The Common Denominator on Candidate Rees

[Psycho]

Candidates for Ward 3 member of D.C. City Council

Jonathan Rees

 

By HALLIE FALQUET

 

Special to The Common Denominator

 

You have to be quick to keep up with Ward 3 city council candidate Jonathan Rees. In his unmistakable New York accent, he can tell you, all in one breath, why he should win the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, that he doesn’t accept endorsements and how to use a samurai sword.

 

Rees, 51, has good reason to speak quickly, as his platform encompasses a long list of planned reforms that he wants to make sure are understood by all Ward 3 residents.

 

"My platform resonates with the voters, more so than my rivals, who aren’t representative of Ward 3 like I am," he told The Common Denominator during a recent interview.

 

Lowering personal income taxes by 15 percent and raising the standard deduction and personal exemption rates are on the top of Rees’s priority list.

 

Next on his list are improving healthcare for poor and elderly residents and downsizing the government.

"Reducing the bloated civil service ranks of 34,000 employees to 20,000, not by laying off workers, but by not filling vacancies when retirements, resignations and terminations take place until we reach an ideal level of civil servants," Rees explains on his campaign Web site.

 

This single plan will save the city $1.25 million a year, he claims. The savings would replace the need to add taxes on local businesses and residents and can be used to build new schools in the District, instead of just poorly repairing the old ones, Rees said.

 

Although he mentioned building new schools, he added that education is not his top priority, as only 7 percent of Ward 3 residents have school-age children -- a fact he said his opponents are missing by putting education as the number one issue on their agendas.

 

"Education is secondary in my mind. … I’m the only candidate to raise issues of the pocketbook," he said.

Born in Sicily and raised just 20 minutes outside of New York City, Rees moved to Washington in 1979 to work at a subsidiary of the World Bank. He went on to lobby for food conglomerate Royal Ahold, which owns Giant Food, and Institutional Dental Care Inc., where he is currently employed.

 

He has practiced karate for over 25 years, beginning in the 1970s when "it was a fad," he said. In fact, he used to teach karate classes in Georgetown and continues to practice the art and his skill with the samurai sword.

 

He also has more than 20 years of government affairs and business management experience, which he says makes him the most qualified candidate.

 

"They want to go back to the center politically," Rees said of Ward 3 residents, "and I’m the only candidate who’s moderate."

 

Rees is distinguished from the other candidates in that he does not accept any political contributions or endorsements from businesses or special-interest groups.

 

"I don’t want to owe anyone anything when I get elected," he explained. "My opponents run the risk of accepting money from someone who could later be indicted of corruption, which reflects badly on them. And if the money is from a special-interest group, the people see that as canceling out their vote and they’re sick of that."

 

Although this puts him behind financially, "I have one thing they don’t have -- an electronic database of 11,000 Democratic voters," he said.

 

The Web has provided a fast and economical way for Rees to reach voters, but it has also been a primary platform for controversy within the campaign.

 

The source has been primarily from postings on web logs, or "blogs." For example, on June 10, an anonymous blogger posted the following message in reference to Rees on the Washington Post's online blog: "Not everyone is entitled to speak, certainly not literally insane candidates who do nothing but lie about, and attack, other candidates."

 

This example, and many that target candidates other than Rees, have become commonplace as speculation surrounds who is responsible for posting the nasty messages.

 

Rees has his suspicions about who is behind what he describes as "mud-slinging," but chooses not to focus on it.

"I hate drumming on the negative. … Everyone is being attacked one way or another, but I won’t dance to their [the bloggers'] tune," he said.

 

It apparently will take more than a few low-blows to get this fiery candidate to slow down. He said he believes that he is the best choice for Ward 3 and is making that known by going door to door delivering campaign brochures and by sometimes touting his platform over a steak at his favorite D.C. haunt, Sam and Harry’s.

 

"I believe most candidates who are running for office are not running for the benefit of other people, but rather they’re running for their egos," Rees said. "I’m not in it for my ego. I want to make a healthy change."