On April 26th, voters in the District of Columbia will have the opportunity to fill a seat on the District's council. With your help, we can get a true progressive elected to this seat. His name is Bryan Weaver, and you can donate to his ActBlue page here.
(That's Bryan on the right!)
Here's Bryan's campaign video from last year:
The Council of the District of Columbia is the legislative branch of our government - the equivalent of the House of Representatives and Senate combined for any state. There are only 13 members of the council (the chairperson, 8 members elected from wards, and 4 at-large members), so a coalition of 7 councilmembers is all it takes to push through legislation that affects over 600,000 people, and arguably many more, as laws passed in the District of Columbia tend to draw national attention due to the enhanced visibility of being in the shadow of the federal government.
In the 2010 elections, Kwame Brown, a former at-large councilmember, ascended to become the chairman of of the council, leaving his seat vacant. Through a non-democratic rule, a temporary appointment was made by the DC Democratic State Committee to fill this seat until a special election could be held. That appointment was given to Sekou Biddle. Weaver, Biddle, and others are running for the at-large seat, and Biddle has the support and endorsement of the mayor, council chair, and the rest of the DC establishment.
The problem is that the Democratic establishment in DC isn't reliably progressive. Bryan is. Bryan worked for the late Senator Paul Wellstone, is in favor of a progressive tax structure for the city, taking care of the city's youth (from education, to services for those who have been incarcerated, to job training and mentoring for all kids), and the strengthening of housing and transportation opportunities for all.
The council chair and the new mayor, meanwhile, are embroiled in scandal after scandal. DC needs politicians who are independent of this morass.
Please, take the time to pitch in a few dollars to help Bryan get the word out during this short election period. It's a short campaign season, and buying ads and mailings will really help get the word out to the voters in DC.