The race for a D.C. council at-large seat is getting crowded. Wednesday, two more candidates threw their hats in the ring.

One is Republican School Board Member Patrick Mara, who announced via YouTube that he’ll seek the at-large seat. The other is Bryan Weaver, a Democrat who lives in Ward 1. Both have unsuccessfully run for council seats in the past…

The biggest challenge at this point for any of the candidates is getting on the ballot. Candidates have less than one month to pick up 3,000 signatures.

I have a feeling Weaver will be able to get those signatures, especially if he asks everyone who tweets about him to help out. And speaking of YouTube, like the City Paper, when I think of Bryan Weaver, I think of his excellent use of the video site. See one of his campaign ads, after the jump– it’s so nice, Wonkette blogged about it:

Flickr: thisisbossi

"Gray Pride" at the Gay Pride Parade, this year.

The social web is buzzing about Mayor-elect Gray’s broken campaign promise to the LGBT community; while campaigning, one of Gray’s answers to the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance questionnaire included a promise to include LGBT community members in a search for the new police and fire chiefs. That didn’t happen:

The key point is that Mr. Gray did not invite anyone from the LGBT community in the search process. It isn’t clear that he checked with anyone outside of his transition team’s inner circle. Arguably, Chief Lanier is not “new” but that’s really being Clintonesque.

Chief Lanier essentially disbanded the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit (GLLU) at a time when anti-LGBT hate crimes are on the rise. The true value of the GLLU was community involvement. There was a time when the GLLU would visit community groups, bars, and social events just to introduce themselves and say hello. That was a time when the community started to trust the police. Lanier squandered that good will. I don’t recall the last time that I saw someone from the GLLU at any event. I did see them at a couple of the Pride events where they were not talking to anyone in the community. It was quite a waste of an opportunity. Unlike Chief Ramsey, Chief Lanier does not meet with us regularly, and would only do so if she had no other choice. It would be nice to have a police chief that treated us like a welcome part of the community. Mayor-Elect Gray says that she is an advocate of community policing. My experience is that she opposes that policy.

I don’t know Chief Ellerbe. I certainly wish him well. I hope that he will be smart and engage the community as a regular practice. It will be to his benefit.

Bill Knapp — the veteran political communications consultant, whose business partner Anita Dunn consulted for both Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee — has come forward to explain to Democratic operatives that this was more about Fenty’s preternaturally bad communications instinct than a latent anti-incumbent mood…

Fenty lost, Knapp writes, because he “neglected a critical base” and “symbolic of that was the Sunday before the election when he participated in a triathlon in DC instead of visiting African American churches, as his opponent did.”

Ugh. That’s brutal. Triathlons are impressive, but he needed to focus on some church-going folks at that point, not his fitness.

Knapp continues: “The truth of the election was that from a policy perspective, Fenty was popular. From a personal perspective, he had become flawed and expendable.” Fenty, he writes, tried to change his personal style “too late and continued to send messages that he hadn’t really changed.”

That’s exactly the impression I left the debate with.

“We fought the best race we possibly could,” Ali said. “We spent nearly a quarter million dollars, knocked on thousands of doors. We tried to concentrate on the issues.”

Ali said King’s negative campaign mailers – one of which featured a photo of Ali with darkened skin – did not help her gain ground with voters…

Ali, whose term as delegate ends in January, would not comment on his future in politics. “I’m going to go home, take a nap, rest and see what tomorrow brings,” he said. “We’re going to hold our heads high.”

How Adrian Fenty lost his reelection bid for D.C. mayor “…the story of a mayor who misread an electorate he was sure he knew better than anyone, who ignored advisers’ early warnings that key constituencies were abandoning him, who shut out confidantes who told him what he did not want to hear and who began to listen only when the race was all but lost.” (The Washington Post)

Adrian Fenty loses D.C. mayoral primary: Why his re-election bid failed “The price that Fenty was paying for all of those recreation centers, for all of the ribbon-cuttings, for all of the education initiatives, was the most powerful block of voters in town.No one could argue that he’d neglected black neighborhoods, but in the end, that was almost the point: Black neighborhoods, in many instances, didn’t want to see the brand of change Fenty was providing. Asked about the sparkling Deanwood Recreation Center, a Ward 7 resident quoted in the Washington Examiner said, “Fenty is getting ready for white people moving into the community.”" (tbd.com)

Post-Election Analysis: It’s Not The End of The District “Finally, reform just doesn’t turn back on itself, as Fenty tried to say it would. Over the last 12 years, each mayor has left a foundation upon which his successor has built. We can all marvel at what Fenty has done in four years, but not much of it would have been possible without Mayor Anthony Williams. Gray will enter office in uncertain economic times — but also with many of the toughest decisions already made for him. Reforms gain momentum and evolve — and even if he wanted to, Gray wouldn’t simply be able to stop the city and throw it into reverse. ” (DCist)

