Time for the corny Christmas column.
Your Notebook awards the following gifts and acknowledgments with good humor, grace and a bit of satire as we look toward the 2018 mayoral race that actually starts in 2017.
■ Mayor Muriel Bowser: five golden rings.
Come the new D.C. Council period Jan. 2, the mayor at her midterm will have only one reliable, sure vote on the 13-member body. It will be Ward 4's Brandon Todd, who was handpicked by Bowser to succeed her in that seat.
Although he has since won re-election to a full term of his own, Todd alone remains fully in Bowser's court. Her other go-to allies -- LaRuby May in Ward 8, Yvette Alexander in Ward 7 and Vincent Orange at-large -- all lost their re-election bids. So Mayor Bowser is in search of four potential votes that along with Todd -- the five golden rings -- will sustain any of her vetoes (like possibly family leave legislation). Given the shifting majorities on the council depending on the issue, the five golden rings won’t necessarily always be the same council members -- except most likely Todd.
■ Attorney General Karl Racine: 10 lords a-leaping.
As Bowser prepares to run for re-election in 2018, it will be 2017 when she actually starts fundraising and securing commitments for a second term. It's no secret that Bowser sees Racine as a potentially serious challenger.
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Racine has been nothing short of an activist attorney general.
He's focused on consumer-friendly lawsuits, campaign ethics and other issues that also would look good outlined on campaign mailers. If he decides to run, his gift of 10 lords a-leaping will be the community and business leaders who will leap out front and endorse him early to set the stage for his campaign.
Does he want to run? Those close to him say he can see himself as mayor. Within the Bowser camp, there had been hope that a Hillary Clinton presidency would result in an offer to Racine of a job or judgeship he could not refuse. That's not going to happen with a President Trump.
According to a summer financial report, Racine still has hefty campaign debts from his 2014 victory.
In addition to the $27,000 he owes to consulting firm Apollo Political of Silver Spring, Racine still lists campaign debts to himself of $451,000. Those loans to his own campaign included $200,000 in August 2014, $225,000 in October that year, and $26,000 in November.
The 10 leaping lords would have to leap a lot to retire that sum. But, technically, Racine can create a new campaign committee for mayor and deal with the old attorney general debt as he can. After all, he owes it to himself.
■ Kenyan McDuffie: a fire-starter kit.
The Ward 5 council member routinely is mentioned as someone who may run for mayor. The chair of the Judiciary Committee started with a strong buzz that has muted in recent months. No one doubts that McDuffie is thoughtful and conscientious as he grapples with law enforcement issues, but there's rumbling criticism about his lack of passion or fire to make bold moves even as the crime rate offers an opportunity.
McDuffie did leap into the Ward 5 homeless shelter flap, but that was more a misstep by Bowser than a rescue mission by McDuffie. His fire-starter kit includes matches that -- if lit -- will make him stand above the crowd on the city's most volatile issue, crime.
■ Vincent Gray: a balancing bear.
You've all seen the circus bear balancing act. Everything has to be just right. The same applies to the former mayor who in his heart of hearts feels wounded by the campaign scandal that scuttled his 2014 re-election bid. The scandal ended with no charges against Gray -- and a return to the mayor's office would be the sweetest vindication.
Enter the balancing bear. Gray wasn't charged, but he was hurt politically among voters who turned against him even though many thought highly of his performance as mayor. Gray is back in politics as of Jan. 2, again elected to the Ward 7 council seat where he got his political career started.
Gray has to balance his advocacy for Ward 7 with any temptations to whack Bowser politically.
He told us he would represent Ward 7 and its issues, not become a common scold for whatever Bowser does. But if he is going to run for mayor in 2018, he'll have to balance whether a one-on-one rematch against Bowser would be successful. Maybe it would be better for Gray in a split field with Racine and/or McDuffie in the race? Gray will balance all of these possibilities, including one more: He may find that serving on the council is enough to restore his political reputation. But that balancing bear still feels the tug of the mayor's office.
■ A final word. This one has nothing to do with politics. The winter solstice is upon us, and we can look forward to gradually longer days of actual daylight. Wednesday is the shortest day of the year, with only about nine hours and eight minutes of daylight. The days will lengthen until the summer solstice on June 21, 2017, the longest day of the year.
The absence of sun is blamed for moodiness, sleep disruption, vitamin D deficiencies and assorted other maladies. If you prefer the sun, here's a summer solstice countdown clock to keep you up to the second.
Tom Sherwood, a Southwest resident, is a political reporter for News 4.
