P.O. Box 75265, Washington, DC 20013
http://www.glaa.org
August 19, 2004
For Immediate ReleaseContact: Rick Rosendall, Political Vice President
202-667-5139
Evans, Schwartz, Fenty, and Brooks
Dominate GLAA’s Candidate Ratings
Four candidates dominated the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C. (GLAA) candidate ratings for the September 14 primaries. Ward 2 Democratic Councilmember Jack Evans, At-Large Republican Councilmember Carol Schwartz, Ward 4 Democratic Councilmember Adrian Fenty, and At-Large Democratic challenger Sam Brooks all have excellent ratings.Candidates are rated on a scale of -10 to +10, based on their answers to GLAA's questionnaire and their record on behalf of the gay and lesbian community. The questionnaires address a variety of issues including same-sex marriage, sensitivity training for police and firefighters, oversight of the HIV/AIDS Administration, support of legislation to strengthen the HIV Unique Identifier system, and increased funding for the Office of Human Rights. The GLAA agenda, questionnaire, and complete candidate responses are available online at www.glaa.org.
Most candidates expressed support or at least openness to GLAA’s suggestion of a break-up of the Committee on Human Services, which alone has oversight responsibilities for departments accounting for a quarter of the entire D.C. annual budget. Most candidates also voiced strong opposition to the federally funded school voucher program that subsidizes religious schools that are free to ignore the D.C. Human Rights Act of 1977 by discriminating against gay and lesbian students, teachers, and staff.
Jack Evans once again was rated at the maximum +10 points. Evans has been consistently our community’s strongest ally on the Council and was noted in the ratings for authoring, introducing, and shepherding through the “District of Columbia Deed Recordation Tax Amendment Act of 2003,” a bill passed unanimously by the Council and expected to become effective at the end of September and which will significantly expand the rights and responsibilities of domestic partners.
Carol Schwartz likewise has been a strong ally on the Council for a very long time. Her +9.5 is considered extremely high. Her questionnaire was marred by her continued reluctance on support for marriage, although her answer clearly indicates her support for the rights of same-sex couples. Schwartz authored and introduced the Human Rights Amendment Act of 2002, a significant law that explicitly makes harassment an illegal form of discrimination and closes many of the loopholes used by the District in the Tyra Hunter case. Schwartz also has excelled in lobbying the U.S. Congress and others for our rights.
Adrian Fenty earned a +8.5 rating for his consistent and strong support for issues of concern to our community. He has been an important ally and has been quick to follow up with District agencies that fail to respond on our issues. Fenty was noted for his strong opposition to vouchers which earned him an extra half point. Fenty is also the most improved candidate. His rating this year is a significant and welcome improvement over the +0.5 he earned four years ago.
First time candidate Sam Brooks earned an impressive +7.5. Brooks’ questionnaire outshone all but our longtime friends. Brooks agrees with all of GLAA’s positions and discussed them eloquently. Although he lacks the depth of record that the incumbents have on our issues, he notably is one of the two candidates to list gay issues on their websites.
Brooks is challenging At-Large Democratic Councilmember Harold Brazil who earned a +4.5. Although Brazil has been a supporter of expanding domestic partnership rights, he disagrees with us on a number of issues, including same-sex marriage. Brazil also vigorously opposed legislation that allowed night clubs with nude dancing licenses to move or sell their licenses.
Brooks' other rival is At-Large Democratic candidate Kwame Brown who earned a +1.5. Brown changed his position on same-sex marriage during the campaign. He spoke in favor of it at the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club endorsement meeting, and against it at the Ward 4 Democratic Committee endorsement forum. He also opposes same-sex marriage in our questionnaire. Brown’s other answers and limited record do not make up for this difference of positions before different audiences.
At-Large Republican challenger Robert Pittman earned a +2. Pittman has testified in favor of the creation of the Office of Citizen Complaint Review which investigates allegations of police misconduct.
At-Large Statehood Green challenger Laurent Ross earned a +2.5 from his questionnaire. He does not have a known record on gay issues.
Ward 8 Democratic Councilmember Sandy Allen received a -5.5. Allen’s rating does not mean she is anti-gay. Far from it. She has been consistently supportive of domestic partnership legislation, same-sex marriage and many other issues. However, on health issues, her questionnaire and record are abhorrent. She chairs the Committee on Human Services, which has oversight responsibilities for the Department of Health including the HIV/AIDS Administration (HAA), yet she has completely failed to recognize or deal with the problems at HAA. For six years she has brushed off GLAA’s concerns about gross mismanagement, financial shenanigans, sexual harassment, and illegal manipulation of the contract process for the benefit of the friends of the former Director. HAA is now the subject of multiple investigations, and defendant in lawsuits from current and former employees. Community activists have called for the federal government to investigate and audit HAA for misappropriation of federal funds because of a serious lack of local oversight. In the past 6 years, Allen has only held one oversight hearing on HAA, which has a budget of $82 million. This hearing was only held because other Councilmembers pressured her to do so at GLAA’s request.
