“The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.” –P. G. Wodehouse
Raynard Jackson Decries Loss of Black Leadership See Page 26 •
C e l e b r a t i n g 4 8 Ye a r s o f S e r v i c e
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Serving More Than 50,000 African American Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area / Vol. 48, No. 28 Apr. 25 - May 1, 2013
Anita Bonds expresses her jubilation upon learning that she will retain her seat on the D.C. Council on Tuesday, April 23. /Photo by Roy Lewis
Bonds Retains Council Seat
By Barrington M. Salmon and Michelle Phipps-Evans WI Staff Writers
D.C. Council member Anita Bonds prevailed in a special election race that pundits and commentators up to the last hours of the months-long campaign said would be decided by
perhaps as few as a couple hundred votes. But by night’s end, Bonds had garnered 32 percent of the citywide vote in an election officials from the D.C. Board of Elections said was the lowest voter turnout in history. While there are more than 505,000 registered voters in the District
of Columbia, 49,869 voters – a paltry 9.86 percent of the electorate – bothered to cast a ballot. Elissa Silverman came in second with 27.5 percent and Republican Patrick Mara tallied 22.7 percent of the vote. Bonds had been serving as the interim at-large council mem-
ber. In December, the D.C. Democratic State Committee appointed Bonds – chairperson of the committee since 2006 – to temporarily fill D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson’s seat. The vacancy occurred when Mendelson was elected to replace his predecessor Kwame Brown who pled guilty to a fel-
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ony charge and resigned from office. Hence, the need for the special election. “Thank you for all you did today,” Bonds said to a loud, festive and vocal throng of supporters at the Channel Inn in Southwest. “This is a wonderful occasion for our city. It took all
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