Days before District voters went to the polls, the Office of Campaign Finance launched a full-scale investigation into the fiscal operations of At-large Councilman Kwame Brown’s previous campaign organizations. Still, he went on to win the Democratic nomination for council chairman.
Interestingly, unofficial election results indicate nearly 9,000 people who voted in the mayor’s race didn’t select a candidate for council chairman. Those numbers reflect dissatisfaction I heard during the campaign from voters with their choices in the chairman’s contest. But a victory in the Democratic primary historically spells a win in the general election.
Brown told me earlier this week he isn’t concerned: “I look forward to all of this being put behind me,”
Even if Brown is unfazed, District residents should be alarmed the presumptive chairman is now under investigation.
He’s the latest legislator to come under scrutiny during the past two years. Questions were raised about the relationship Council Chairman Vincent Gray had with a developer with city contracts who helped the lawmaker with renovations on his home. Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham used employees and recruits from the fire department as wait staff for birthday and holiday parties, and Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry used public money to give a contract to a paramour, hoping to retain her affection.
The council censured Barry but didn’t take any action against other members. Indeed, it has left unfinished development of penalties and sanctions against offending legislators.
Complaints about Brown’s handling of funds in his 2004 and 2008 campaigns were made initially by his opponent, former Ward 5 Councilman Vincent Orange. They came after revelations that Brown was sued for failing to pay $50,000 in personal credit card debt.
Orange asked the Office of Campaign Finance to examine Brown’s campaign payments to the Internal Revenue Service; recent expenditures made by one campaign that should have ceased operations six years ago; and the disappearance and reappearance of $73,000.
“The citizens of the District of Columbia deserve to know what’s going on with these accounts and why they are still open,” Orange said.
Brown and his supporters dismissed Orange’s charges as dirty tactics. Obviously, OCF Director Cecily Collier Montgomery had a different response: “In view of the gravity of the allegations and additional issues that have risen from our preliminary review, OCF has determined that a full investigation into this matter is warranted,” she said in a Sept. 9 letter to Brown.
The presumptive council chairman, who will be responsible for overseeing budget issues, admitted to me that reporting by his campaigns “could have been better” but insisted that he did nothing wrong. He said folks should wait for all the facts. “The only facts people have now are the ones being fed by Mr. Orange.”
Let’s hope it’s only a case of sloppy bookkeeping. If Brown is found guilty of misappropriating campaign funds, he likely will have to step down.
I’m getting a headache just thinking about the chaos that would create.
Jonetta Rose Barras’s column appears on Monday and Wednesday. She can be reached at [email protected].
