Attorney General of the District of Columbia | |
---|---|
Term length | Four years, renewable |
Formation | 1973 |
Website | Office of the Attorney General |
The attorney general for the District of Columbia is the chief legal officer of the District of Columbia. While attorneys general previously were appointed by the mayor, District of Columbia voters approved a charter amendment in 2010 that made the office an elected position beginning in 2015.
In the November 2, 2010, general election, voters approved Charter Amendment IV that made the office of Attorney General an elected position.
Choice | Votes | % |
---|---|---|
Yes | 90,316 | 75.78 |
No | 28,868 | 24.22 |
Total votes | 119,184 | 100.00 |
Registered voters/turnout | 453,014 | 26.30 |
In July 2012, [3] the District of Columbia council voted to postpone the election of attorney general to 2018, citing a dispute over how much power the elected attorney general would have. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson called the vote "an embarrassment." [3]
In September 2013, Paul Zukerberg filed suit against the District of Columbia Council and the city elections claiming any delay would violate the District charter — which was amended through the 2010 ballot question to provide for the election of the city’s top lawyer. [3] Attorney General Irv Nathan initially argued that Zukerberg was not suffering any “meaningful hardship” from pushing back the election. [4]
On February 7, 2014, a District of Columbia Superior Court judge ruled that ballots for the April 1 primary could be printed without the Attorney General race. [5] Zukerberg appealed the ruling, declaring himself a candidate and arguing that he would suffer "irreparable harm" if the election were postponed. [6] [7]
On June 4, 2014, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals overturned the lower court's decision. The Court held "that the Superior Court's interpretation was incorrect as a matter of law" and reversed. The Court ruled that the original language in the Elected Attorney General Act is ambiguous in stating the election "shall be after January 1, 2014," and that the attorney general referendum ratified by a majority of District of Columbia voters in 2010 made it seem as though the election would take place in 2014. [8] On June 13, Zukerberg collected nominating petitions. [9]
Joining Zukerberg as candidates for the position were insurance litigator and activist Lorie Masters, federal lawyer Edward "Smitty" Smith, white-collar attorney Karl Racine, and legislative policy analyst Lateefah Williams. [4] [10] [11] [12] Racine secured a plurality victory, winning 36% of the votes cast, and was sworn in as the first elected Attorney General in January 2015. [13] [14] [15]
In 1824, the position of City Attorney was established by resolution of the City Council. When the District of Columbia took on the territorial form of government on July 1, 1871, the position of Attorney for the District of Columbia was established by the First Legislative Assembly. [16] In 1901, the position title was changed to City Solicitor, and in 1902, the title was changed to Corporation Counsel, which it remained until 2004. In 2004, the office's name was changed from Corporation Counsel to Attorney General by Mayor's Order 2004-92, May 26, [17] making Robert Spagnoletti the only person to hold both titles.[ citation needed ]
Name | Took office | Left office |
---|---|---|
Richard Wallach | July 1, 1824 | June 30, 1830 |
Richard S. Cox | July 1, 1830 | June 30, 1834 |
Joseph H. Bradley | July 1, 1834 | June 30, 1850 |
James M. Carlyle | July 1, 1850 | June 30, 1854 |
James H. Bradley | July 1, 1854 | June 30, 1856 |
James M. Carlyle | July 1, 1856 | June 30, 1862 |
Joseph H. Bradley | July 1, 1862 | June 30, 1867 |
Joseph H. Bradley, Jr. | July 1, 1867 | June 30, 1868 |
William A. Cook | July 1, 1868 | June 30, 1870 |
Enoch Totten | July 1, 1870 | May 31, 1871 |
Image | Name | Took office | Left office | President(s) of the Board | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
William A. Cook | July 2, 1871 | July 2, 1874 | |||
Edward L. Stanton | July 3, 1874 | October 31, 1876 | |||
William Birney | November 1, 1876 | October 31, 1877 | |||
Alfred G. Riddle | November 1, 1877 | November 30, 1889 | |||
George C. Hazelton | 1889 | 1893 | John Watkinson Douglass | ||
Sidney J. Thomas | 1893 | 1899 | John Wesley Ross; John Brewer Wright | ||
Andrew B. Duvall [18] [19] | 1899 | September 12, 1905 | John Brewer Wright; Henry Brown Floyd MacFarland | ||
Edward H. Thomas [20] | 1905 | 1913 | Henry Brown Floyd MacFarland; Cuno Hugo Rudolph | ||
Conrad H. Syme [21] | 1913 | 1920 | Oliver Peck Newman; Louis Brownlow | ||
Francis H. Stephens [16] | 1920 | 1927 | |||
William W. Bride | 1927 | 1934 | Proctor L. Dougherty; Luther Halsey Reichelderfer; Melvin Colvin Hazen | ||
E. Barrett Prettyman | 1934 | 1936 | Melvin Colvin Hazen | ||
Elwood H. Seal | 1936 | 1940 | |||
Richmond B. Keech | 1940 | 1945 | |||
Vernon West [22] | 1945 | ||||
Chester H. Gray | 1956 | 1965 | Robert E. McLaughlin, Walter Nathan Tobriner | ||
Charles T. Duncan [23] [24] | 1966 | 1970 | Walter Nathan Tobriner | ||
C. Francis Murphy | 1970 | 1976 | Mayor-Commissioner Walter Washington |
No. | Image | Name | Took office | Left office | Mayor(s) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
15 | Karl Racine | January 2, 2015 | January 2, 2023 | Muriel Bowser | ||
16 | Brian Schwalb | January 2, 2023 | present |
Carol Schwartz is an American politician from Washington, D.C., who served as a Republican at-large member on the Council of the District of Columbia from 1985 to 1989 and again from 1997 to 2009. A five-time perennial candidate for mayor, she is the only Republican nominee since the restoration of home rule to garner more than 30 percent of the vote. She announced her fifth campaign for Mayor of the District of Columbia on June 9, 2014 finishing behind Muriel Bowser and David Catania. In 2015, she was appointed to the D.C. Board of Ethics and Government Accountability by Mayor Muriel Bowser.
