Washington, DC – Early organizing by Muriel Bowser and the stench of corruption emanating from the office of current Mayor Vincent Gray has propelled Councilwoman Bowser into a thin lead for the DC Democratic Party nomination today.  

Over the past few weeks, Bowser has consolidated support from a fractured field of candidates to garner 30% of the support of District Democrats. Bowser’s vision for the District has earned attention. Incumbent Gray holds a base of support that is virtually unchanged at 27% of Democrats. Festering problems with the city’s ambulance services and police forces, as well as the slipping pace of educational performance in public schools and District government have further hampered his appeal. In this stagnant fix, Gray has now embraced Marion Barry and his brand of party patronage to get out the vote: “It is us against the world”.

What is remarkable in the world capital of democracy is the District party’s diminished sense of democratic process and majority rule. The District’s Democratic Party allows nominees to be opposed by overwhelming majorities of voters and still be nominated.  

Consider this, after 4 years of serving as Mayor over 70% of District Democrats do not want Vincent Gray to be the next nominee.  Underscoring this point is recent polling that shows Gray is the second choice of only 10% of DC Democrats. Yet the system that gave Gray the office of Mayor four years ago, is still structured to return him as the Democratic nominee today. Gray has only to get more votes than any other candidate.  Not a majority of the votes. No run off against the second best performing candidate.

The illegal manipulation of this system as part of his winning campaign the last time has resulted in ongoing convictions for those in Gray’s senior circle. Gray wants this to stop. The Federal investigators have other observations: it’s only “the tip of the iceberg.”

DC businessman Jeffrey Thompson has pled guilty to spending $700,000.00 in a shadow campaign to help Gray win the Democratic Party endorsement in the same easily manipulated system four years ago. That “juice” that funded voter turn out for Gray the last time may not be so apparent this time, but the field of play in which it is conducted has not changed.