Change Gonna Come

Change gonna come, and sometimes it happens a lot faster than we think. Nobody expected the Ad-hoc Committee investigating Jack Evans to vote unanimously (12 – 0) for expulsion. Whether Jack resigns or is ultimately expelled (likely in January, due to procedural constraints), it looks like we’re headed for a special election in Ward 2. Wow!

The Ad-hoc Committee meeting is worth watching (click here for the video, and fast forward to the 1 hr, 5 minute mark). Many Councilmembers made eloquent remarks that may well have changed minds as the meeting progressed. We should particularly recognize At-Large Councilmembers David Grosso, Elissa Silverman and Robert White for their leadership in being the first to call for expulsion, and Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, who chairs the committee, for expediting the vote to expel. While we are disappointed the Council as a whole took so long to reach this point, we are heartened that they finally heard The People loud and clear.

DC4D has been a staunch critic of Jack for years. We have never endorsed him, although he was unopposed, preferring “No Endorsement.” Last March, we passed a resolution calling on the Council to reprimand Jack and remove him from all committees, following up with an email campaign to carry out our resolution and recently a second email campaign to vote for expulsion. And more generally, we have long criticized the culture of pay-to-play corruption that Jack embodied, and we have worked hard to change that culture with transformative policies such as Fair Elections and other campaign finance legislation. Since the Summer, we have promoted a pay-to-play reform petition (focused on Wards 2 and 4) calling for specific policies, such as banning second jobs and eliminating constituent service funds.

So given our history, it was no surprise that many of our members were in the room during the vote. Nicole Hohler, Dia King, Dave Power and John Qua got a lot of media attention with their t-shirts (pictured above). Also in attendance were John Capozzi, Paula Dyan, Kesh Ladduwahetty, Jesse Lovell, Rudi Riet, Ande Rosen, and John and Linda Zottoli. There were several DC4D members who were there in other capacities: Zach Weinstein and Joanna Blotner (Jews United for Justice staff), Ward 2 Council candidate Jordan Grossman and Robin Diener. Special thanks to Zach for organizing the shirt visibility!

The work for honest government that serves the public interest continues (we will continue to push for our current pay-to-play and election reforms, while also fighting for new ideas in 2020!), as always, but for now, we celebrate a VERY big win for democracy.