John K. Evans III is an American lawyer and politician who served on the Council of the District of Columbia from 1991 to 2020 before resigning due to numerous ethics violations. Evans served as the chairman of the board of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) until its ethics committee found he violated conflict of interest rules. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Ward 2 of Washington, D.C. from May 1991 to January 2020, making him the D.C. Council's longest-serving lawmaker. He ran for Mayor in 1998 and 2014, but lost in the Democratic primary both times.
The District of Columbia holds general elections every two years to fill various D.C. government offices, including mayor, attorney general, members of the D.C. Council, members of the D.C. State Board of Education, and members of its Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. Special elections may be held to fill vacancies at other points in time. Additionally, citywide ballot measures may be proposed and voted on.
Kenyan R. McDuffie is an American lawyer and independent politician in Washington, D.C. He is an at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia since 2023, after previously representing Ward 5 from 2012 to 2023.
David Grosso is an American attorney and politician. He is a former at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia who lives in Brookland. A native Washingtonian, he graduated from Earlham College and Georgetown University Law Center. Grosso is a member of the D.C. Bar. Following the completion of his second term on the D.C. Council, he joined the law firm Arent Fox as a lobbyist.
On November 4, 2014, Washington, D.C., held an election for its mayor, concurrently with U.S. Senate elections in various states and U.S. House elections and various state and local elections.
Irvin Bertram Nathan is an American lawyer from Washington, DC. He served as the Attorney General of the District of Columbia from 2011 to 2015. He was appointed in 2011 by Mayor Vincent C. Gray. He previously served as the general counsel of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011. Nathan announced his resignation the day after the November 2014 election, in which voters chose Karl Racine as the first elected Attorney General of D.C.
Paul H. Zukerberg is an American activist, lawyer, and politician. Through a series of lawsuits and appeals, Zukerberg successfully ensured the direct election of the Attorney General of the District of Columbia in 2014 after the Council of the District of Columbia and incumbent Irv Nathan sought to postpone the vote.
Brianne Nadeau is an American Democratic politician in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Council of the District of Columbia representing Ward 1 since 2015. She defeated long-time incumbent Jim Graham in the Democratic Party primary and won the general election with 75% of the vote in 2014. She is the first woman to represent Ward 1 on the council and the first D.C. Councilmember to give birth while serving in office.
Mark H. Tuohey III is an American attorney best known for representing corporations and white collar clients. In February 2015, he was appointed by Muriel Bowser as director of the Mayor of Washington D.C.'s Office of Legal Counsel In August 2018, he returned to private practice for law firm BakerHostetler.
Karl Anthony Racine is a Haitian-American lawyer and politician. He was the first independently elected Attorney General for the District of Columbia, a position he held from 2015 to 2023. Before that, he was the managing partner of Venable LLP. As Attorney General, Racine received national attention for his work on antitrust matters, and in 2021 launched an eventually-dismissed antitrust lawsuit against Amazon.
Edward H. "Smitty" Smith II is an American lawyer. He was a candidate for Attorney General of the District of Columbia in the 2014 election and a former adviser to the FCC.
Lorelie Sue "Lorie" Masters is an American lawyer specializing in insurance litigation notable for her work supporting District of Columbia home rule and opposing human trafficking. She was a candidate for Attorney General of the District of Columbia in the 2014 election. She is currently a partner in the law firm of Hunton Andrews Kurth in Washington.
The 2014 District of Columbia Attorney General election was held on November 4, 2014, to elect the Attorney General of Washington, D.C., concurrently with elections to the United States Senate in various states and elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections.
On November 8, 2022, Washington, D.C., held an election for its mayor. Incumbent Democrat Muriel Bowser was elected to a third term. The Republican nominee, Stacia Hall, received 2,368 votes in the primary, and independent candidate Rodney "Red" Grant garnered 4,700 signatures to gain ballot access. Both appeared on the general election ballot along with Libertarian Party candidate Dennis Sobin. D.C. Statehood Green Party nominee Corren Brown did not appear on the general election ballot.
Janeese Lewis George is an American lawyer, politician, and activist in Washington, D.C. She is the Member of the Council of the District of Columbia from Ward 4. George is a member of the Democratic Party.
Brooke Pinto is an American attorney and politician. In June 2020, she won the special election to succeed Jack Evans on the Council of the District of Columbia, representing Ward 2. She is the youngest council member in the District's history and the first woman to represent Ward 2.
In 2020, a general election for Council of the District of Columbia was held on November 3, and a special election was held on June 27. Elections were held in four of the districts and one at-large. The Democratic Party retained its control of the city council and the council became majority female for the first time since the 1998 election.
The 2022 District of Columbia Attorney General election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the next attorney general for the District of Columbia. This was the third attorney general election in D.C. history.
On November 8, 2022, a general election was held for the Council of the District of Columbia. Elections were held in four ward districts as well as for Chairperson of the council and two at-large seats.
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