My sole endorsement
I have a very low-traffic blog, so I know damn well that my endorsement of anyone for any office would be an exercise in self-wankery and have very little impact. I know most of the people who read this, and those I don’t know can likely acertain which politicians I support by simply reading the blog. There are very few races where I feel that my opinion, let alone an official endorsement, could sway any votes.
This year, however, I’ve found a race where the vote tally is small and my friends seem to be trending in the wrong direction: the non-Democrat At-Large seat for the DC City Council. For some reason, some people I know think supporting incumbent Carol Schwartz (R) in her quixotic write-in campaign (she lost this year’s GOP primary) is a good idea. Perhaps it’s Ms. Schwartz tendency to call everyone “hon”, maybe it’s her status as a gay camp icon, but it certainly can’t be because she supports any good policies. Simply put, Carol Schwartz is a horrible candidate.
Therefore, I am officially endorsing Patrick Mara (R) for at-large City Council. As Dave Alpert of Greater Greater Washington notes, Mara doesn’t own a car, bikes to work, and is supportive of bike- and pedestrian-friendly initiatives. And as a Republican, he’s likely to oppose all sorts of onerous over-zoning of the city. If we must have a Republican on the council, better to have one that thinks we live in a city as opposed to one that thinks of DC as a glorified suburb.
P.S. Independent (but really Democratic) candidate Michael Brown is also running for this seat. All I know about Michael Brown is that he’s run for nearly every elected office in the District of Columbia, from mayor to shadow senator, and he’s lost handily every time. I think it’s our duty as citizens to make sure he gets the hint this time.
UPDATE (10/30/2008): Matthew Yglesias and Dave Alpert also endorse Mara.
