Sekou Biddle, who served as an interim D.C. Council member for about three months before he was ousted in a special election in April, has officially begun a bid to reclaim his at-large seat in next year’s election.
Mr. Biddle, a Democrat, filed his declaration of candidacy on Tuesday at the city’s Board of Elections and Ethics.
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The D.C. Democratic State Committee appointed Mr. Biddle, a former member of the D.C. State Board of Education, in January to fill the at-large seat vacated by Kwame R. Brown when he rose to council chairman after the 2010 election.
But the decision compelled Vincent Orange, a former council member from Ward 5 who wanted the seat, to launch a successful campaign ahead of the special election.
Mr. Orange was buoyed by a fractured vote among nine candidates that included a second-place finish by Republican candidate Patrick Mara ahead of Mr. Biddle, whose endorsements from Mr. Brown and Mayor Vincent C. Gray turned into a liability early in the year amid ethics scandals at city hall.
Now, Mr. Biddle is making good on reports he had been mulling a 2012 campaign and setting up a new primary battle with Mr. Orange.
Council member Michael A. Brown, at-large independent, is also up for re-election next year. However, as a third-party candidate he will bypass the April primary and go directly to the November ballot.
