorities. Therein lies the people power. Every year, the DC advocacy community and members of the public rally around certain budget asks and push the Council to advance a more equitable budget. Here’s a little more context on the timeline and size of DC’s budget from last year’s Dear District.
What’s already changed because of COVID?
The budget process has been delayed by a month or two already, and the focus initially shifted from which programs would receive the most investment (pre-COVID) to which programs would avoid the biggest cuts. Firstly, a note that this is a false choice. DC is a city with high per-capita income and extremely flush reserves. The question is: Do our leaders have the moral and political courage to use our rainy day funds during this thunderstorm and to ask our wealthiest residents and corporations to pay more of their fair share as we navigate this crisis.
The Mayor presented a revised COVID budget in mid-May. Overall there were some things to celebrate—major cuts to key social services were avoided by dipping into some reserves and spending down prior years’ surplus. Read more about what there was to like and not to like in her proposed budget from the DC Fiscal Policy Institute.
Another key aspect of the budget process that has changed this year is how the public can participate. Generally speaking, the various committees of the Council hold oversight and budget hearings focused on the departments and programs their committees oversee. Experts and the public are invited to testify at these hearings. This year, some hearings have been limited to invited expert guests only, and others have expanded to include a greater reliance on video and written testimony. A coalition, Just Recovery DC, has formed to demand DC’s COVID budget help the city rebuild in an equitable way.
What to do: Follow JustRecoveryDC to receive action alerts on key budget priorities
What does the budget have to do with police violence?
The brutal murder of George Floyd has sparked a national call to action on police brutality and police funding in America. Building on the decade’s-long work of activists all over the country, leaders, individuals, community organizations (and freakin street artists!) in DC are calling on the Mayor and the Council to shift money away from policing and instead invest in programs like community violence interrupters, domestic violence prevention services, trauma-informed mental health care in DC public schools, and affordable housing. The tagline is simple: Defund the Police. The thinking and research behind it is nuanced and rigorous.
I’ll admit that I am embarrassingly new to this fight. I’m hoping that I can try to help you understand a little more about the political context and you all can help me understand more about the history of the movement to defund policing in favor of public health and social services.
How much does DC spend on cops—and does it make us safer?
For context, DC is one of the most heavily policed cities in the entire country. DC’s police force, known as the Metropolitan Police Department or MPD, has about 3,800 officers and 600 civilian staff, making it the sixth-largest municipal police department in the US (we are the 20th-largest city). DC employs about 55 cops per every 10,000 residents—we have more police per capita than any other large city in America. And that figure doesn’t even include the alphabet soup of agencies that regularly patrol our streets (Capitol Police, Park Police, Secret Service, FBI Special Police)—nor the Army or National Guard invasions we’re currently enduring.
DC spends about half a billion dollars per year on policing. That’s about $822 per resident. For every $2 we spend on education, we spend a $1 on policing. For every $1 we spend on policing, we only spend 50 cents on affordable housing. Despite dipping into reserves, freezing hiring at some agencies, and making cuts to key programs, Mayor Bowser’s proposed 2021 budget actually increases the police budget by about $18 million.
The Mayor was celebrated by national media last week for commissioning the painting of Black Lives Matter in front of the White House as part of her escalating and performative feud with Trump. But local activists know that she hired a Police Chief with a history of aggressive tactics, continues to expand police funding at the expense of other priorities, and instituted a curfew among other methods to crack down on the protests.
Protesters have demanded urgent attention to a message Black people and Black organizers have been saying for decades—the police don’t keep us safe.
Submit testimony to tell the Council to defund MPD
The nationwide protests are an urgent backdrop to DC’s budget debate, which is unfolding as we speak. Organizations like Black Lives Matter DC and Stop Police Terror Project DC, are calling on the DC Council to defund MPD and invest in what will actually make our communities safer.
Due to overwhelming public interest, the Council Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety (which has jurisdiction over MPD), has shifted its budget hearing to June 15 and is accepting testimony from the public via phone, in writing (via email), and via video upload. If you have never testified before the Council before, this is your chance to do it! It is easier than ever and the stakes couldn’t be more stark.
The hearing will be broadcast live on Monday June 15 starting at noon. The deadline to submit written or recorded testimony to be included in the public record is Tuesday, June 16.
Organizers with Occupation Free DC and Jewish Voices for Peace have put together a super readable guide for how to submit testimony. (Their guide lifts from work that Black Lives Matter and Stop Police Terror Project have been doing for years.) It includes the logistical details as well as talking points and some other guidelines. Start working on your testimony now and submit it to the record by Tuesday!
