From the Washington City Paper blog City Desk
D.C. Republicans have submitted a letter this afternoon to the Board of Elections and Ethics demanding that Michael A. Brown be ruled ineligible to claim the at-large council seat he won on Nov. 4.
The argument rests on the language of the District’s Home Rule Charter, which states that no more than two of the four at-large members can be “affiliated” with the same party. Brown, the D.C. GOP argues, is clearly affiliated with the Democratic party, making him the third at-large Dem, in addition to Kwame R. Brown and Phil Mendelson.
Brown, son of former Democratic National Committee chair Ron Brown, had changed his voter registration in May from Democratic to no-party status. Since then, however, he has repeatedly expressed his support in public forums for the Democratic presidential ticket and billed himself as an “independent Democrat” in his campaign literature.
The Repubs cite both of those facts as evidence that Brown is really a Democrat. The letter was drafted by lawyer Charlie Spies of McKenna Long & Aldridge on behalf of the D.C. Republican Committee. The board had planned to certify the genera election results Monday.
BOEE spokesperson Dan Murphy was not immediately available for comment, as was Brown.
Spies says he’s confident the board will refuse to certify Brown’s win. And if that doesn’t happen, he says, “We are preserving all options.” Board decisions can be appealed to the D.C. Court of Appeals.
