Interesting stuff from At-Large CM Doni Crawford on the Politics Hour re: the youth curfew. She expects a permanent version to pass next week, but she's working on an amendment of some kind to address some concerns she and other CMs have raised: wouldn't say what it was yet, though.

New: Bowser's budget, once again, proposes big cuts to environmental programs. DOEE stands to lose $70m, mostly targeted at clean energy programs. A key funding source for home retrofits/Green Bank loses $20m. And she's pushing off energy standards for buildings by a year: wamu.org/story/26/04/...

Lots of interesting stuff in Bowser's budget support act (basically, laws proposed to implement the budget and a hodgepodge of other stuff she wants passed) now that it's out. For instance, she wants to make her truancy reduction pilot program permanent:

In the at-large race @repoyedc.bsky.social raised $12k from DC donors with $213k on hand @gregoryjacksonjr.bsky.social raised $7.5k, $147k on hand @lisaraymondfordc.bsky.social raised $6.4k, $175k on hand @candacefor202.bsky.social raised $1.8k, $56k on hand Dyana Forester raised $796, $86k on hand

In Ward 1, @warriorforward1.bsky.social raised $7k from DC donors and has $136k in the bank. @aparnafordc.bsky.social raised $5.7k and has $201k on hand. @rashidabrown.bsky.social raised $4.5k, $111k on hand. @miguelward1.bsky.social raised $3.2k, $50k on hand. Terry Lynch raised $375, has -$605.

Sifting through Friday's campaign finance reports and a few other notable results: -In the at-large special election, CM Doni Crawford raised about $7k from DC donors. She has about $52k in the bank. -Her chief opponent, @elissasilverman.bsky.social managed $4.8k from DC donors, has $153k on hand.

The DC chapter of the Sierra Club is out with its first report card grading the council: top scorers include Nadeau, Allen, JLG, R. White. It ranked McDuffie last. And, probably no surprise, the group's PAC is out with a new website attacking his record: www.factcheckkenyan.com

Evans says he is indeed switching over to a traditional campaign to continue his bid. Now the attention shifts to his/Mendo’s dueling signature challenges

McDuffie’s campaign says he’s actually closer to $90k raised and $1.4m cash in the bank, they’re gonna amend their filing

Another interesting tidbit: Jack Evans’ campaign for chair looks in trouble. He closed his Fair Elections campaign with a negative balance in the bank. He could still move over to a traditional campaign if he wants to keep going, but probably not the best sign for his chances.

Some campaign finance news: The mayor’s race is still pretty even on the cash front as @janeese4dc.bsky.social raised $79k last month and @kenyanmcduffie.bsky.social managed $78k. She finished with about $1.1 mil in the bank and he has around $987,000.

Here's our first crack at what's in Bowser's 2027 budget: and, crucially, what's not in it. The cuts to childcare and paid family leave will generate tons of debate with the council. But there's a lot more too: DC Jail funding, RFK transportation money, even some tax hikes: wamu.org/story/26/04/...

These comments have drawn a ton of pushback from childcare advocates and councilmembers so far. "When did we learn that the pay equity fund wasn't working?" @cmzparker5.bsky.social told me. "In fact, it's a national model and it's proven to be wildly successful."

Stop me if you've heard this before: Bowser is also proposing delaying the implementation of net-zero building codes and the energy efficiency standards for buildings. This is a fight she has with environmentalists/the council pretty much every year since they were passed.

Why add back healthcare benefits (at a cost of $200m) but cut childcare? A senior admin official tells reporters they believe there's strong advocacy to preserve funding for childcare...but they feared healthcare would not have the same vocal support in the building.

It's DC budget day, at last! Bowser is revealing her final budget proposal as mayor, and it's not a pleasant one (as expected). The biggest cuts: $95m to remove benefits from the paid family leave program and a $60m cut to the pay equity fund: eliminating everything but $ for healthcare.

The DC utility bill drama in a nutshell: on the same day, I got mail from Washington Gas offering up ways for me to reduce my gas rates and a mailer from the unions’ outside spending group attacking McDuffie over his utility oversight…

New: Trump's immigration crackdown has driven issues affecting DC's Latino community to the forefront of this year's elections, particularly in Ward 1. Could this lead to DC's first Latino councilmember? Or are voters looking for more than just representation? I dove in: wamu.org/story/26/04/...

With big cuts almost certainly coming to childcare programs in Bowser’s budget, @dcfpi.bsky.social and other advocates paid for polling on the issue. They found big majorities support these programs AND would support tax increases to pay for them (like the much-discussed business activity tax)

Mayoral hopeful @kenyanmcduffie.bsky.social is out with his housing plan: he wants to build 12k new homes/preserve 20k affordable units by 2030, and 1500 family-sized units by 2035. This comes not long after @janeese4dc.bsky.social laid out her plan for 72k new homes over the next five years.

The Council's debating the budget (set to be presented on Friday) and they remain peeved the CFO isn't including money tied up in the congressional tax dispute. He's still holding hundreds of millions in reserves in case of lawsuits. "That should be illegal," CM Anita Bonds said.

The latest rumblings suggest we'll get a budget presentation on FRIDAY. The documents won't be final, since the CFO won't formally transmit the budget to the council until April 14, but this will at least feature the mayor presenting the big headlines to lawmakers.

Pepco is revamping how it structures bills to provide clarity on which costs stem from delivery vs supply (aka rates regulated by the city and what’s determined by the transmission firm selling Pepco electricity). Probably no surprise given the recent attention to rising bills:

The BOE tells me there’s more challenges they have yet to post, but some notable challenges on here: Jack Evans is facing challenges to his chair bid, and Elissa Silverman is facing multiple for her at-large run (including one from Khalil Lee, who is also getting challenged)

Anddd here’s official word from Mendelson’s office: no budget this week, probably comes later next week. We were so close to having it on time for once! Alas.

