How GGWash will make endorsement decisions in 2022

Election season is in full swing and, as in the past, Greater Greater Washington will be endorsing candidates for office.

For years, voters have turned to Greater Greater Washington’s endorsements to better understand the ins and outs of candidates’ positions on housing, transportation, and land use. We issue in-depth questionnaires to candidates designed to dig beneath sound bites and get into policy details. We publish those questionnaires on our website so that you can read them. And then we make public endorsements, with thoughtful write-ups that explain our decision-making.

We take this work seriously, and we wanted to share information at the outset of our 2022 endorsements process about how it will unfold this year.

The DC races in which we’re making endorsements

In 2022, GGWash will make endorsements in the following races:

• Mayor of the District of Columbia (primary and general)
• Attorney General of the District of Columbia (primary and general)
• DC Council Chair (primary and general)
• Ward 1 Councilmember (primary and general)
• Ward 3 Councilmember (primary and general)
• Ward 5 Councilmember (primary and general)
• Ward 6 Councilmember (primary and general)
• At-large Councilmember (general)
• Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners (general)

What about Maryland and Virginia?

Right now, GGWash does not have policy staff working in Maryland and Virginia. We’re thrilled to be hiring a regional policy director, but we do not anticipate the timing of that hire or our available funding will make it possible to conduct endorsements outside of DC in 2022.

A lot of jurisdictions in our region are facing elections that are critically important for shaping how we grow and develop in years to come. We, like many of you, are eager for GGWash to make endorsements outside of DC. Endorsements, at the same time, are a labor- and resource-intensive process – and there are restrictions around what resources we can use. Virtually all grant funders prohibit the use of grants for political activity, which means we lean on individual donations to support this work. We need that pool of funding to grow in order to make it feasible to expand our work on endorsements.

We’ve been engaged in strategic planning for the last several months and, as part of that, have been developing a realistic plan to fundraise, staff ourselves up, and launch endorsements in Maryland and Virginia in future election cycles.

The endorsements process

In consultation with GGWash board members and myself, GGWash policy staff are designing questionnaires for each race. While we know how tightly intertwined land use, housing, and transportation are with other topics, like economic justice, climate policy, and policing, many trusted groups with expertise in those areas are designing surveys of their own. So, we focus our questionnaire on land use, housing, and transportation.

We send that survey to all registered candidates with a submission deadline. Following receipt, we publish the received responses. Then, our endorsement committee reviews the responses to our questionnaire as well as other publicly available information like candidate materials and answers in public forums to make endorsement decisions. We then write up our decisions and post them on our website and social media channels in advance of each election.

In 2022, non-editorial staff at GGWash comprise the elections committee: deputy executive director Caitlin Rogger, DC policy director Alex Baca, engagement manager Kate Jentoft-Herr, policy officer Ron Thompson, our new regional policy director (should that individual come on board in time), and myself, as well as GGWash board member Nick Sementelli. In keeping with professional standards of nonprofit journalism, our editorial staff will not participate in endorsements.

Ethics and conflicts of interest

GGWash maintains a political activity policy that allows people to work for, volunteer for, or otherwise serve GGWash while engaging in politics in various ways, but also implements numerous guardrails to protect the integrity of not just our endorsements process but also our work overall, including our non-political work. That policy is publicly visible here.

As detailed in the policy, we prohibit the sharing of non-public campaign information with individuals involved in making endorsements. Elections committee members with a campaign affiliation – whether on the basis of volunteering or financial contribution – are required to recuse themselves from the endorsement decision-making process for that race.

Per that policy, these recusals are in place during the endorsements process:

• Council Chair: Ron Thompson, Nick Sementelli
• Ward 1 Councilmember: Alex Baca
• Ward 5 Councilmember: Nick Sementelli
• Ward 6 Councilmember: Caitlin Rogger

In addition, I am the incumbent ANC commissioner in 1D05. I am not running for reelection or affiliated with any campaign, but given my close contact with 1D commissioners, I am recusing myself from ANC 1D endorsements out of respect for the overall integrity of our endorsements process.

Mission-driven work

GGWash engages in political endorsements as a service to voters and in service of our mission. It’s an intensive, important process that we take extremely seriously. We’ve developed this process and the policies that guide it through extensive work, discussion, and consultation with outside expertise.

With these parameters in place, we look forward to delivering a slate of endorsements for candidates who will support more housing, more affordable housing, frequent and reliable transportation, and fair land use, and do the work within their power to bring those things to bear for DC voters. Any questions about the process guiding our 2022 endorsements should be directed to me.

I want to close with a pre-emptive note of appreciation: this process relies on staff to administer it, contributors to fund it, and readers to make it worthwhile. Here we go!