5/7ths of ANC 3F on the November ballot

The advisory neighborhood commission that represents Forest Hills, Wakefield, North Cleveland Park, and a portion of Tenleytown is 3F. And out of the seven races for ANC 3F, five incumbents have filed for reelection, one race is contested, and two will have no candidates on the ballot on November 4th. But that doesn’t mean it’s too late to run.

The District’s Board of Elections has issued a list of everyone who turned in petitions to run for the DC’s ANCs. So here’s the rundown of who IS running for each of 3F’s single member districts (SMDs):

3F01 – The commission’s current chairman, Adam Tope
3F02 – Incumbent Karen Perry and challenger Brett Grindrod
3F03 – Mary Beth Ray
3F04 – Sally Gresham
3F06 – Malachy Nugent

That leaves SMDs 3F05 and 3F07 without candidates listed on the ballot, so we’d like to encourage people within those SMDs to run as write-in candidates.

Why run?

ANC 3F can function with five commissioners, since it needs four members to make a quorum at each meeting. However, it’s in the interest of each SMD to have someone on the commission representing them. ANC commissioners advise the District government on all kinds of policy, including public safety, sanitation, services and planning. Applications for liquor licenses are one frequent example of the ANC’s influence.

What’s my SMD?

There’s a quick way to determine the answer: Enter your street address at ANCfinder.org.

3F05 is 3F’s northernmost SMD. It contains high-rises, single family homes, as well as the businesses on the 4901-5001 blocks of Connecticut Avenue. Those include Politics and Prose, Little Red Fox, Comet Ping Pong, Forest Hills of DC (was The Methodist Home) and Connecticut Avenue BP. The current commissioner, Manolis Priniotakis, has been active in securing safe pedestrian routes to schools and businesses in the surrounding area.

ANC 3F05

3F07 is the 3F’s southernmost SMD. It also contains a mix of high-rises and single family homes. The Burke school and Hillwood estate are within its borders. Bob Summersgill, the current 3F07 commissioner, is also ANC 3F’s treasurer. He wrote this article about what ANCs do for the community.

ANC 3F07

How to run

The District’s Office of ANCs has a user-friendly writeup on running as a write-in candidate. One step is notifying the Board of Elections of your intentions by filing a notarized “Affirmation of Write-In Candidacy.” The BOE encourages candidates to file before the November 4th election, but you have until Tuesday, November 11th to turn in the paperwork.

Another step: Letting your neighbors know you’re running. Forest Hills Connection can help. We’ll be seeking statements from all the ANC candidates in the coming weeks, to run the first week of October. Here’s what the candidates wrote for us two years ago.

If no one runs

If the vacancies remain after the November election, residents of those SMDs can seek to fill them as interim commissioners. This was the process when Malachy Nugent replaced David Solorzano Lowell as ANC 3F06 commissioner earlier this year.