The leading candidates in the D.C. mayoral race made a bigger splash with their personal attacks on one another than they did with their plans to fix the city’s problems during the second debate Monday night, less than a month before the primary election.
The blows landed by former D.C. Council member Kenyan McDuffie, Ward 4 council member Janeese Lewis George and political outsider Gary Goodweather dominated the forum at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, with the candidates discussing the affordability and youth crime challenges felt throughout the nation’s capital.
The three-way race offers Washingtonians their first chance in 12 years to elect a new mayor, as Muriel Bowser announced she would not seek a fourth term.
Mr. McDuffie, a former at-large independent, slammed his former council colleague Ms. Lewis George, a Democrat, for her lack of support for the emergency youth curfew that expired this month.
District of Columbia Ward 4 Councilwoman …
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Curfew supporters, such as Ms. Bowser and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, have argued the measure’s absence contributed to a teen-led brawl inside a Navy Yard Chipotle over the weekend.
“We all saw what happened in Chipotle, and it didn’t have to happen. The council had an opportunity to act just a few weeks ago, before the curfew expired, but they didn’t act, because Janeese Lewis George shut it down,” Mr. McDuffie said. “She put politics over public safety.”
Ms. Lewis George said Mr. McDuffie previously didn’t support the curfew when the two were council together and accused him of changing his tune because he’s taking campaign donations from conservative backers.
“He’s now using cheap political points from Republicans to score in this moment, and it’s disingenuous and disheartening,” Ms. Lewis George said.
Mr. Goodweather, a real estate developer and Army veteran running as a Democrat, blamed both lawmakers for relying on the curfews because they are a “failure of the system that my two colleagues, who have been on council for a combined 20 years, have failed to address.”
He said the curfews need to have a set endpoint, adding that more effort should be dedicated to tackling the poverty and mental health issues driving juvenile crime.
The debate turned more civil when the candidates discussed affordability in the city.
Mr. Goodweather said he wanted to rewrite the District’s tax code and overhaul the Department of Buildings to make it easier to construct new housing in the District.
Mr. McDuffie said cutting red tape so new types of businesses can move into the vacant office spaces downtown, such as childcare facilities, will alleviate burdens on the District’s “missing middle” — the residents who are too wealthy to qualify for city services, but still struggle financially.
And Ms. Lewis George proposed her plan to expand universal access to childcare so that “no family is spending more than 7% of their income on childcare.”
But a moderator question about Ms. Lewis George’s plan to institute a business tax to fund her initiatives, despite the District’s worsening economic climate due to the downsized federal government, invited attacks once again.
Mr. McDuffie mentioned how his former council colleague has described her plan as levying a new tax on businesses at different forums, while Ms. Lewis George framed her budgetary plans as “closing a loophole” that dulls D.C. businesses’ competitive edge against Maryland and Virginia.
The Democratic primary election, the decisive race in the deep blue city, will be held on June 16.
