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Jack Evans celebrated his 60th birthday yesterday at downtown’s buzzy Park at Fourteenth nightclub, but he had the perfect gift in mind for someone else: the entire District of Columbia. The gift Evans would most like to get for D.C., according to the mayoral hopeful, is himself.
“Elect me mayor!” Evans said.
Evans’ takeover of the downtown nightclub—-popular with hip-hop stars like Drake and basketball players like LeBron James—-may appear incongruous. The campaign fit right in, though, with Evans signs on the bar and beef tenderloin hors d’oeuvres circulating. Laptops open to the campaign’s ActBlue fundraising page flanked the entrance to the club, since no birthday gift is more welcome than a $2,000 max.
Much of that money is going into the Evans campaign’s total dominance of city lamp posts, organized by District field-game impresario Scott Bishop. Campaign manager Josh Brown is especially pleased with Bishop’s signs. “I want this city to look like it barfed up Jack Evans,” Brown declared.
Bishop described his strategy in more martial terms: Like any other good general, Bishops said, he softens a target up with his air force (the signs), then sends in the ground troops (canvassers).
Other than Evans, two other councilmembers—-Anita Bonds and Vincent Orange—-came to the party. LL asked Bonds if her appearance constituted a mayoral endorsement.
“Are you crazy?” Bonds replied. “They would boil me in oil!”
As for Orange, maybe LL will be at his birthday party-cum-mayoral fundraiser soon. Asked about his curious nondenial about whether he’s going to run for the top job, Orange gave LL more of the same. “I’m not saying tonight, either,” Orange said.
Photo by Will Sommer