Monday, October 6, 2008
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.
Mr. Evans praised Mr. Gandhi for taking immediate action after the scandal was uncovered in November 2007, securing the resignation of supervisors and of the director of the tax agency.
"Good people can't always be good servants," Miss Culver said. "Natwar Gandhi has been there too long and has overseen too many corrupt issues."
Mr. Evans said he has met Miss Culver only once and knows little about her.
"None of my staff seems to know much about her either, and I'm not sure what that says about her campaign," he said. "If my campaign is in the dark, how much can the voters know?"
Miss Culver says the most important issue affecting Ward 2, which includes most of downtown and Georgetown, is economic growth.
Mr. Evans has played a key role in revitalizing the downtown area and has made that a centerpiece for his campaign, saying the Verizon Center, which he championed more than 10 years ago, has been a catalyst for Ward 2 growth.
Miss Culver says blockbuster development deals and taxpayer-funded projects such as Nationals Park do little for small business.
"The people who build a Bloomingdale's in Georgetown Park cannot vote," she said.
"You have to remember who is voting in these neighborhoods, and I feel a lot of people would like to see fresh representation."
Miss Culver instead favors lowering property taxes and making the District attractive for entrepreneurs to create more jobs.
She says her work is driven by a commitment to community values, whether teaching Sunday school at Christ Church, in Georgetown, or serving on the board of Living Classrooms D.C., a nonprofit group that provides education and job training to at-risk youth.
"I am a firm believer in the idea that neighbors should hold neighbors accountable," said Miss Culver, who also worked at the White House for President George H.W. Bush and for Sen. Bob Dole's presidential race in 1988.
Her colleagues agree.
"She has time and again shown great interest in the welfare of underprivileged youth, so we think she will be a great asset for the city," said Mari Lou Livingood, spokesman for Living Classrooms D.C. and a friend of Miss Culver.