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Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander has avoided the embarrassing, but not necessarily fatal, spectacle of failing to qualify for April’s ballot.
The Board of Elections and Ethics ruled today it that it didn’t find any “substantial evidence” of rule-breaking by the Alexander campaign, only a “sloppy nature” by which it gathered the signatures necessary for Alexander to qualify as a candidate.
At issue was whether Alexander campaign aides submitted signatures they said they’d personally gathered but were actually gathered by paid circulators. Aide Derek Ford said at a hearing last week that he’d hired “assistants” to help him gather signatures while leaving the affidavit signed by circulators unsigned. But after talking to Alexander’s lawyer, lobbyist and beloved group home leader David Wilmot, Ford said he threw those signatures away and only submitted signatures he’d personally gathered.
The board indicated that it’s not pleased with Ford’s “inability … to explain several deficiencies which ultimately raised questions as to whether the board should trust the veracity of his testimony.” LL’s not exactly sure what that means, but it apparently wasn’t enough to discount Ford’s version of events and keep Alexander off the ballot.
In other BOEE news: Republican hopeful Rick Santorum is the only GOP candidate still standing who won’t appear on the D.C. primary ballot. Democratic at-large candidates E. Gail Anderson Holness, who LL has never heard of, also survived a challenge and will be on the ballot. And Peaceoholics co-founder Jauhar Abraham only submitted 163 valid signatures, the board ruled, meaning his bid to unseat Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry is over, for now.