Readers of The Washington Post learned this morning that Ward One D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham will be attending tomorrow night’s Lady Gaga show at the Verizon Center. But unlike many of the other fans who will trek down to the arena, Graham will be attending gratis, thanks to the controversial tradition of awarding free luxury-box seats to the city’s elected officials.

Though pols last year proposed auctioning off their free tickets, which would presumably help close the city’s budget gap, the sales never came to pass. Indeed, according to Tim Craig‘s story, councilmembers have been getting downright cranky of late about not getting their allotted tickets to basketball and hockey games and other Verizon Center events. The issue apparently came up at last week’s D.C. Council retreat, an event presumably designed to focus on pressing municipal issues.

Apparently, all that griping worked: Graham has received his allotment of two tickets to the big show.

There’s just one problem: The councilmember tells the Post he plans to attend solo and give the other ticket away. The paper offers no details on just who the lucky guest will be. But we imagine that a man of the people like Graham would never just give the spare box seat to some well-connected political insider. Instead, he surely hopes to award the pass to some deserving member of the community.

In the spirit of helpfulness, we at Washington City Paper propose that Graham take along the constituent who makes the best case for coming. Have at it, folks: Use the comments section below to explain why you, among all Washingtonians, should accompany Jim Graham to tomorrow night’s concert. Graham may not actually use this contest to select the recipient of his largesse, but we promise to choose a winner of our own.

Unfortunately, as non-elected officials, we have no free concert tickets to offer that lucky person.

*Note: We can not guarantee that winner will actually be invited to Lady Gaga show by Jim Graham, or by anyone else. Sorry.

Photo of Lady Gaga by Stephen Carlile via Wikimedia Commons

Photo of Jim Graham by Darrow Montgomery