How Adrian Fenty Lost the Black Vote; How Cory Booker May Lose the Black Vote “”…blacks tend to be more dependent on government jobs because of discrimination in the private sector. “People understandably want their needs to be addressed.” Fenty’s appointment of non-blacks to major cabinet positions, terminations of longtime black government workers and teachers, and a failure to meet with civil rights icon Dorothy Height and poet Maya Angelou are among the slights that have turned off a majority of African-American voters.” (The Root)

Michelle Rhee Might Leave Washington, D.C. What Would It Mean For The City’s Schools? “…D.C. without Rhee is, in many ways, a scary thought. Her departure could affect more than the schools; it could influence the entire city. “You can’t have a middle class without a good school system. They will not live in a city with terrible public schools,” Carey says. “To the extent that the vision for the District is a racially and economically diverse one, I think having a school system on an upswing is a big part of that.”” (tnr.com)

…there was “absolutely no offense meant by it.”

“I’m not sure what happened with it. It could have been an error in our proofing. It could have been a printing error,” King said. “He infers that I did that to make his skin look dark. That’s not what this campaign has been about from the get-go. We live in a very diverse district and we don’t even need to go in that direction.”

Interesting. On Wednesday, King’s staff emailed me to say that they did not alter any photographs– which insinuates that the printer did. If the printer did that without campaign authorization, that’s unusual. I’ve worked on campaigns and usually there is someone who proofs what a printer creates, and someone else who proofs it a second time. Did King’s staff not notice the darkened skin? Is that the error to which she refers? And finally, let’s circle back to this:

We live in a very diverse district and we don’t even need to go in that direction.

So that “direction” is for more homogeneous districts? What exactly does this mean? It’s not necessary to “go in that direction”, but…if…it…was? Why not categorically condemn such coded messages, call it an unfortunate error, apologize for not catching it and move on?

I called Ali to tell him about his opponent’s denial. This was his response:

It’s plain for anyone to see, if you put them next to each other. It’s very obvious. I don’t know why they did it, it doesn’t make sense. I wouldn’t expect this kind of behavior from any Montgomery County Democrat. I think she owes everyone a real explanation, not just an evasion. Voters should wonder why they are doctoring photos in this way and why she won’t come clean.

The questionable image I asked about...

Earlier today, I wrote about a piece of campaign literature currently circulating in Maryland from State Senator Nancy King, featuring what looks like a photoshopped picture of her opponent, State Delegate Saqib Ali. In it, Ali’s skin looks visibly darker. I contacted the King campaign to ask about it and this is what they had to say:

First off, at no time, in any way whatsoever, did we, or would we, alter photos or attempt to insinuate anything about Delegate Saqib Ali other than the verified facts we have consistently laid out through this campaign — the fact that he fell asleep and missed a crucial vote on education funding, and the fact that he broke his promise to reject special interest funding and then accepted $50,000 in corporate and PAC money.

That’s interesting, and I’m grateful they took the time to respond, but if they didn’t alter photos, then why does the picture of Ali look like it’s a recolored, mirror-image of the other photograph in the mailer? Curiouser and curiouser…

UPDATE: We reached out to both campaigns for their reactions. Here is a statement from the King campaign and here’s a response from Saqib Ali.

.

We’re in the thick of campaign season and while I tend to focus on the Mayoral race or candidates with confusing names here in the District, last night I saw something eye-catching from Maryland, where State Delegate Saqib Ali is challenging State Senator Nancy King to represent the 39th district.

What you see to the right is a mailer that King sent out to potential voters about Ali. I saw it and had flashbacks to O.J. Simpson’s infamous mug shot, on the cover of Time magazine. I thought of that moment in magazine history because of the striking change in Ali’s complexion. Now, it is entirely possible that in four years, Saqib Ali got some sun. Also possible? That whoever designed this flier used the same photograph, but flipped it directionally, recolored the suit…and Saqib’s face. There’s only one way to find out– I just reached out to the King campaign for comment.

Meanwhile, Sam Arora, another tanned, exotic-looking candidate for Maryland public office who grew up in the state had this to say about the campaign literature:

Frankly, I am surprised and disappointed to see a tactic like this attempted in Montgomery County—a wonderfully diverse and progressive area.  I don’t want to believe that a Democratic state senator would sign off of something like that.

Developing…

And here’s a highlight from that video:

Unfortunately, earlier in his administration, I saw budget processes that were transparent become opaque, I saw a strategic planning process which was the best in the country completely dismantled, and I saw processes put in place to make it difficult for the city council and the public to find out what was going on. I decided to resign. I decided that i no longer believed in what the Fenty adm was doing and we were breaking our commitments and promises to people that we made on doorsteps across this city. Good government should serve the interests of all people, not just the special interests of the few.

Of course, the words of ex-employees should be listened to with potential biases in mind, but there’s no denying how these video statements could sway an undecided voter.