If Mayor Adrian Fenty winning the Republican nomination as a write-in candidate, even though he couldn’t accept it without registering with the GOP, paints D.C.’s Republicans as a little bit odd and quixotic, their runner-up write-in choice just makes them look sad.

Though we here at City Paper were theorizing that it might be current national obsession Michelle Rhee, the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics (BOEE) says the second “top vote-getter” for the GOP line was in fact  presumptive mayor-elect Vincent Gray. It makes sense that a candidate-less Republican primary would list toward the two dominant office-seekers, but it also seems a little sad for democracy. Even though Republican mayoral nominees like 2006’s David Kranich have often been invisible, at least there’s someone out there representing the GOP brand.

BOEE spokesperson Alysoun McLaughlin says Gray got about “five or six hundred votes” from District Republicans. Fenty won the minority-party primary with 822 votes. She says no other write-in candidates besides Fenty or Gray were able to attract a large portion of conservative voters.

There were, however, a few ballots cast for Sarah Palin.

A Palin for D.C. mayor campaign is a far-fetched idea, but one never knows what the future may hold. (After all, Palin is apparently willing to run for office in situations where no one else wants to step up.) We look forward to Mayor Palin’s eventual resignation in 2013, when she realizes she can better serve the people of the District without a title.

Photo by lifeisaprayer via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0