Here’s a great resource from Stop Police Terror Project DC with more information about police violence in DC and how to write and submit your budget testimony. A few highlights from their budget asks:
Maintain and increase funding for the Office of Neighborhood and Safety Engagement and violence interrupter programs
Reallocate funding from the MPD budget to pay for medical and mental health professionals and social workers to respond to emergency calls
Cut funding for school resource officers and reallocate that funding to pay for mental health care and trauma-informed services in DC public schools, along with technological support for remote learning
A winning message in Ward 4
As you probably know, Council challenger Janeese Lewis George won a resounding victory in Ward 4 over the conservative Democratic incumbent, Brandon Todd. Janeese won convincingly across the Ward—she won in all but four of the Ward’s 20 precincts, beating an entrenched incumbent by double digits.
Quickly summarizing from Rachel’s piece: A debate about community safety, policing, and outside political spending animated the final weeks of the Ward 4 campaign. An education privatization lobbying group, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), spent half a million dollars on the 2020 primaries in DC, sending a dozen or so mailers to Ward 4 voters smearing Janeese. DFER is the largest group active in DC that consistently runs “Independent Expenditures” in DC elections. Outside and corporate groups are able to spend an effectively limitless amount of money supporting or smearing candidates as long as their work is not done in coordination with an official campaign.
DFER’s mailers in Ward 4 focused on two key quotes from Janeese: one explaining that the militarization of urban police forces is a threat to community safety, and the other that, as a Councilmember, Janeese would divest from MPD in favor of a public health approach to crime. Janeese is an attorney who has spent her career working on criminal justice issues, piloting and scaling programs to interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and improve community safety. DFER’s mailers purposely misrepresented Janeese’s quotes and were intended to sow fear around a Black woman candidate. They backfired spectacularly on their own merits, and collided with a debate about police brutality in the final weeks of the campaign.
Thanks all for reading this week! I’m hoping I can add a bit of context to help you understand what’s happening in DC at the local level—but I know I have huge blindspots. If there’s something I missed, got wrong, or should highlight more, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Dan
Found Dear District on Twitter or forwarded from a friend? My name is Dan Essrow—I’m an independent designer, writer, and concerned citizen working on electoral politics and issue advocacy in the District. Disclaimer that I do paid design and digital work for politicians mentioned in this issue.
This year, DC’s 2021 budget process has collided head first with the dual public health crises of COVID-19 and police brutality against Black people.
In this issue of Dear District, I’ll give a quick refresher on how the DC budget works, explain how it’s been affected by COVID, and add some context to the call to defund DC’s police department. I’ll also give a quick rundown of how the politics of police militarization played out in the resounding victory of the Janeese Lewis George in the Ward 4 Council race.
Ready to add your voice to DC’s debate about police funding?Here’s a handy resource for how to submit testimony to the Council’s Committee on Public Safety. More details on that below. TUESDAY June 16 is the last day to submit testimony.
There are three main centers of power during DC’s annual budget debate: the Mayor, the Council, and you. The Mayor kicks things off each year by submitting a draft budget to the DC Council. The Council holds a series hearings around different budget priorities, tinkers around with the numbers a bit, and then passes the budget as law. Generally there isn’t a huge amount of movement between the Mayor’s budget and what gets eventually passed by the Council—but the Council has real power to shift money and reshape priorities. Therein lies the people power. Every year, the DC advocacy community and members of the public rally around certain budget asks and push the Council to advance a more equitable budget. Here’s a little more context on the timeline and size of DC’s budget from last year’s Dear District.
What’s already changed because of COVID?
The budget process has been delayed by a month or two already, and the focus initially shifted from which programs would receive the most investment (pre-COVID) to which programs would avoid the biggest cuts. Firstly, a note that this is a false choice. DC is a city with high per-capita income and extremely flush reserves. The question is: Do our leaders have the moral and political courage to use our rainy day funds during this thunderstorm and to ask our wealthiest residents and corporations to pay more of their fair share as we navigate this crisis.
The Mayor presented a revised COVID budget in mid-May. Overall there were some things to celebrate—major cuts to key social services were avoided by dipping into some reserves and spending down prior years’ surplus. Read more about what there was to like and not to like in her proposed budget from the DC Fiscal Policy Institute.
Another key aspect of the budget process that has changed this year is how the public can participate. Generally speaking, the various committees of the Council hold oversight and budget hearings focused on the departments and programs their committees oversee. Experts and the public are invited to testify at these hearings. This year, some hearings have been limited to invited expert guests only, and others have expanded to include a greater reliance on video and written testimony. A coalition, Just Recovery DC, has formed to demand DC’s COVID budget help the city rebuild in an equitable way.
What to do: Follow JustRecoveryDC to receive action alerts on key budget priorities
What does the budget have to do with police violence?
The brutal murder of George Floyd has sparked a national call to action on police brutality and police funding in America. Building on the decade’s-long work of activists all over the country, leaders, individuals, community organizations (and freakin street artists!) in DC are calling on the Mayor and the Council to shift money away from policing and instead invest in programs like community violence interrupters, domestic violence prevention services, trauma-informed mental health care in DC public schools, and affordable housing. The tagline is simple: Defund the Police. The thinking and research behind it is nuanced and rigorous.
