From left to right: Murray Belman and James Lowe at Horace Mann Elementary School in Wesley Heights.

James Lowe is here ’til the end. The Wesley Heights resident arrived at Horace Mann Elementary School, just west of American University, at roughly 3:15 p.m. and plans to leave when the polls close at 8 p.m. His mission: get Carol Schwartz elected. His tools: this little stack of glossy, yellow, instructional papers with Carol Schwartz posing in her classic cheetah necklace. Someone dropped them off at his house yesterday afternoon.

But, this isn’t the first time Lowe has come out to support Schwartz. Lowe says he has known Schwartz for roughly twenty years through participating in the Republican political scene in D.C. He helped fundraise for the candidate in late summer and early fall, and his daughter, in her late 30s, was at the polling place earlier that day. Lowe said he estimated there were five people total that had shown up throughout the day to help get Schwartz elected. Hey, anything for the candidate “that holds people’s feet to the fire more than anyone else in the Council,” he says.

“You’re from the City Paper?” he asked after I introduced myself.

Right, I said.

He brightened a bit. “Loose Lips endorsed Carol,” he said.

Indeed. Liberal leanings were forgotten—-City Paper was embraced.

Schwartz was joined by fellow Republican and friend Murray Belman, a Spring Valley resident, who signed up on Sunday to help Schwartz during election day. Umbrella in hand, he declared: “I don’t care if it snowed, I’d come out for Carol.”

Belman said he’d arrived at the precinct around 3 p.m. and that he’d “stay until his wife gets here, and tells him to go home.”