Incumbency Trumps in DC and Maryland
Amid light turnout, voters stick with the status quo
The result of that race, however, has not yet been finalized. As of Metro Weekly press time, Orange led Biddle by 543 votes, or 39.77 to 38.75 percent. A 1 percent margin would trigger an automatic recount. And several hundred absentee, provisional and curbside ballots have yet to be counted. Those vote totals will be reported on April 13.
Lateefah Williams, president of the Stein Club, told Metro Weekly Wednesday morning that Stein-endorsed candidate enjoyed success in Tuesday’s primaries.
”Overall, our endorsed candidates did well,” Williams said. ”All but one of our endorsed candidates prevailed, and we knew he faced an uphill battle against an incumbent. Unfortunately, the opposition split the vote in that race. The incumbent received only 42 percent, but the opposition split, with Tom Brown leading the way. I’m proud of the efforts Tom Brown gave to this campaign, and proud of the other groups that supported him as well.”
In other party primaries, some LGBT voters may have been disappointed, as Ann C. Wilcox defeated G. Lee Aikin by a 59-23 margin in the D.C. Statehood Green Party primary for the At-Large seat. Wilcox received a .5 rating from GLAA, while Aikin received a 4.
On the other hand, LGBT-friendly Republicans had a very good night, as Peaceaholics founder Ron Moten, who earned a 1.5 from GLAA, defeated Donald Folden Sr. by 33 points in the Ward 7 race. Running unopposed for an At-Large seat on the council was Mary Brooks Beatty, who had the endorsement of the Log Cabin Republicans, while Nelson Rimensnyder ran unopposed for D.C. ”shadow” senator.
In addition, in the races for GOP national committeeman and committeewoman for D.C., Bob Kabel and Jill Homan, two members of the D.C. Log Cabin Republicans, won their races, making D.C. the first jurisdiction to have two LCR members serving simultaneously as committeeman and committeewoman.
Robert Turner, president of the D.C. LCR chapter, issued a statement praising the group’s candidates.
”DC Log Cabin looks forward to actively supporting Ron Moten and Mary Brooks Beatty in their races this fall. Together with a Tim Day victory in next month’s Ward 5 special election, these contests will show our party’s renewed energy in the District, and DC Log Cabin will do all we can to restore trust and commonsense leadership to the Council,” Turner said in a statement.
Turner also praised the success of Kabel and Homan, saying they were friends of Log Cabin and that the organization ”looked forward to working with them to represent our core principles on the RNC.”
Meanwhile, in Maryland’s primaries, also held on Tuesday, incumbent U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D) beat back several challengers, including state Sen. C. Anthony Muse (Prince Georges Co.), to win his party’s nomination for re-election.
Cardin and fellow Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D) recently expressed support for adding marriage equality to the Democratic Party platform, while Muse was one of the most vocal members of the Maryland Senate opposing the recently passed marriage-equality law.
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