Charles Allen | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Member of the Council of the District of Columbia from Ward 6 | |
Assumed office January 2, 2015 | |
Preceded by | Tommy Wells |
Personal details | |
Born | 1977 (age 46–47) Birmingham,Alabama,U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Education | Washington and Lee University (BA) University of Alabama,Birmingham (MPH) |
Charles Allen (born 1977) [1] is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party,Allen has served on the Council of the District of Columbia for Ward 6 since January 2,2015. Allen initially won office in the 2014 general election,and was re-elected in 2018.
Charles Allen grew up in the Birmingham,Alabama,suburb of Homewood and graduated from Homewood High School. [1] [2] [3] Allen is married to Jordi Hutchinson. The couple has a daughter and a son. [4]
Allen graduated from Washington and Lee University. [5] The summer after his sophomore year,he interned at a free clinic in South Boston. [2] He holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. [5]
Allen was convicted for DUI in 1996 [6] while a student at Washington and Lee University,and did not disclose this when running for re-election to Council of the District of Columbia. [1] [6]
Allen was hired as director of public policy for the District of Columbia Primary Care Association in 2003. [3] The following year,Allen served as the Ward 6 coordinator for Howard Dean's presidential campaign. [7] He was a delegate for Dean at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. [7] As chairman of the grass roots Democratic organization D.C. for Democracy,Allen sent hundreds of District residents to other states to campaign. [3]
Allen resigned from the District of Columbia Primary Care Association to manage Tommy Wells' campaign for the Ward 6 seat on the Council of the District of Columbia in 2006. [3] After Wells won the election,Wells hired Allen as his chief of staff. [8]
Allen was president of the Ward 6 Democrats from 2009 [9] to 2013. [10] While president,the group voted to urge the Council of the District of Columbia to pass a law legalizing same-sex marriage. [9]
In 2012,the D.C. Democratic State Committee chose the person to replace Phil Mendelson as at-large council member for 70 days before a special election was held. [11] Allen was opposed to the process,saying that only the voters should choose the replacement for an at-large vacancy,not a small group of party committee members. [11]
Allen was the chief of staff of Ward 6 Council Member Tommy Wells. [12] After Wells decided not to run for reelection in order to run for mayor,Allen resigned from his position and announced his candidacy to succeed Wells seat in the Council representing Ward 6. [12] Darrel Thompson,a former deputy chief of staff of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,also ran in the Democratic primary. [13] Pranav Badhwar ran in the Libertarian primary. [14]
When campaigning,Allen emphasized his work helping Ward 6 working for Wells,saying that gave him extensive knowledge and experience about Ward 6. [15] Allen opposed the Large Retailer Accountability Act,which would have increased the minimum wage for large businesses located in the District,preferring instead an across-the-board minimum wage increase as opposed to a bill that only targeted large retailers. [16] [17] Allen also did not access donations to his campaign from corporations. [18] Allen also criticized Thompson,saying Thompson's work has kept him focused on Nevada rather than the District,using the fact that Thompson has not voted in several District elections to make his case. [15] Thompson responded saying that he knew the District well because he was born in the District,unlike Allen. [19]
Thompson called Allen the "anointed candidate",a reference to Wells' choosing his own successor and labeling Allen as a political insider. [15] Thompson also says that Allen is effectively asking for more time to carry out Wells' agenda that should have been completed during Wells' eight years on the Council. [15]
Allen was endorsed by the editorial board of The Washington Post, [20] Service Employees International Union, [21] D.C. for Democracy, [22] D.C. Chamber of Commerce PAC, [23] the D.C. Chapter of the National Organization for Women,the D.C. Association of Realtors,Clean Slate Now, [24] the local firefighters' union,and the local police officers' union. [25] The local American Federation of State,County and Municipal Employees endorsed Thompson. [25]
Allen and his treasurer Patrick Johnson opted for a campaign finance model that did not accept corporate donations. This was consistent with Allen's championing of campaign finance reform,having been a supporter of DC's Initiative 70 in 2012. [26] In the Democratic primary election,Allen defeated Thompson, [27] with 58 percent of the vote. [28] Allen faced Libertarian Party candidate Pranav Badhwar in the general election. [29] Allen won the general election with 88 percent of the vote. [30] His term began January 2,2015. [31]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Charles Allen | 7,140 | 58 | |
Democratic | Darrell Thompson | 5,156 | 42 | |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Charles Allen | 19,805 | 88 | |
Libertarian | Pranav Badhwar | 2,477 | 11 | |
During the 2018 Democratic primary election,Allen faced a primary challenger in Lisa Hunter,who worked in the Peace Corps and on the Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign. [33] Allen won in the primary with a wide majority of the vote.
In the general election on November 8,Allen defeated Republican Micheal Bekesha with over 80% of the vote.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Charles Allen | 9,802 | 68 | |
Democratic | Lisa Hunter | 4,569 | 32 | |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Charles Allen | 35,780 | 88 | |
Republican | Michael Bekesha | 4,298 | 11 | |
![]() |
Despite endorsements from DC's police force and union early in his political career, Allen has been criticized more recently by DC's Police Union for weakening the police force by "shrinking" it, which they claim is the cause of an uptick in crime. [36] In an advertisement released in April, 2022, the Police Union points to Allen and Phil Mendelson for the results of crime bills that do not support law enforcement. Subsequently, the Union made an urgent plea to Mayor Bowser, noting that two years of reform under the City Council have done nothing to increase safety, but rather Allen and Mendelson's reforms have resulted in more deaths, "The experiment is a failure, and people are dying." [36]
Further, by December 30, 2022, the police union released the following statistics of increases in crime since the reforms were enacted: "Armed robberies increased by 36%; Carjackings increased by 177%. Also noteworthy, the annual homicide rate was less than 90 in 2012; 104 and 105 in 2013 and 2014 respectively. [36] "Some neighborhoods are suffering greatly from this violence," the D.C. Police Union said. "In Ward 2, for example, homicides have increased 440% when looking at the last three years against the previous three."
