Four candidates now for Mayor-- all Democrats

D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp recently announced that she will officially declare her candidacy for mayor on September 7. Cropp is the fourth candidate to jump into the race for Mayor of the District of Columbia, joining council members Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4) and Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5) and former Verizon executive Marie C. Johns. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) has not announced whether he will run again.

So . . . there are already four Democratic candidates. Where is the Republican candidate? Hopefully Republicans can learn from the not-too-distant past.

In 2002, the Republicans didn't even have a candidate, at first. When Williams became a write-in candidate due to irregularities that knocked his name off the ballot, the D.C. Republican Committee (DCRC) decided the GOP needed a candidate after all because Williams looked vulnerable. So the DCRC asked Republicans to write in D.C. Councilmember Carol Schwartz for the Republican primary. She won the primary despite not campaigning and ambiguity as to whether she would accept the nomination (although total unknown Todd Zirkle secured a fair amount of votes), accepted the nomination two weeks after the primary, and lost the race for mayor for a fourth time.

Fellow Republicans, let's find at least one mayoral candidate by New Year's Day.