You may have heard that Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans appears to have gotten himself into a bit of trouble. He has also resigned from the Metro Board after an ethics investigation found that he repeatedly and knowingly used his position as board chairman to benefit friends and clients. We know that he's currently under federal investigation since the FBI raided his home in late June. As well, Evans is being investigated by a law firm hired by the DC Council as his colleagues attempt to determine the scope of this ethical violations and whether it affected his work for the city.
If there's a silver lining to this story, it's that we're coming up on an election year. Many of you readers (if indeed you're still out there) live in Ward 2 and have a chance to vote for someone else in the Democratic primary on June 2, 2020. But it's going to be a little complicated unseating Evans. Right now he has five enthusiastic challengers. Considering he ran unopposed in 2016, this is progress (though I see you, disgruntled 370 voters who wrote in someone else). Fewer than 8,000 people voted for Ward 2 councilmember in the last primary, which in our one-party city is the de facto election. So we're going to need to turn people out for the primary. We're also going to need to find a way to avoid splitting the vote so that Evans walks away with a majority by default. We may loop back to this issue later.
So here are some steps you can take right now:
- Start educating yourself about the candidates (other than Evans--we've already educated you about him). They are, in order that they announced
- Patrick Kennedy
- Jordan Grossman
- John Fanning
- Daniel Hernandez
- Kishan Putta
- Donate to a candidate, or several, whom you like. It will show Evans and journalists that an opposition is forming.
- If you're a Ward 2 resident, put June 2 on your calendar. You need to show up and vote. If you haven't registered to vote using your DC address yet, get on that.
- Go check out sackjack.org. When the Council returns from recess, they'll be mounting a campaign to pressure our electeds to move forward with sanctions against Evans.
