ANC 2E Elections: One Competitive Race
By • October 12, 2022 0 1037
The Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E (ANC 2E) is a highly active quasi-governmental advisory group that covers Georgetown, Burleith and Hillandale. It meets monthly to update the community on District issues and make proposals in the area’s interests that are to be seriously considered by the D.C. Council and city agencies. ANC 2E has eight elected commissioners representing each of 8 distinct geographic areas. After the November 8 elections, there will be five new faces on ANC2E. So far, however, only one race is competitive. Two have candidates with no opponents, one has an active write-in candidate and two have no candidates to date. The other three are being held by incumbent commissioners with no challengers.
Commissioners staying on without opponents are Kishan Putta (01), Elizabeth Miller (07) and Gwendolyn Lohse (06). Mimsey Lindner is running unopposed to take the seat of Lisa Palmer (05). The write-in candidate to replace retiring ANC Chairperson Rick Murphy (05) is Paul Maysak, who decided to run too late to be on the ballot but has no opponents of his write-in campaign. The two seats representing Georgetown University (04 and 08) and surrounding residential and commercial areas, as yet have no candidates. “Usually, the two seats have been filled by ongoing students, some of whom become very active ANC commissioners,” Murphy told The Georgetowner. “Often recruitment is an informal process encouraged by the Georgetown Campus Outreach Center. But a candidate does not have to be a student.” If the seats are vacant after the election Murphy confirmed there was a (“wonderfully complicated”) process put in place by the D.C. government to fill them.
The competitive ANC election race is for the 02 district currently represented by Jenny Mitchell. Both candidates Christopher (Topher) Mathews and Patrick Clawson are long-time active Georgetown residents who often throughout many years have attended and participated in ANC meetings and discussions. For many years, Topher has also produced an almost daily one-or-two-item online newsletter called Georgetown Metropolitan. For decades Clawson has served as chairperson of various Citizens Association of Georgetown project committees and the Georgetown Community Partnership.
The bios and basic campaign positions of Mathews and Clawson as well as that of Lindner were reported in The Georgetowner on May 5.
In update interviews on October 7, both Mathews and Clawson reiterated their basic concerns: Mathews’s focus would be on constituent services for various groups including seniors and pedestrians, especially children; safer streets that might include some reconfiguration of driving patterns, and commercial revitalization that has to focus on working together with businesses. Clawson would focus on public safety including hazardous driving conditions, bikes and scooters as well as law enforcement staffing; quality of life issues including the challenge of students and restaurants residing and doing business right next to family and senior residences; and commercial development including cutting through the complicated permitting and licensing processes.
Both Mathews and Clawson reiterated that there’s only so much an ANC can do. But they both are adamant about the power of listening to all community members to discover the best common ground for solutions. Each will be visiting neighborhoods and welcoming discussions with constituents during this next month’s campaign season.
