The Ward 5 resident who initially alerted authorities to spending irregularities within Councilman Harry Thomas Jr.’s office has withdrawn from the race for an at-large D.C. Council seat. Tim Day, a Republican, made the announcement Monday through the D.C. Republican Committee.
In the statement, the D.C. GOP said Day was giving his support to Mary Brooks Beatty, who was also competing for the Republican nomination in the April 3 Primary Election. The seat in contention belongs to Michael Brown, a Democrat.
“Harry Thomas, Michael Brown and many of our city leaders have done very little for District residents except embarrass us,” Day said in a statement. “I completely support Mary and her efforts to give voters a clear choice for this November. The quicker we can vote out self serving incumbents like Harry Thomas and Michael Brown, the better our city will be.”
Day, who challenged Thomas in his Ward 5 seat reelection bid last fall, is credited with being the first to charge that Team Thomas, a nonprofit run by the councilman to help D.C. youth, was a “slush fund” that was not registered with the IRS. The D.C. Attorney General later found money had been used from the nonprofit to fund personel expenses for Thomas and referred the case to the feds. The councilman reached a $300,000 settlement with the city but did not admit wrongdoing.
Brooks Beatty is a former Ward 6 ANC Commissioner from the H Street neighborhood. During her time on the ANC, she was credited for bringing re-development projects to the up-and-coming corridor.