GLAA worked hard to keep partial Social Security Numbers out of the unique-identifier code that is used to track and report people with HIV for epidemiological purposes. The use of Social Security Numbers compromises the confidentiality of the reporting process and has the strong potential of discouraging people from getting tested for HIV. Sandy Allen vigorously opposed this effort and opposed legislation that would have corrected the problem. She only held a hearing on the bill under pressure from other councilmembers and then refused to hold a vote on the measure, effectively stopping it, despite strong support from a majority of the Council.
Unfortunately, none of the challengers for her Ward 8 council seat earned high ratings. Ward 8 Democratic challenger Marion Barry, who did not return a questionnaire, received a +1 rating based on his early and strong support for an array of gay issues which has aided our community immensely. However, his support for our community largely disappeared at the time that his personal life overtook his political achievements. In the past decade, he has been mostly silent on our issues.
Ward 8 Democratic challenger Jacque Patterson — the only challenger in Ward 8 to respond to our questions — has no known record on gay issues and only earned +1.5 from his questionnaire.
Ward 8 Democratic challenger William Lockridge, who did not return a questionnaire, earned a +1.5 for his gay supportive work on the School Board and his history of AIDS education.
Three candidates in Ward 7 are nearly in a ratings tie. Democratic challenger Almetia Hairston-Hamilton earned a +4.5, while Republican challenger Jerod Tolson and Statehood-Green candidate Michele Tingling-Clemmons each earned a +4. While these ratings are not outstanding, they largely reflect good questionnaires but weak records on our issues. Tingling-Clemmons posted her questionnaire responses on her own website.
Ward 7 Democratic Councilmember Kevin Chavous, who did not return a signed questionnaire, earned a disappointing -3 for his poor record and notably for his strong support for vouchers which helped undermine Home Rule and ended the Human Rights Act protections for students who will now attend religious schools at taxpayer expense.
Ward 7 Democratic challenger Vincent Gray failed to submit a questionnaire, so his rating of 0 reflects a balance between the positive and negative aspects of his record. He did a number of worthwhile things while heading the Department of Health and Human Services in the early 1990s; more recently, as Executive Director of Covenant House, he turned down a federal grant for an abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education program. However, his firing of Caitlin Ryan from the Office of HIV and AIDS more than a decade ago was a shameful capitulation to the worst anti-gay and racist demagoguery by the Nation of Islam and others who sought to profit from the sales of a discredited “miracle cure” for AIDS.
All candidates were provided with the detailed agenda on the range of issues of concern to GLAA. Ratings should not be interpreted as endorsements. GLAA does not endorse candidates in partisan elections.
GLAA has rated candidates for office in every D.C. primary and general election since 1971. Independent council candidates and school board candidates will be rated prior to the general election.
The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, DC, is a local, all-volunteer, non-partisan, non-profit political organization, founded in 1971 to advance the equal rights of gay men and lesbians in Washington, DC. We are the nation's oldest continuously active gay and lesbian civil rights organization.
GLAA Ratings for 2004 D.C. Council Primary
To see the full text of a candidate's questionnaire responses, click on his or her name below.
(All questionnaires posted have been signed by the candidates
to verify their personal commitment to their answers.)We reserve the right to re-rate candidates based on additional information received during the campaign.
At-Large D.C. Councilmember
Ward 2 D.C. Councilmember
Ward 4 D.C. Councilmember
Ward 7 D.C. Councilmember
Ward 8 D.C. Councilmember
Note: Ratings marked with an asterisk (*) indicate a candidate who did not return a
questionnaire
and was therefore rated solely on his or her known record on GLAA’s issues.
Breakdown of available ratings points
| Questionnaire: yes/no | +/- 2 points |
| Questionnaire: substantive grasp of issues | +/- 4 points |
| Record: | +/- 3 points |
| Championship: taking the lead on an issue of concern to gay men and lesbians | +/- 1 point |
| Total available: | +/- 10 points |
Click here to view a detailed breakdown of all candidates' ratings points.
The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, DC is a local, all-volunteer, non-partisan, non-profit political organization, founded in 1971 to advance the equal rights of gay men and lesbians in Washington, DC. We are the nation’s oldest continuously active gay and lesbian civil rights organization.