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Loose Lips predicted six months ago that Lisa Gore would run a tough-on-crime campaign. And that bit of forecasting in her challenge to Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George seems to have been spot-on. LL did not have it on his bingo card, however, that Gore would do so by calling Lewis George a lawmaker who “protects the criminal element more so than the public.”

“You can look at the record, you can look at the votes and you determine for yourself: Is it better for you, or is it better for the person that committed a crime?” Gore asked Tuesday night at a Brightwood forum convened by the Ward 4 Democrats. 

That’s a far cry from the vague allusions about public safety concerns the former at-large candidate favored when she entered the race last fall. But with crime dominating headlines for the past year and Lewis George standing up as the rare councilmember to challenge the rightward turn embraced by most local politicians, it was inevitable that sharper attacks would follow. 

Gore, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Hawthorne, has hit Lewis George most forcefully thus far, but the other, lesser known challenger in the race—ex-Petworth ANC Paul Johnson—has used similar rhetoric in the final weeks before the June 4 primary. At Tuesday’s forum, he accused Lewis George of working to “weaken” the “Secure DC” crime bill by passing an amendment to an anti-mask provision. Never mind that the bill’s sponsor, Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto, ultimately accepted Lewis George’s changes as a friendly amendment to the legislation: It’s primary season and facts tend to fly out the window.

“It’s one thing to say crimes are being prosecuted now, but that hasn’t been the messaging over the past three to four years,” Johnson chided Lewis George this week.

But is this approach actually working? Most D.C. politicos to speak with LL don’t seem to think so, whether they’re for or against Lewis George. And they aren’t expecting too much drama in what initially appeared to be an interesting contest.

Gore, in particular, has not gained the sort of traction that Lewis George’s detractors might’ve hoped when she first entered the race. Her fundraising just hasn’t kept pace with the incumbent’s, and the outside groups with big money have yet to get involved in the race to bail her out.

For a closer look inside the Ward 4 primary, and what it says about crime politics in the city moving forward, check out our full story online.

—Alex Koma (tips? akoma@washingtoncitypaper.com)

• Navy Yard residents are upset about some kids causing a “ruckus” at the CVS on New Jersey Avenue SE. A video posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday night shows a group of young people, one of whom is riding a scooter in the store, running around as police arrive. CVS locations in D.C. have had a rough go of it lately. The Columbia Heights location has been closed, and a CVS spokesperson told 7News of plans to close their Waterfront location on 4th Street SW on May 15. [WJLA]
• The Washington Mystics currently play their home games at the 4,200-seat, generically named Entertainment and Sports Arena—the WNBA’s second smallest arena. But as interest in women’s basketball is on the rise, the team could start playing some of its games at a bigger venue like, say, Capital One Arena. [WTOP]
• The skinniest home in D.C. can be yours for just under $600K. But this home is not for the claustrophobic, at only 6 feet wide and 45 feet long. Nady Samang is the CEO behind Omnifics, the contractor that built the emaciated house. He says that the home is only that skinny because the District only granted approval for those dimensions. [WTOP]

By Cat Sposato (tips? csposato@washingtoncitypaper.com)

• Hundreds of cyclists hit the streets Wednesday night to protest Mayor Muriel Bowser’s decision to remove bike lanes from a planned upgrade of Connecticut Avenue NW. [NBC Washington]
• D.C. has made substantial progress in diverting its waste away from landfills and into recycling and composting programs. But the city is still unlikely to achieve the goals laid out in its ambitious “Sustainable DC” plan from 2013. [Informer]
• Top restaurant lobbyist Shawn Townsend says his trade association knows D.C. doesn’t have the money to provide more relief funding for the industry, but he will still push for changes to licensing requirements to make things easier on restaurant operators. In particular, he wants revisions to D.C.’s “Clean Hands” rules, which require applicants for various licenses and permits to have paid off D.C. government fines. [WBJ]

By Alex Koma (tips? akoma@washingtoncitypaper.com)