Local
Graham to run for fifth term
Gay D.C. Council member announces re-election bid
Gay D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) announced his re-election bid on Bruce DePuyt’s show Monday. (Washington Blade file photo by Jeff Surprenant)
Gay D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) announced on Monday that he will run in the April 1, 2014 Democratic primary for a fifth term in office.
Graham made the announcement on the News Channel 8 TV program Bruce DePuyt Live a little more than a month after he formed an exploratory committee to help him decide whether or not to run for re-election.
In a statement released at the time of the announcement, Graham said that in discussions with Ward 1 residents he was reminded of the major economic development he helped bring about in all parts of the ward and his work in making sure the development benefited the residents. He also pointed to his constituent service work that he noted has been praised as among the best on the Council.
“It came down to, Jim, do you want to serve another four years? Graham told DePuyt. “Is this really something you want to do? Do you want to be of service? And the answer I came up with is yes.”
As of Dec. 6, three others had filed papers to run in the Democratic primary for the Ward 1 Council seat, according to a candidate list provided by the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics. All candidates must submit the required number of petition signatures by Jan. 2 to qualify for placement on the ballot.
The three running against Graham are longtime community activist and former Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Bryan Weaver; public relations consultant and community activist Brianne Nadeau; and Carnegie Mellon University professor Beverly Wheeler, who is a former chief of staff for D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) before Mendelson became chair.
Graham, 68, has been among the Council’s strongest advocates for LGBT rights and people with HIV/AIDS. Prior to winning election to the Council, Graham served for more than 15 years as executive director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, the city’s largest private, non-profit organization providing services to people with HIV/AIDS.
Graham’s three opponents have expressed support for LGBT equality.
Weaver, who ran and lost to Graham in the 2010 Democratic primary, has been the most outspoken this year among the three candidates challenging Graham on the issue of ethics. In a statement released Monday immediately after Graham announced he was running for re-election Weaver raised the issue of the Council’s decision in February of this year to reprimand Graham over an allegation that he improperly intervened in the negotiating process for a city contract with a developer.
“The Councilmember’s decision to seek re-election reflects just how out of touch he has become about the importance of the public’s trust in our government,” Weaver said.
The Council voted 11-2 to issue the reprimand after the city’s newly created independent ethics board ruled that Graham, while not violating any law, breached a code of ethics as a Council member by intervening in the contract process.
Graham has strongly disputed the claim that he acted improperly. He has said he favored one developer over another for a Metro-related project in his ward based on the belief that the company he favored was better qualified to do the work.
Political observers have said the reprimand by his Council colleagues and the ethics board ruling would likely make the outcome of Graham’s re-election closer than it has been in Graham’s four previous elections, in which he won by significant margins. In the 2010 general election, Graham won with 81 percent of the vote.
Ward 1 ANC Commissioner Marc Morgan, who ran against Graham as a Republican in the 2010 general election, said Graham remains highly popular among many Ward 1 residents based on his years of constituent service work in support of many of the ward’s diverse neighborhoods.
“In trying to put political bias aside, I must admit I’m a fan of Jim Graham,” Morgan told the Blade. “I can tell you that in my area the residents are extremely satisfied with him.”
The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest LGBT political organization, has endorsed Graham in each of his past races for the Ward 1 Council seat. But this time Weaver, who is viewed as a longtime friend of the LGBT community, is expected to compete for the Stein Club endorsement.
Stein Club officials said they have yet to develop a timetable for making endorsements in the April 1 primary, but said an endorsement meeting and forum for Council candidates would likely take place in February or March.
Virginia
Gay Va. State Sen. Ebbin resigns for role in Spanberger administration
Veteran lawmaker will step down in February
Alexandria Democrat Adam Ebbin, who has served as an openly gay member of the Virginia Legislature since 2004, announced on Jan. 7 that he is resigning from his seat in the State Senate to take a job in the administration of Gov.-Elect Abigail Spanberger.
Since 2012, Ebbin has been a member of the Virginia Senate for the 39th District representing parts of Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax counties. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Alexandria from 2004 to 2012, becoming the state’s first out gay lawmaker.