The police union placed blame on the increase in violence on Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen who they claim has "turned a blind eye to concerned residents and public safety experts, rather he chooses to cater to an activist crowd whose agenda is anti-police whatever the cost." They continued by saying that Allen's reform measures have resulted in a tragic loss of life and an increase in violent crime." Allen's office responded, calling representation of the police force "lackluster," and blaming the uptick in gun violence across the city on the pandemic. [37]
On February 13, 2024 the D.C. Board of Elections approved a recall campaign that, if successful, would remove Allen from office. [38] The recall was filed by a group of Ward 6 residents who object to "soft on crime" and "anti-police" legislation that Allen shepherded through the D.C. Council during his tenure as chair of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee. Residents have formed a committee, Recall Charles Allen, that has raised over $80,000; an unprecedented amount of money for a recall campaign in DC.
If, within 180 days, the recall campaign collects signatures from ten percent of registered voters residing in Ward 6, a recall election will be held. [39]
As of March 2020 [update] , Allen currently serves on the following committees: [40]
Marion Shepilov Barry was an American politician who served as mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991 and 1995 to 1999. A Democrat, Barry had served three tenures on the Council of the District of Columbia, representing as an at-large member from 1975 to 1979, in Ward 8 from 1993 to 1995, and again from 2005 to 2014.
Vincent Condol Gray is an American politician who served as the mayor of the District of Columbia from 2011 to 2015.
Vincent Bernard Orange, Sr. is a former American politician from Washington, D.C., and former president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce. An attorney and a certified public accountant, Orange represented Ward 5 on the Council of the District of Columbia from 1999 to 2007, and was an at-large member from 2011 to 2016. He lost the June 2016 Democratic primary election to Robert White. Although his term was not due to end until January 2, 2017, Orange resigned from the council effective August 15, 2016, in the wake of conflict of interest charges over his new employment at the Chamber of Commerce.
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.
Michael Arrington Brown is an American politician in Washington, D.C. In 2008, he was elected an at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia, and he served one four-year term.
Thomas Clayton Wells is an American politician, social worker and lawyer from Washington, DC. He was a member of the Council of the District of Columbia where he served as a Democrat representing Ward 6. Wells is now the director of the DC Mayor’s Office of Policy and Legislative Affairs after serving as the director for the District Department of Energy & Environment (DOEE) for 8 years where he was chiefly responsible for protecting the environment and conserving the natural resources of the District of Columbia.
Muriel Elizabeth Bowser is an American politician who has served as the mayor of the District of Columbia since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously represented the 4th ward as a member of the Council of the District of Columbia from 2007 to 2015. She is the second female mayor of the District of Columbia after Sharon Pratt, and the first woman to be reelected to that position.
Harold Brazil is a former attorney and Democratic politician in Washington, D.C.
On November 2, 2010, Washington, D.C., held an election for its mayor. The primary elections occurred on September 14. Vincent Gray won the general election by a wide margin, although many voters wrote in incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty, whom Gray defeated in the primary.
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.
The Libertarian Party of the District of Columbia is a political party in the United States active in the District of Columbia. It is a recognized affiliate of the national Libertarian Party.
Anita Bonds is an American Democratic politician in Washington, D.C. She is an at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia. She served as the Chair of the District of Columbia Democratic Party from 2006 to 2018. She worked as an executive at Fort Myer Construction, a District contractor.
On November 4, 2014, Washington, D.C., held an election for its mayor, concurrently with U.S. Senate elections in various states, U.S. House elections, and various state and local elections.
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.
Elissa Silverman is an American politician and reporter from Washington, D.C., the United States capital. She served as an independent at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia from 2015 to 2023. Before 2015, she was a journalist at The Washington Post and Washington City Paper covering D.C. politics, and a policy analyst at the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. She was re-elected in November 2018 for a four-year term, but lost her re-election bid in 2022.
LaRuby Zinea May is an American politician and African American lawyer who formerly represented Ward 8 on the Council of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. She won the Ward 8 special election on May 10, 2015, succeeding Marion Barry, who died in office on November 23, 2014. May, who was sworn into office on May 14, 2015, served out the remainder of Barry's term, which ended on December 31, 2016. During her first council term, she was active on the issues of crime and violence, marijuana policy, assisted suicide, and improvements to Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. She criticized the city's emergency medical services department, opposed the creation of a public electrical utility, and applauded the construction of a sports arena in her ward. She was one of the few council members to support the mayor during the FreshPAC scandal, and although she asked Congress to end its school voucher program she also supported a political action committee which supports an expanded voucher and charter school program in the District. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Calvin H. Gurley is an accountant and perennial candidate living in Washington, D.C.
The 2018 United States Shadow Senator election in the District of Columbia took place on November 6, 2018, to elect a shadow member to the United States Senate to represent the District of Columbia. The member was only recognized by the District of Columbia and not officially sworn or seated by the United States Senate. Incumbent Mike Brown was re-elected to a third term.
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. Democrats remained in control of the council, electing six out of the seven positions that were on the ballot. Independent Kenyan McDuffin, formerly the Democratic councilperson for Ward 5, was also elected.