By jonetta rose barras Examiner Columnist You popped into the D.C. Tenants’ Advocacy Coalition’s (TENAC) candidates’ forum last week. Such affairs can be painful; politicos and wannabes hew tenaciously to their message — regardless of the questions — adding deeper meaning to that great philosopher’s unforgettable words: “It’s deja vu all over again.”
Still, affordable housing has been a consistent issue for voters. An event sponsored by the city’s premier tenants organization could be a good place to assess the issue and take the pulse of the people. After all, even when money isn’t tight, more than half the folks who live in the nation’s capital are renters.
Inside the Sumner School and Museum on 17th Street Northwest, Jim McGrath, TENAC’s chairman, sported summer attire — no tie, lightweight jacket and dark glasses as the result of surgery. He presented a visage of a Florida retiree. The political scene in the District can be nearly as entertaining as that of the Sunshine State: Candidates switch parties hoping to win elections; ballots appear and disappear; and the failure to embrace can sink a career as much as the wrong embrace.
McGrath, during his opening comments, downgraded some mayoral contenders, calling them “second-tier.” He, like others, considers Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray the top candidates.
Point of fact: Eleven individuals have registered as mayoral candidates. Some are perennials, like the octogenarian who goes by one name — Faith — and who strategically blows her silver bugle during the forums. During the TENAC forum, she and her husband, Jude, sang a song they wrote advocating statehood.
Even before their calypso, the event already was off track. Patrick Tayman thought he had hit the right points in his allotted five-minute introduction. But an audience member told him he wasn’t a public speaker and didn’t know anything about their issue — rent control, which will expire this year unless the mayor and council reauthorize it. TENAC’s members and supporters wanted commitments not just for an extension but also for significant revisions. Apartment owners have different demands, of course; they aren’t in attendance — renters are.
So why, you wondered, didn’t any of the candidates declare their support during their introductions? Dennis Sobin brought flowers, a symbol of his promise to establish “a kinder, gentler administration.” Carlos Allen, the other White House crasher, talked about unemployment in Ward 8; a woman dressed in a red and white costume with a tail was the audience member with whom that topic resonated. Even Leo Alexander and Ernest Johnson, who could be called serious candidates, didn’t immediately offer their vision of rent control in their administration.
The audience sat through the series of unfocused commentaries. Perhaps they found solace in one fact: When qualifying petitions are submitted next month to the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, several candidates will fall short. That means they won’t be on the ballot for the Democratic primary in September.
You wanted to shout hallelujah as you walked out the door.
Jonetta Rose Barras’ column appears on Monday and Wednesday. She can be contacted at [email protected]