I’ll admit that I am embarrassingly new to this fight. I’m hoping that I can try to help you understand a little more about the political context and you all can help me understand more about the history of the movement to defund policing in favor of public health and social services.
How much does DC spend on cops—and does it make us safer?
For context, DC is one of the most heavily policed cities in the entire country. DC’s police force, known as the Metropolitan Police Department or MPD, has about 3,800 officers and 600 civilian staff, making it the sixth-largest municipal police department in the US (we are the 20th-largest city). DC employs about 55 cops per every 10,000 residents—we have more police per capita than any other large city in America. And that figure doesn’t even include the alphabet soup of agencies that regularly patrol our streets (Capitol Police, Park Police, Secret Service, FBI Special Police)—nor the Army or National Guard invasions we’re currently enduring.
DC spends about half a billion dollars per year on policing. That’s about $822 per resident. For every $2 we spend on education, we spend a $1 on policing. For every $1 we spend on policing, we only spend 50 cents on affordable housing. Despite dipping into reserves, freezing hiring at some agencies, and making cuts to key programs, Mayor Bowser’s proposed 2021 budget actually increases the police budget by about $18 million.
The Mayor was celebrated by national media last week for commissioning the painting of Black Lives Matter in front of the White House as part of her escalating and performative feud with Trump. But local activists know that she hired a Police Chief with a history of aggressive tactics, continues to expand police funding at the expense of other priorities, and instituted a curfew among other methods to crack down on the protests.
Protesters have demanded urgent attention to a message Black people and Black organizers have been saying for decades—the police don’t keep us safe.
Submit testimony to tell the Council to defund MPD
The nationwide protests are an urgent backdrop to DC’s budget debate, which is unfolding as we speak. Organizations like Black Lives Matter DC and Stop Police Terror Project DC, are calling on the DC Council to defund MPD and invest in what will actually make our communities safer.
Due to overwhelming public interest, the Council Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety (which has jurisdiction over MPD), has shifted its budget hearing to June 15 and is accepting testimony from the public via phone, in writing (via email), and via video upload. If you have never testified before the Council before, this is your chance to do it! It is easier than ever and the stakes couldn’t be more stark.
The hearing will be broadcast live on Monday June 15 starting at noon. The deadline to submit written or recorded testimony to be included in the public record is Tuesday, June 16.
Organizers with Occupation Free DC and Jewish Voices for Peace have put together a super readable guide for how to submit testimony. (Their guide lifts from work that Black Lives Matter and Stop Police Terror Project have been doing for years.) It includes the logistical details as well as talking points and some other guidelines. Start working on your testimony now and submit it to the record by Tuesday!
Here’s a great resource from Stop Police Terror Project DC with more information about police violence in DC and how to write and submit your budget testimony. A few highlights from their budget asks:
Maintain and increase funding for the Office of Neighborhood and Safety Engagement and violence interrupter programs
Reallocate funding from the MPD budget to pay for medical and mental health professionals and social workers to respond to emergency calls
Cut funding for school resource officers and reallocate that funding to pay for mental health care and trauma-informed services in DC public schools, along with technological support for remote learning
A winning message in Ward 4
As you probably know, Council challenger Janeese Lewis George won a resounding victory in Ward 4 over the conservative Democratic incumbent, Brandon Todd. Janeese won convincingly across the Ward—she won in all but four of the Ward’s 20 precincts, beating an entrenched incumbent by double digits.
Quickly summarizing from Rachel’s piece: A debate about community safety, policing, and outside political spending animated the final weeks of the Ward 4 campaign. An education privatization lobbying group, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), spent half a million dollars on the 2020 primaries in DC, sending a dozen or so mailers to Ward 4 voters smearing Janeese. DFER is the largest group active in DC that consistently runs “Independent Expenditures” in DC elections. Outside and corporate groups are able to spend an effectively limitless amount of money supporting or smearing candidates as long as their work is not done in coordination with an official campaign.
DFER’s mailers in Ward 4 focused on two key quotes from Janeese: one explaining that the militarization of urban police forces is a threat to community safety, and the other that, as a Councilmember, Janeese would divest from MPD in favor of a public health approach to crime. Janeese is an attorney who has spent her career working on criminal justice issues, piloting and scaling programs to interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and improve community safety. DFER’s mailers purposely misrepresented Janeese’s quotes and were intended to sow fear around a Black woman candidate. They backfired spectacularly on their own merits, and collided with a debate about police brutality in the final weeks of the campaign.
Thanks all for reading this week! I’m hoping I can add a bit of context to help you understand what’s happening in DC at the local level—but I know I have huge blindspots. If there’s something I missed, got wrong, or should highlight more, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Dan
Found Dear District on Twitter or forwarded from a friend? My name is Dan Essrow—I’m an independent designer, writer, and concerned citizen working on electoral politics and issue advocacy in the District. Disclaimer that I do paid design and digital work for politicians mentioned in this issue.
