Just as Mayor Muriel Bowser and the DC Council were ending their breakfast meeting earlier this month, at-large Councilmember Anita Bonds asked her how she intended to handle funding for the city’s Fair Elections Program — a multimillion-dollar outlay to qualifying political campaigns. “This is a very difficult time for our community,” Bonds said, referring to the myriad fiscal challenges facing the District, including a possible $1.15 billion shortfall for fiscal year 2027 if spending were to continue on its current course.
With what may be a record number of candidates vying for the political offices on the ballot this year — including mayor, attorney general, seven DC Council positions (including chair, two at-large seats and wards 1, 3, 5 and 6), and four State Board of Education seats (wards 1, 3, 5 and 6) — Bonds calculated that public financing of DC’s primary and general election campaigns this year could cost as much as $48 million. “These are things we have to wrestle with.”
Bowser seemed to agree, noting that, “One of things that can be addressed is what happens to public funds if a person fails to qualify [for the ballot] and then drops out.”
Reform anyone?
“In my opinion, the money could be better spent,” Bonds told me during a recent interview in which she spoke in greater detail about her concerns and the need for changes to the Fair Elections law unanimously passed by the council in 2018 and first implemented in 2020.
The District has a $22 billion fiscal year 2026 operating budget. Yet it’s struggling to provide social services programs such as government-subsidized health insurance and child care; the growth in both is outpacing the city’s revenues. Spending has to be reduced.
DC’s economy may not be broken. But there are multiple cracks.