His announcement says he submitted his resignation from his Senate position effective Feb. 18 to join the Spanberger administration as a senior adviser at the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority.
“I’m grateful to have the benefit of Senator Ebbin’s policy expertise continuing to serve the people of Virginia, and I look forward to working with him to prioritize public safety and public health,” Spanberger said in Ebbin’s announcement statement.
She was referring to the lead role Ebbin has played in the Virginia Legislature’s approval in 2020 of legislation decriminalizing marijuana and the subsequent approval in 2021of a bill legalizing recreational use and possession of marijuana for adults 21 years of age and older. But the Virginia Legislature has yet to pass legislation facilitating the retail sale of marijuana for recreational use and limits sales to purchases at licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.
“I share Governor-elect Spanberger’s goal that adults 21 and over who choose to use cannabis, and those who use it for medical treatment, have access to a well-tested, accurately labeled product, free from contamination,” Ebbin said in his statement. “2026 is the year we will move cannabis sales off the street corner and behind the age-verified counter,” he said.
Maryland
Steny Hoyer, the longest-serving House Democrat, to retire from Congress
Md. congressman served for years in party leadership
By ASSOCIATED PRESS and LISA MASCARO | Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the longest-serving Democrat in Congress and once a rival to become House speaker, will announce Thursday he is set to retire at the end of his term.
Hoyer, who served for years in party leadership and helped steer Democrats through some of their most significant legislative victories, is set to deliver a House floor speech about his decision, according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it.
“Tune in,” Hoyer said on social media. He confirmed his retirement plans in an interview with the Washington Post.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
Kennedy Center renaming triggers backlash
Artists who cancel shows threatened; calls for funding boycott grow
Efforts to rename the Kennedy Center to add President Trump’s name to the D.C. arts institution continue to spark backlash.
A new petition from Qommittee , a national network of drag artists and allies led by survivors of hate crimes, calls on Kennedy Center donors to suspend funding to the center until “artistic independence is restored, and to redirect support to banned or censored artists.”
“While Trump won’t back down, the donors who contribute nearly $100 million annually to the Kennedy Center can afford to take a stand,” the petition reads. “Money talks. When donors fund censorship, they don’t just harm one institution – they tell marginalized communities their stories don’t deserve to be told.”
The petition can be found here.
Meanwhile, a decision by several prominent musicians and jazz performers to cancel their shows at the recently renamed Trump-Kennedy Center in D.C. planned for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve has drawn the ire of the Center’s president, Richard Grenell.
Grenell, a gay supporter of President Donald Trump who served as U.S. ambassador to Germany during Trump’s first term as president, was named Kennedy Center president last year by its board of directors that had been appointed by Trump.
Last month the board voted to change the official name of the center from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts to the Donald J. Trump And The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts. The revised name has been installed on the outside wall of the center’s building but is not official because any name change would require congressional action.
According to a report by the New York Times, Grenell informed jazz musician Chuck Redd, who cancelled a 2025 Christmas Eve concert that he has hosted at the Kennedy Center for nearly 20 years in response to the name change, that Grenell planned to arrange for the center to file a lawsuit against him for the cancellation.
“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit arts institution,” the Times quoted Grenell as saying in a letter to Redd.
“This is your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt,” the Times quoted Grenell’s letter as saying.
A spokesperson for the Trump-Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to an inquiry from the Washington Blade asking if the center still planned to file that lawsuit and whether it planned to file suits against some of the other musicians who recently cancelled their performances following the name change.
In a follow-up story published on Dec. 29, the New York Times reported that a prominent jazz ensemble and a New York dance company had canceled performances scheduled to take place on New Year’s Eve at the Kennedy Center.
The Times reported the jazz ensemble called The Cookers did not give a reason for the cancellation in a statement it released, but its drummer, Billy Hart, told the Times the center’s name change “evidently” played a role in the decision to cancel the performance.
Grenell released a statement on Dec. 29 calling these and other performers who cancelled their shows “far left political activists” who he said had been booked by the Kennedy Center’s previous leadership.
“Boycotting the arts to show you support the arts is a form of derangement syndrome,” the Times quoted him as saying in his statement.
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