DCentric

Over in Ward 8, when the The Advoc8te, who blogs at Congress Heights on the Rise tried to vote today, she encountered this drama, involving an ANC Commissioner, two police cars and allegations of electioneering:

On my way into the elementary school I did see Commissioner Mary Cuthbert (8C03) (she of the n-word infamy) sitting alongside the fence directly in front of her the school in support of her candidate (Gray) and clutching some “Gray for Mayor” t-shirts… It seems Mary was clearly (and I mean clearly) within the “campaigning free zone” which had been indicated by very direct signage advising there would be no campaigning beyond that point.

…The polling station manager asked Ms. Cuthbert to please move farther down the fence beyond the posted signs – she refused. He asked again and she refused again stating that the law is she can’t be within 50 feet of the door so she didn’t care where he put the signs she wasn’t moving (please note: all the other campaigners stayed outside of the campaign free zone).  At some point William Lockridge got involved and he started yelling at the polling manager and getting up in his face and someone called the police.



At this point I come out of the door and to see  Mr. Lockridge yelling at the polling manager, the police (two cruisers btw) trying to defray the situation, Mary Cuthbert on the phone calling the police precinct herself and still refusing to move.  I didn’t hear all that was said but Mr. Lockridge was commenting that as an ANC Commissioner, Commissioner Cuthbert should be entitled to a certain level of respect (was unclear if that meant a pass on the campaign law).  All the while, campaign workers from both camps are commenting that if the rules apply to them they apply to Commissioner Cuthbert and she needed to move.  Voters such as myself are both horrified and slightly amused.

If Cuthbert’s name sounds familiar, it may be because you are remembering this news story (also broken via Congress Heights on the Rise) from last month, wherein she called her 21-year old opponent (who is also African American) the “N-word”.