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Anita Bonds will retain her seat as an at-large District Coun- cil member after scoring an easy election night victory, according to unofficial results from the DC. Board of Elections.
Bonds, the lone Democrat in a crowded field of 15 candidates, tallied almost 59,000 votes and a 31 percent share after offi- cials counted 80 percent of the precincts. She will be joined by Elissa Silverman, an indepen- dent who apparently won over District voters on Tuesday, Nov. 4, with nearly 30,000 votes, or 15 percent.
Silverman, who had about 10,000 votes more than fellow independent and former DC. Shadow Sen. Michael Brown, has promised not to tolerate "poli- tics as usual" and she refused to accept campaign donations from big city contractors.
"When I get to the Wilson Building on Jan. 2, the budget will be a big focus of mine. Get- ting a handle on where we are and making sure we understand how we are spending our money, how we are spending our home- less dollars and, moving forward, how we can spend our dollars even better," said Silverman, 41, who lives in Northeast.
Other DC. Council winners included Phil Mendelson who easily retained his seat as coun- cil chairman, Kenyan McDuffie easily retained his seat in repre- senting Ward 5, while Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1), Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), and Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) are all projected to be winners.
In the at-large race, Bonds, who grew up in Southeast, nar- rowly defeated Silverman in a special election in 2013. This time, with two seats open,...