Loose Lips can say this much for Ward 7 Council contender Ebony Payne: She has a knack for getting attention. It’s not always positive attention, mind you, but it is attention nonetheless.

This dynamic was on display during the all-important candidate forum convened by the Ward 7 Democrats in Hillcrest Saturday. Payne, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Kingman Park, was not shy about trashing her fellow contenders in the Democratic primary and drew plenty of attacks in return, much to the delight of the crowd. Things got so heated as the debate wrapped up that some of Payne’s supporters sounded just about ready to start throwing hands with some of their especially vocal critics seated just behind LL—only after a few attendees chided both parties to take things outside and show a little respect for the event’s sponsors at Ryland Epworth United Methodist Church did tempers cool.

“I’m tired of lazy politicians,” Payne said as part of her closing remarks. “I’ve seen what everyone up here has accomplished and it’s not that much … If you’re tired of mediocre results, then stop electing mediocre politicians.”

Perhaps predictably, this sort of approach did not win her many friends among the ward’s old guard. She finished fourth in the closely watched straw poll conducted alongside the forum. Wendell Felder, a longtime ANC who stepped back from his post chairing the Ward 7 Dems to run for the seat, took the top spot with 126 votes. State Board of Education Rep. Eboni-Rose Thompson placed second with 81, while attorney and 2020 Council contender Veda Rasheed rounded out the top three with 47, 12 votes ahead of Payne.

So it’s clear that Payne isn’t the favorite in this open-seat race to succeed Vince Gray—that distinction probably belongs to Felder or Thompson, depending on who you ask—but her brash approach has vaulted her into the spotlight and, perhaps, serious contention. She’s made a splash financially as well, amassing a $104,000 campaign war chest as of March 10 that puts her first in the fundraising race among the candidates (though Felder, Rasheed, and Thompson are all close behind). Payne has already sent out several mailers, run a TV ad on cable news, and even attracted a bunch of endorsements from members of Congress. 

This sort of campaign is basically tailor-made to piss off the ward’s establishment, which is much more inclined to reward politicians for paying their dues and working their way up through the ranks in D.C. civic life. Payne is hardly a total outsider, given her ANC experience, but she’s certainly running more of an outsider’s campaign.

Payne raised more than double the amount of money from non-D.C. residents last month than she raked in from Washingtonians. Her husband, Chuck Rocha, is a prominent political strategist who’s worked for national figures such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, and she’s spent lots of money with his firm to embrace a distinctly national approach to this local race. Throw in the fact that she’s the rare candidate running from the ward’s neighborhoods west of the Anacostia River and you can start to understand why she’s attracted such a backlash.

“I didn’t just come out of nowhere and have all this money funneled to my campaign,” Felder said Saturday, earning quite a bit of applause as he got progressively more fired up in attacking Payne. “You can’t just dishonestly trick voters … Everything that glitters is not gold.”

The Dems and moderator James Wright of the Washington Informer wisely chose to give each candidate the opportunity to ask each other questions, and this only further clarified Payne’s status as the favored punching bag. Both Felder and Rasheed, who generally avoided most of the bickering during the debate, chose to ask Payne their pointed questions instead of each other (or Thompson). LL suspects this is a smart political tactic: Why be seen attacking someone your potential voters consider supporting when you can go after the pariah on stage?

Felder, in particular, went after Payne’s campaign spending, arguing in his question to her that finance reports don’t adequately reflect all of her spending on text message blasts, mailers, and her TV commercial. LL can see tens of thousands in expenses in Payne’s finance reports for both Rocha’s firm and a political mail company, but it’s still a fair question. D.C. pols have a bad habit of strategically timing spending so it doesn’t show up on certain finance reports.

“Where’s this money coming from and why are these expenses not being reported?” Felder wondered. 

“You’re just upset that I’m running a better campaign than you,” Payne countered. “You will get to see all of my finances on my next report. And I’m owning the mailboxes right now. I sent my education piece quicker than yours, Miss Thompson.” 

The SBOE rep stared daggers at Payne, but refrained from responding. Felder retorted that “I don’t need to hide behind my literature because I’m socially awkward.”

“We have the relationships in the community,” he added. “In terms of a better campaign, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.”

Many of these disputes are the sort of personality conflicts typical of Council campaigns. On the issues, there isn’t much daylight in between Payne and her antagonists. All of the candidates on the panel—which also included current ANC Kelvin Brown and former ANC Ebbon Allen—agreed on the need for more services for kids in the ward, tougher penalties on reckless out-of-state drivers, and on their utter distaste for the new bike lanes on Minnesota Avenue NE. 

One of the biggest splits between Payne and the others came on perhaps the highest profile issue in the ward: Whether or not to welcome a new football stadium at the RFK site. Gray has long supported Mayor Muriel Bowser’s thirst for such a project, but June’s primary could provide a key indication of which way the wind is blowing among voters. 

Allen, Payne, and Thompson said they would oppose a new stadium at RFK. But Payne was by far the most vocal in laying out the case against it, befitting her status as a Kingman Park resident.

“If we do this, we won’t have the money to put into the budget to invest in schools, in education, to invest in what kids need,” Payne said.

Brown demurred from taking a firm position, while Rasheed said she’d support the project. Felder, however, tried to have it both ways. When Wright asked for a “yes or no” answer from candidates on the question, he meekly offered, “it’s too early in the process.”

“That’s what the mayor said,” an audience member shot back, generating plenty of murmuring among LL’s side of the crowd. They’re certainly not wrong about that.

Felder did offer up a more proactive vision of what RFK’s redevelopment could mean for the ward. Those statements generated some of the biggest applause lines of the afternoon.

“Don’t talk about RFK stadium unless you talk about building a real downtown Ward 7,” Felder said. “I want to put [Interstate] 295 underground, put a hospital over it and create a Ward 7 business district.”

That all may be a little far-fetched, but it certainly seemed a more effective pitch in the stadium’s favor than some of Bowser’s stilted answers on the subject. (Although it probably helps that he was pitching to a generally friendly audience, considering he once led the organization hosting the event.)

Perhaps the better approach will ultimately be the one favored by Thompson and Rasheed, which is to avoid making such a polarizing issue a focus of their campaign. LL can say this much: If Payne keeps talking like this, whether it’s about RFK or anything else, the next two months before June 4 will be a lot of fun to watch.