Last week, Jeff Smith and Bryan Weaver – Ward One D.C. Council Member Jim Graham’s two challengers for renomination – met up for a rush hour powwow at the corner of 18th St. and Columbia Rd., NW, Adams Morgan’s busy intersection.
Smith’s pre-rally “corner wave” – where volunteers gather on a busy intersection and wave campaign signs at motorists and passers-by to bolster their candidate’s visibility in the community – was countered sportingly, catercorner, across the intersection by a bunch of school kids and a smattering of volunteers waving signs for fellow Graham challenger Bryan Weaver, the Adams Morgan ANC commissioner. The corner falls in Weavers’ ANC Single Member District.
Smith wanted to publicize some recent endorsements. Weaver didn’t fail to pass up another chance to address a gathering of potential voters. Both challengers used the opportunity to take some digs at the incumbent. Given the air of civility of between the challengers, neither seemed to be stooping too low in criticizing Graham’s track record. The oddly feel-good event featured both challengers passing the bullhorn with comity.
Visually, the result was a sea of signs in monochrome in color, but clashing in message, as both Weaver and Smith have opted for a Fenty-esque green campaign signs for this race. (Jim Graham’s signs are easily identifiable in red.)
The message got garbled, too. Over-eager partisans of both candidates sounded off for their at moments that weren’t quite “on cue.”
Former school board member Jeff Smith called the “rally” – bookended in quotation marks in an official campaign “tweet” – ostensibly to announce an endorsement from the Washington DC Building Trades Council. Some reps from the Trades Council’s Local 100 did show up and stood around holding Smith campaign signs.
(The union stiffs – pictured below – stood out. Not many white working class folks line the District’s voter rolls. The union’s website indicates that it draws membership from around the greater Washington area. The union guys seemed to enjoy the trek into the heart of DC. There was a “high five,” some talk about “getting paid” for showing up. After the event wrapped up, one turned toward the nightlife strip along 18th St., NW and lamented, jokingly, that “the bars ain’t even open yet.”)
Smith also wanted to hype his endorsement from the Fraternal Order of Police at this corner in the wake of the recent shooting nearby, close the confluence of 17th and Euclid Sts. and Mozart Pl., NW. (The police union has had its disagreements with Graham during his tenure and FOP chief Kris Baumann took some shots at Graham in the statement the FOP issued to endorse Smith.) The shooting rattled the neighborhood and seems to have startled newer arrivals to Adams Morgan, but Washington City Paper’s managing editor Mike Madden blogged that his paper has covered the crime scene corner’s long-running resistance to the gentrification that has changed the character of surrounding blocks so dramatically.
Weaver a was on hand because Smith invited him. In a series of email message discussing rally logistics with Smith’s campaign, the candidate Jeff offered that he extended Weaver an invite in light of the fact that “he was close to one of the recent murder victims.”
The mood of mild confusion continued when the union rep took the bullhorn. “Who do we want?” he asked, trying to rile up the assembled for Jeff Smith. Smith’s supporters responded, but so did Bryan Weaver’s, shouting his name. The trades union rep made clear his folks wanted Graham out, but his critique wasn’t specific. Jim Graham “has done nothing for trade unions,” he insisted, without mentioning what his group wanted out of a Ward One council member.
Ward One knows who Jim Graham is, thanks to stunts like those City Paper’s Jason Cherkis has dubbed “Grahamstanding.” Jeff Graham and Bryan Weaver be the highest profile challengers Graham has had to face since he unseated fmr. Council Member Frank Smith, Jr. in 1998, but in a localized, down ballot race, they remain far less recognized than the indefatigable incumbent.
This powwow may have been intended to draw a distinction between the challengers’ show of common good will and Graham’s occasional hardball tactics. But the confusion of color and slogans a on the Adams Morgan corner highlight the challenges that challengers face in standing out and making the case to replace an incumbent on the D.C. Council.
