A Republican Grows in D.C.

TONY WILLIAMS, the 26-year-old son of NPR correspondent and Fox News contributor Juan Williams, is cut from the same cloth as the older Williams in some ways, but definitely not in others. Father and son both hold heterodox opinions on matters of race, for instance, but the younger Williams is--gasp--a Republican. He even spent a summer working in Strom Thurmond's office. And now the young iconoclast is making a run for office, campaigning for a seat on Washington's city council, where Democrats occupy 11 of the 13 seats.

Williams is running as a small-government conservative, hailing the virtues of small businesses and promoting tax breaks for entrepreneurs, homeowners, and renters. President Bush's concept of an ownership society gets high marks in his book. He says he detests inefficient bureaucracy and aims to ensure that tax dollars flow directly where they are needed, to failing schools, job training programs, and housing loan initiatives for city workers.

Currently, Williams is the only Republican running. Three Demo crats are vying for their party's nomination in a September primary, and one independent is already in the race. Williams has received support from Republicans across the District and former city council members John Ray and William Lightfoot. Of course many potential supporters view a council seat in the District as all but unwinnable for a Republican candidate, which can make fundraising difficult. But Williams is hoping to persuade the party establishment that investing now in local minority candidates will pay dividends in the long run.

At the D.C. Young Republicans' monthly happy hour on Capitol Hill last week, Williams mixed and mingled with a crowd of about 50 or 60, talking about his key issues and soliciting volunteers. D.C. Young Republicans' Kris Hammond says that Williams has one of the "best coordinated" campaigns, and that he hopes it will help build the party's presence in D.C. Hammond believes a number of local Republicans register as Demo crats to avoid wasting their votes. Longtime resident and D.C. Republican Committee member Nelson Rimensnyder declares that Williams "has the best shot of any Republican since 1975."

Williams emphatically defends the Republican party on the issue of civil rights. He cites the actions of a Republican-dominated Congress in furthering the fight for civil rights, and also the party's emphasis on a strong work ethic. Democrats "offered a lot of benefits to the African-American community . . . whereas the Republican party said well . . . you're not going to automatically move into the middle class. . . . The American dream doesn't work like that, you have to work hard and take some individual responsibility." He says he respects civil rights leaders such as Marion Barry and Julian Bond, but argues that the District has seen the "huge African-American upper class and . . . middle class . . . dwindle" because Democrats have "ignored those doctrines of personal responsibility."

Williams got his start in politics working as a page on Capitol Hill for the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, who also hired him for the summer as an intern coordinator. He's "forever grateful" to Thurmond for the opportunity, says Williams. After college, he worked in the Department of Veterans' Affairs as a speechwriter and policy adviser before joining Sen. Norm Coleman's staff, where he worked on issues relating to small businesses, the budget, and telecommunications. His Hill experience impressed upon Williams the paramount importance of a sound budget and the unmatched role small businesses play in invigorating the economy. He states plainly, "If the budget works, everything works; if the budget doesn't work, nothing works."

Williams's platform focuses on schools and development. He favors vouchers (a controversial position in the District) and charter schools, but says reforming and improving the public school system would be one of his first orders of business on the council. As a real estate investor (he owns two apartments and a parking lot in Ward 6), Williams is familiar with the plight of current residents being pushed out of their neighborhoods by developers. Developers do "a lot of good work," says Williams. Still, he worries about the delicate balance between attracting builders to invest in blighted areas and keeping prices affordable for current residents.