Brazil faces energetic foe in at-large race
Maelene Johnson was ticked off. Ticked off about the lousy condition of her crumbling apartment in the Garfield Terrace Senior Dwellings.
Ticked off about the high prices on the new condominiums in her rapidly gentrifying neighborhood north of downtown. And ticked off with D.C. Council member Harold Brazil, who came around asking for her vote but didn't offer her much hope.
"He told me to call somebody," Johnson fumed. "People need decent places. He didn't give me what I wanted."
Kwame Brown listened and nodded and jotted Johnson's name and number on a three-by-five-inch card. Brown, a former Clinton administration official with deep roots in the District, is running hard to oust Brazil in Tuesday's Democratic primary, and the outpouring of frustration had the ring of political opportunity.
Young, energetic and blessed with a genuine enthusiasm for retail politics, Brown, 33, is the most formidable challenger Brazil has faced in nearly 14 years on the D.C. Council. Since he moved back to the District two years ago from suburban Virginia, Brown has knocked on thousands of doors, planted signs in hundreds of yards and spent countless afternoons buttonholing voters with the question: What two issues are most important to you?
On a recent afternoon on U Street NW, people didn't have to think long before giving their answers.
"I'm a little tired of what's going on in this city," said April Payne, a pension fund employee in her late twenties who was digging into a chili dog at Ben's Chili Bowl. "There's more development, but it's not helping us. Education is worse. Health care is worse. And since September 11, there's no new jobs."
An avid voter who has researched the candidates, Payne blames "the at-large council" members, who are "kind of outdated" and "seem very money hungry. I think all of them need to go." She's voting for Brown, she said, because "I like his ideas. I like where he's trying to go."
That sentiment, echoed by several key unions, local Democratic groups and others who have endorsed Brown, has Brazil playing defense. In the past few weeks, Brazil, 55, has put out a steady stream of news releases attacking Brown as an unreliable upstart who has lied about his college credentials, his ties to the District and his failure to vote regularly in local and national elections.
Yesterday, Brazil added a new charge to the litany. During a news conference at his downtown headquarters, Brazil's campaign manager, Darden Copeland, accused Brown of having close ties to former mayor Marion Barry and the "failed policies of the past." A vote for Brown, Copeland said, is a vote "for fiscal irresponsibility and out-of-control spending."
In a recent interview, Brazil, who is seeking reelection to a third four-year term in his citywide post, acknowledged that he is taking Brown seriously. But Brazil said his tactics are not a sign of weakness.
"Are we panicky? Do we think we're going to lose? No," Brazil said. "I just think the voters deserve accurate information. And he's not being honest with the voters."
Brown scoffs at the charges, saying they prove only that Brazil is getting desperate.
"After 13 1/2 years on the council, he's unable to communicate a track record of what he's done that makes him deserving of being reelected," Brown said in an interview. "Harold's a nice guy, but people are looking at him and saying, 'Name me five things you've done to improve the quality of life in my community."
Brazil argues that he deserves partial credit for every major development project of the past few years, including the planned Anacostia waterfront development, revitalization of the old Hechinger's building in Tenleytown, redevelopment of the Skyland mall in Ward 7 and construction of the new Convention Center.
He points out that the District has prospered enormously since he was first elected to the council from Ward 6 in 1990, moving from near bankruptcy to a balanced budget and $250 million in cash reserves.
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