It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year for Mayor Muriel Bowser.
With apologies to Judith Viorst’s children’s book title, both Bowser and District citizens are glad to see 2023 slink away. It was the most difficult political year in Bowser’s nine years as mayor. The D.C. Council didn’t fare so well, either.
From the sexual misdeeds of Bowser’s closest adviser, to a yearlong rampage of violent crime that is shaking the city, to the announced decampment of the Capitals and Wizards to Alexandria, it’s been a year of despairing news.
Running for reelection in 2022, Bowser had been warned by many that third terms often turn out poorly for public officials. She even joked about it last January as she took the oath of office for her third term.
“You know what that say about third times [cq],” she said, smiling while deadpan and pausing dramatically, “they’re a charm.” She went on to say her third term would be a time for bold ideas and progress, especially after a second term roiled by the worst COVID years, the George Floyd protests, and the Capitol Hill insurrection. “And now I greet you today with more hope and with more optimism for the future than ever before.”
Then came February. For once, ongoing turmoil over the District’s 911 emergency call center seemed headed in a better direction. Bowser tapped an experienced new director, Heather McGaffin, who declared, “We’re going to be transparent and accountable.” But what followed was a year of controversial missteps, secrecy, and misdirected emergency responses, including a botched call to Rhode Island Avenue NE, where 10 dogs died in a flash flood.
In March, out came John Falcicchio’s penis.
Falcicchio was the mayor’s longtime chief of staff, her confidant, frequently at her side at events and parties. Bowser even tapped him to serve as deputy mayor for economic development, giving him direct say over who got what city jobs or contracts. He was the most powerful official in city government. Some say he was the city government.
Suddenly and mysteriously, Falcicchio’s resignation in March was abruptly announced, initially with no explanation at the bottom of a routine press release from Bowser. “We also thank Deputy Mayor John Falcicchio for his years of service to the District as he transitions to the private sector,” the announcement said. Just like that, the most feared and influential member of Bowser’s inner circle, gone.
Over the days and months to come, we learned why. Two women filed formal sexual harassment complaints against Falcicchio. An investigation by the mayor’s office of legal counsel detailed a tawdry trail of sexual abuse, allegations of Falcicchio luring women who worked for him or were potential contractors to his apartment where he exposed himself, masturbated in front of them, and sent unsolicited lewd messages and photos.
The D.C. Council demanded that the city’s inspector general investigate Falcicchio’s sexual flaunting. As expected, that IG probe is moving at glacial speed. The Bowser administration is still struggling to recover from the political and administrative upheaval Falcicchio caused. He has not been criminally charged with any wrongdoing.
Throughout the year, violent crime bedeviled both the mayor and Council, who clashed over the causes of crime and who was to blame. Meanwhile, the city’s police force continued to bleed sworn officers, a dramatic loss in recent years of nearly 500 police officers from the overworked force. It is at a half-century low.
Congress also got into the act. Conservative House Republicans held angry hearings on violent crime in the District. They attacked the District’s generational rewrite of the city’s entire criminal code as being too soft on crime, a measure the D.C. Council passed over Bowser’s veto. Although only a handful of its provisions were controversial, the political outcry over crime here was enough for normally friendly Hill Democrats in the House and Senate to go along with votes to block it. Even President Biden switched positions to sign the measure, a rare rebuke of D.C.’s Home Rule.
The Hill hearings were political setbacks for both Council Chair Phil Mendelson and Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who chaired the judiciary committee at the time. Each testified in March, defending D.C. and calling for stronger prosecution of crimes and faster filling of local court vacancies, both federal responsibilities. Mendelson declared there was no “crime crisis” in the District, an attempt to push back on Hill interference, but the comment has haunted him since. Allen, a rising star in District politics, more recently has stepped up his support of several law enforcement changes. But it hasn’t stopped the D.C. Police Union from tagging Allen as anti-police and reposting Allen’s 2020 social media comment supporting the reduction in sworn police officers.
In May, the mayor and then-Police Chief Robert Contee were called to the Hill to testify. Bowser had been calling for tougher crime legislation than the Council, so she got softer treatment from Kentucky Republican representative and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer. Bowser even complained that committee members ought to look at crime in their own congressional districts rather than D.C. “It’s offensive to think that they know more about crime in D.C. than we do,” Bowser said in response to a friendly Democrat’s question.
Contee was testifying as a lame duck. A native Washingtonian, he had spent his entire career with the D.C. police department, beginning as a rookie recruit. He had his dream job as chief, what he called his “greatest honor.” But in April, after battling rising crime and what he saw as an unsympathetic Council on policing and staffing, Contee had announced his retirement, joining the FBI instead as a national liaison to local and state governments.
Violent crime marred the District throughout the year. As of Dec. 30 the city had recorded 272 homicides, up 35 percent over the same timeframe last year. Motor vehicle theft is up 83 percent. And carjackings in 2023 have exploded across the District, with 955 reported, a 100 percent increase over 2022. Of those, 77 percent involved a gun, and most arrests are of juveniles.
As the troubling year limped to a close, the District took another economic hit.
In early December, billionaire businessperson Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Capitals and Wizards, announced a billion-dollar deal to move his teams and Monumental Sports & Entertainment headquarters to Alexandria. The year was ending with D.C. officials scrambling to make a counteroffer to Leonsis, but largely left hoping opposition to the move in Virginia would kill it. Critics say neither the mayor nor the Council took seriously more than a year of threats that Leonsis might abandon downtown.
If the teams move, it will be another hit to Bowser’s effort to revive downtown, an area already depleted by COVID-era work-from-home policies.
The year 2023 wasn’t all bad. Bowser made some progress in her effort to woo the NFL’s Commanders back to the District with a new stadium on the site of the old RFK facility. But that deal is far from done and faces opposition in town. The mayor announced in December that the city’s troubled crime lab had finally regained most of its accreditation. Bowser also announced creation of a planned “Real-Time Crime Center” to link the District with other federal and regional law enforcement agencies. The center is supposed to prompt quicker responses to crimes across jurisdictions, and is scheduled to begin operating in February.
But overall, it’ll be good to see 2023 in the rearview mirror.
On New Year’s Day, the mayor is scheduled to hold her 10th annual “FITDC Fresh Start, a 5K run to welcome the New Year, which cannot get here fast enough.