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At-Large Councilmember Vincent Orange’s attempt to pass emergency legislation today to start an ethics “task force” met with spectacular failure today. His colleagues voted 12 to 1 to sink the legislation, but not before chastising Orange for making them cast a no vote on anything ethics related.
LL reported on the backstory yesterday: Councilmember Muriel Bowser told Orange to knock off the “political pandering” and allow her to guide the plethora of ethics-related bills through the legislative process.
Today Orange said the council is “afraid” to allow outsiders to take a crack at ethics reform.
That led to another rebuke from Bowser, who told Orange to stop campaigning from the dais “just for half a second.” (Both Bowser and Orange are up for re-election in six months).
Despite the overwhelming failure of his legislation, LL is guessing that Orange views today’s vote as a political success. Expect campaign literature extolling his courageous stand sometime soon.