Catania earns top GLAA rating

D.C. Council member David Catania (I-At-Large) received a +10 rating from the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance on LGBT issues, placing him alongside fellow Council members Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who also received a +10, the group’s highest possible rating.

GLAA released its ratings Wednesday for candidates running in the city’s Nov. 2 election.

Catania, who is gay, and Mendelson are competing in a four-person race for two at-large seats where the highest two vote getters win under the city’s election rules. The other two candidates competing for the seats are David Schwartzman, the Statehood-Green Party nominee, who received a GLAA rating of +6, and same-sex marriage opponent and religious right figure Richard Urban, who received a GLAA rating of -3.5. Schwartzman, a strong supporter of LGBT equality, said he is challenging Catania on economic issues.

The group gave City Council Chairman and mayoral candidate Vincent Gray (D-At-Large) a +8.5 rating, the same rating the group gave Gray for the Sept. 14 Democratic primary, in which he defeated Mayor Adrian Fenty.

GLAA gave a “0” rating to each of the three candidates running against Gray in the general election — independent Carlos Allen, Statehood-Green Party Candidate Faith, and Socialist Worker Party candidate Omari Musa. GLAA said the three failed to return a candidates questionnaire and their records on LGBT issues were unknown to the group, a development that automatically results in a “0” rating under the group’s rules.

In the race for City Council Chairman, Democratic nominee Kwame Brown received a +5.5. His sole opponent, Statehood-Green Party candidate Ann Wilcox, received a “0” for not returning the questionnaire.

Graham, who’s also gay, maintained the +10 rating he received during his campaign for the Sept. 14 primary. Marc Morgan, a gay Republican running against Graham for the Ward 1 Council seat, received a +6.5 rating on Wednesday, an increase from the +3 rating Morgan received for the primary campaign. GLAA said the increase was due to a revised questionnaire that Morgan submitted that provided far more details on his LGBT rights record, which GLAA said was significant.

The third out gay candidate running in the election, Ward 5 Republican Tim Day, received the same +1.5 rating he received in the primary. He’s running against Council member Harry Thomas (D-Ward 5), who received a GLAA rating of +6. Thomas voted for the same-sex marriage bill last year and is a strong supporter of LGBT rights. GLAA said he lost points by opposing a bill that allowed gay and non-gay adult clubs displaced by the new baseball stadium to relocate in other non-residential areas.

Ward 5 independent candidate Kathy Henderson, who is also running for Thomas’s seat, received a +2 rating.

In other races, GLAA gave a +8.5 score to Council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) and a “0” Republican challenger Dave Hedgepeth, who failed to turn in a questionnaire. In the Ward 6 Council race, GLAA gave incumbent Council member Tommy Wells (D) a +8.5 rating. His GOP opponent, Jim DeMartino, received a -0.5 rating.