When I went to bed on the evening of Dec. 2, the race for our newest city councilmember was undecided, with David Catania in the lead. However, I didn’t have a chance to pick up a Post or Times the following day, and there was no mention of it on the evening news. But I wasn’t worried: I looked forward to reading the results, and some information about the race, in Thursday morning’s Washington City Paper, where one can usually find coverage on local politics.

But I was sorely disappointed. Not a single article appeared on the election in the paper. To find out this most minimal information—the name of the winner—I was forced to peruse the negative, repugnant, and so often inaccurate gossip columnist “Loose Lips” for an answer.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, given the hypercynical tone of nearly everything printed in your pages, that you would choose not to cover the results of this election. I can see, from a cynic’s point of view, how it might seem like an insignificant election, what with all the reductions in the council’s power over the last two years. But it is significant, for a couple of reasons: The city has elected its first openly gay councilmember. He is also a Republican, unusual for a D.C. elected official. And he displaced the preanointed/presupposed winner of the election (so designated by the audacity of our current council). These are significant, to me at least.

I would like to have found, in this paper that bills itself as representing my city, more about this new councilmember, would like to read of the successful strategies of his campaign and about the campaigns of the other candidates. I would like to have found information on voter turnout, profiles of those who voted, and a breakdown on the percentages won by each candidate.

Is that too much to ask?

Shaw

via the Internet