Well, the CFO says “pencils down” has arrived: he’ll now take 10 days to review the budget before posting it publicly at 5pm on April 10. But when will Bowser present it to council? That was originally slated for tomorrow but I’m hearing some doubts about that now…

New: The DC Streetcar is no more...so what's next for transit on H Street? DC leaders don't have answers just yet, but they could add a priority bus lane or even build out an east-west BRT network. RFK adds urgency: can they avoid repeating the streetcar's mistakes? wamu.org/story/26/03/...

Parker proved to be correct! The Council voted 9-4 to postpone the curfew bill to the next legislative meeting. Bonds, JLG, Pinto, T. White were the no votes.

A close vote, but @janeese4dc.bsky.social's bill to pause some utility shut offs while regulators have a re-hearing on Pepco rates struck down by the court just passed, 9-4. That hearing is for the end of May, the pause is set to line up until shortly after that.

A curfew update: Ward 5 CM Zachary Parker says he does NOT think the extension has the votes to pass, so it’ll be pulled from the agenda. Something similar happened last fall and it ultimately passed. Henderson also got into a heated debate with @harrietsdreams.bsky.social on this.

Another twist in the Khalil Lee saga: @elissasilverman.bsky.social filed a complaint with the elections board, saying she thinks she found three people listed as petition circulators who never worked for Lee. There was also this odd interaction with Lee's campaign she describes:

Groups opposed to Trump’s intervention in DC (like @freedcproject.bsky.social @harrietsdreams.bsky.social) are at the Wilson Building rallying support for the veto override (and opposition to youth curfews). The mother of Phillip Brown (the man shot at by HSI) is among the speakers.

New: Opportunity DC is making endorsements in council races, picking Phil Mendelson, Lisa Raymond and Gregory Jackson in the Dem at-large race, Doni Crawford in the independent at-large race and Zachary Parker. No endorsements yet in wards 1/6 and no endorsement in Ward 3.

Bowser not mincing words as she urges the council not to override her veto of Robert White’s ICE transparency bill: “The proper place for dueling public safety measures between opposing candidates is the campaign trail, not rushed emergency legislation…”

Finally have some service again after a morning at the DC No Kings protests. Perhaps my favorite sighting of the day: these people dressed as “LICE”

Yet more proof that no one ever *really* goes away in DC politics: Ernest Chrappah, the former DCRA head who the council refused to reappoint to head the new DOB, is back on a council advising the Office of Administrative Hearings. He's worked as a consultant since then.

A DC budget update: things are super uncertain still, but here's what I can say after talking to folks in the Wilson Building recently: A budget presentation is likely on THURSDAY. But it might not be certified by the CFO by then: they say they still don't have all the materials from the mayor.

An interesting wrinkle from this: Reyes Yanes chose to deliver pretty much all of her answers in Spanish "because I wanted everyone to feel how we feel when they speak English." Seemed to be a big hit with the crowd, though of course not everyone in attendance was fully bilingual

We’re onto the Ward 1 forum and, you guessed it, there’s more discussion of utility bills. Most candidates broadly support a cap on bills (and a new PSC). Similar to the Free DC forum, the room is largely divided between 2 camps: supporters of Aparna Raj and Jackie Reyes Yanes

It’s a beautiful spring evening…and I’m inside for the DC Latino Caucus’s mayoral and Ward 1 forum. The joys of campaign season! Should be a good one, though: we’re set to have all the Ward 1 candidates squaring off later.

In talking with attorneys about this, I'm reminded Washington Gas passes along costs for lawsuits like this one, where it was a plaintiff, onto ratepayers. Just something to keep in mind as regulators/utilities claim rising costs are out of their hands while pressure ramps up on them...

What a month it’s been for utility news: a federal judge just tossed out a lawsuit from homebuilders/property owners’ groups challenging DC’s green building laws, which require all new construction to be net zero emissions by the end of this year.

OCF tells me they're now investigating this. This has big implications for Fair Elections, considering Lee stands to receive $110k in matching funds based on the donors he's reported. Do there need to be more safeguards against this sort of thing? wamu.org/story/26/03/...

It just wouldn’t be budget season without some “pencils down” drama. I can say that as recently as Friday, folks on both the mayor and council side of things were expecting an April 1 budget presentation.

New: I've spoken to two different people who say a candidate for the at-large council special election, Khalil Lee, listed them as campaign contributors without them actually donating. @elissasilverman.bsky.social discovered the discrepancy and asked for an OCF investigation. More to come...

With arguments over utility bills getting heated, @candacefor202.bsky.social just pitched me an interesting idea: what about having an elected, not appointed, Public Service Commission? She notes many states have moved to this model to make commissioners directly accountable to residents:

We'll be talking the wild week in the mayoral race and much more. Join us at noon!

New: Opportunity DC, the business backed group aligned with the Federal City Council, is endorsing @kenyanmcduffie.bsky.social for mayor. Probably no surprise here (they backed him big in 2022) but notable as they can spend heavily to support his bid. Here's what ED Malcom Fox says about why:

New: Who knew an issue as dry and complex as utility policy would dominate DC politics this year? But with gas/electric bills skyrocketing and "affordability" the word of the day, candidates are talking about it more than ever. I looked at how it's reshaping DC races: wamu.org/story/26/03/...

The fighting over utility bills has continued from this weekend, with Sierra Club/the unions backing JLG attacking McDuffie's record on the issue. He's firing back, picking up on his counter from the Free DC forum, saying she hasn't done enough on the issue either: