Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3E Commissioner Matt Frumin, who represents the Tenleytown area, raised more than twice the funds of his fellow city council candidates, giving him an early edge in a special city council election slated for April 23.
The former Clinton staffer has collected around $82,000, with more than $75,000 coming from 250 individual donors, according to a January 31 press release from Frumin’s website. His closest competitor, Elissa Silverman, trails by nearly $46,000, according to The Washington Post .
“I feel very good about the direction of our organization, but we’re at the beginning of a sprint,” he said.
In a phone interview, Frumin said his staff set aggressive goals for the early stage of the race. His campaign collected more than 6,000 petition signatures to officially launch his campaign, twice the number required by the D.C. Board of Elections.
Frumin said his team will concentrate on its ground game. Voters may need an extra push to participate in a non-traditional election, Frumin said.
“You have to give them the reason [to vote], and to do that you have to contact them in a number of ways,” he said.
The special election will fill the at-large seat of former city councilmember Phil Mendelson, who replaced Kwame Brown as council chairman earlier this year. As of Feb. 13, the D.C. Board of Elections has approved eight candidates for the race.
Frumin will enjoy his frontrunner status for now, but he acknowledges the race is far from over.
“My chance to win this race depends on the amount of effort I put in and I’m going to put in an enormous amount of effort,” he said.
lsandoval@theeagleonline.com
