Posted by Vince Wadhwani on Aug 30, 2006

September 12 is only the primary, but DC is so heavily Democratic that for all intents and purposes it may as well be the election itself. I had a chance to hear one candidate, Marie Johns, speak and answer a number of questions in a small private forum consisting of about 40 Georgetown residents.

Here are my quick observations:
  • I was impressed that she did not back down from tough issues. She did not hesitate to mention that some programs she would create would not start in Ward 2 at all but in Ward 8. I liked that she was straight up and not playing the populist. Running a city is hard work and and impossible job if you are promising everything to everyone. Overall she seemed on top of most of the issues that were thrown at her despite the fact the questions were not known ahead of time.
  • She explicitly mentioned an issue that was brought up by Brendan over at Make DC Safe. That is, putting police patrols on foot. I'm grateful to Brendan for bringing this issue up. It's obvious how this would help in retrospect but it took vision to see it.
  • Obviously I feel strongly about Independent Businesses so I was concerned that, with her Verizon background, she would be thinking mostly out big business when it comes to rebuilding some communities or starting some projects. So I was glad that she was supportive of small business in general but not really surprised that she does not make any special mention of independent retailers and the competition they face from chains. DC has so much in the way of monuments that no DC Mayor would fear losing tourist tax dollars because of a homogeneous retail footprint.

I left the meeting encouraged that she was both unafraid and intelligent enough to get the job done well. I could empathize with her when it comes to motivation. She is running for Mayor for the same reason I started BuyIndie; it is a labor of love.

Just a reminder that no matter what your opinion is, please take the time to vote on September 12!