Image from the candidate website.

When councilmember Kenyan McDuffie was elected two years ago, DC’s Ward 5 swung from having one of the city’s most corrupt councilmembers to having a widely-respected one. We encourage voters to renominate McDuffie in the April 1 Democratic primary, or in early voting starting March 17.

McDuffie won the 2012 special election to replace former Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. Thomas resigned and pled guilty to multiple felonies, including diverting public funding for youth baseball to personal expenses such as vacations and an SUV. McDuffie is now seeking his first full 4-year term.

Here’s what our contributors wrote about McDuffie:

“Kenyan is easily one of the most progressive-thinking members of the council, in a ward that can often be quite conservative. He has to toe the line between pulling the ward with him and meeting the voters where they currently are sometimes, but he generally threads this needle with aplomb.”

“He is a nice guy who has humble beginnings. He can related to young black teens as well as he can developers. He seems to be one of the few councilmembers that wants to do his best to improve DC. He is able to balance the needs of his diverse constituents.”

“Kenyan has delivered on his promise in the last election — he’s been a CM with integrity, thoughtfulness, and even in the sort time he’s had in office so far, has made a lot of positive moves, both for the ward and for the city.”

“Kenyan has done a fine job. He’s a champion of ethics and election reform, he has been successful without taking corporate funding, and he’s been supportive of redevelopment in Ward 5 that is walkable and transit-accessible and includes affordable housing, including the McMillan Site development.”

“I have the utmost respect for McDuffie.”

Some contributors expressed concern with some of his stances, like opposing the streetcar maintenance facility at Spingarn High School, as seeming to react to strong sentiment in the ward rather than formulating the best conclusion based on his own analysis and beliefs. On the other hand, on McMillan development, McDuffie has not gone along with the angry hordes.

McDuffie’s two challengers have not been consensus-builders in their own communities, and have often been hostile to new residents participating in community dialogue about the future. Steptoe was one of the leading opponents of any development around Brookland Metro, for instance.

We hope voters in Ward 5 (whose neighborhoods include Truxton Circle, Bloomingdale, Stronghold, Edgewood, Eckington, Brentwood, Ivy City, Trinidad, Carver-Langston, Arboretum, Langdon, Gateway, Fort Lincoln, Woodridge, Brookland, Michigan Park, North Michigan Park, and Fort Totten) will renominate Kenyan McDuffie in the Democratic primary on April 1, or in early voting beginning March 17.

This is the official endorsement of Greater Greater Washington. To determine endorsements, we invite regular contributors and editors to participate in a survey about their preferences and opinions about upcoming races. The editorial board then decides whether to make an endorsement based on the responses in the survey and whether there is a clear consensus.