First-time hopeful defying history in D.C. Council bid

A practical maxim for a first-time politician is to pick a race you can win, which will be daunting in November when Christina Culver tries to become the first Republican in D.C. Council history to win a ward seat.

Miss Culver, 43, a Kansas-bred lawyer and Sunday school teacher, said she was compelledto enter the Ward 2 race against four-term incumbent Jack Evans, a Democrat, after the D.C. tax office scam, in which a midlevel manager and nine accomplices stole nearly $50 million in taxpayer money.

“He simply wasn’t paying attention for 20 years,” Miss Culver said of Mr. Evans, chairman of the council’s Committee on Finance and Revenue, which oversees such issues.

“When I’m elected, I will usher in a new era of accountability and will end this culture of corruption affecting the D.C. Council.”

Miss Culver say her upbringing in Kansas and not being part of old-school city politics will bring a freshness to D.C. politics that is lacking.

She also says growing in the city of Lawrence, Kansas, showed her how traditional small-town values can work in a thriving, culturally diverse city.

“Lawrence is the only blue county in an all-red state, but it still has that small-town attitude,” said Miss Culver, a vice president at the Capitol Hill public policy group Dutko Worldwide.”It’s taking those small-town values and combining them with 20 years of experience working in federal government that drives my campaign.”

That Republicans are reluctant to dive into a D.C. political race is no surprise.

Democrats make up 75 percent of registered voters in the District. For the November elections, there are 279,326 registered Democrats and 29,622 Republicans. Twelve of the 13 members on the council are Democrats.

As a result, the District requires two at-large seats go to a candidate not in the dominant party. Republican Carol A. Schwartz has one seat and David A. Catania, a Republican-turned-independent, has the other. Mrs. Schwartz lost a party primary last month, but is seeking re-election in a write-in bid.

To defeat Mr. Evans, 54, Miss Culver will likely have to follow the path of Cary Silverman, the Ward 2 challenger in the September primary, who turned the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue scandal into a headache for Mr. Evans.

Mr. Silverman won 35 percent of the vote, though being outspent 12-to-1.

Miss Culver hopes to tap those who feel disenfranchised by Mr. Silverman’s defeat.

“The primary was a real indication that Jack is out of touch with his voters,” she said. “They are keenly aware of what Jack has done and what he has not done.”

Miss Culver thinks Mr. Evans should have done more concerning the tax scandal. She said she would have immediately called for the firing of D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi, under whom she said “government undersight” led to the theft.

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