In a mayoral election headlined by three candidates who already hold city office, James Butler’s pitch to D.C. voters is straightforward: The lawmakers on the ballot have had years to remedy issues plaguing the District, he says. And if the electorate truly wants change, he argues, he’s the only one who can provide it.
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Butler, a former lawyer who is running a tough-on-crime campaign, is well aware that he lacks the name recognition of two-term D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and council members Trayon White Sr. (Ward 8) and Robert C. White Jr. (At-Large), her two top challengers in the June 21 Democratic primary. But in recent months, as the two council members have attacked Bowser’s record while unveiling their own ideas to reduce crime and expand affordable housing, Butler has pointed a finger at all three of them.
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“They have as much power as the mayor to enact legislation, they see the budget and act on it; if they had real plans to tackle the problems in this city, after six years for each, we should’ve known already,” Butler said of Trayon White Sr. and Robert White. “A change wouldn’t be elevating one of the council members to mayor — or keeping the mayor for four more years.”
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Originally from Ohio, Butler, 46, has lived in the District for about 20 years, first in Columbia Heights and most recently in the Trinidad neighborhood, where he was elected to the area’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission in 2016. He launched his first mayoral bid a year later and is quick to remind voters that he came in second in the 2018 Democratic primary — although he only got about 10 percent of the vote while Bowser, who lacked serious opposition that year, sailed to victory.
This time, his platform includes ambitious proposals largely focused on public safety: He wants to add 500 to 700 members to the city’s police force, some of whom would bolster the department’s efforts to intercept illegal and unregistered guns. He is also proposing a no-loitering law to reduce crime and reparations for Black descendants of slavery in the city, and he would like to apply the District’s rent-control law to all buildings, not just those constructed before 1975.
Butler has spent part of his campaign fighting for exposure. He’s raised his voice at candidate forums when he has felt shortchanged on time to speak. He protested on Twitter about being left out of a February Washington Post poll, and more recently a mayoral debate hosted by WAMU, calling the criteria to participate in the event — based in part on the amount of campaign contributions — “arbitrary.” Butler, the only Democratic mayoral candidate who did not use the city’s public-financing program, loaned $3,000 to his own campaign and had received about 32 other contributions through March 10, according to his most recent finance report.
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In response, he’s tried to broaden his reach — this month he appeared on a podcast hosted by Alex Stein, a right-wing comedian from Dallas. Butler appealed to Stein’s audience by falsely labeling all three of his opponents as “defund-the-police Democrats” (Trayon White and Robert White have been reluctant to use city funds to hire more police officers over diverting money toward non-policing alternatives, but Bowser has consistently pushed to bolster the size of the force).
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Stein also asked Butler about an array of incendiary topics that often did not pertain directly to being the District’s mayor, including the U.S.-Mexico border wall and a far-right conspiracy involving critical race theory and sexual abuse of children.
Butler answered most questions but pushed back against “espousing conspiratorial things that are not based in truth.” He asked those listening to contribute to his campaign in a sprint to reach 1,000 donations, the amount he needs to qualify for a televised mayoral debate in June, noting that he had received “a few hundred” donations by May 3, when the podcast aired.
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Days later, Butler tweeted at conservative pundit Tucker Carlson with a link for people to donate to his campaign.
“We’re non-establishment Democrats, we’re seeking all the exposure we can get, and we’re finding that some Republican-leaning outlets are giving us the opportunity to get our message out there,” Butler told The Post. “What I want [Democratic voters] to understand is if I sit there and wait for traditional outlets to cover us, we might be waiting for the second coming of the Lord.”
Those seeking more information about Butler online may find references to his 2009 disbarment, which came after scores of his former clients contacted the D.C. Bar about fraud and negligence related to his former legal practice, which he started in 2005 after graduating from Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law.
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Butler was the only managing partner at the practice. By 2007, according to a committee report from the D.C. Court of Appeals, which handles discipline for D.C. Bar attorneys, the bar started to receive what would amount to more than 130 complaints from Butler’s clients and their families, many of whom were incarcerated and had hired Butler to help them appeal criminal convictions. According to the D.C. Court of Appeals report, they alleged that Butler had mishandled or failed to communicate with them about their cases. Oftentimes, he did not follow up with them after receiving a retainer, the court found.
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Butler did not dispute the committee’s findings and surrendered his license; the bar’s Client Security Fund paid out more than $650,000 to those harmed by his practice. The appellate court rejected his petition for reinstatement to the bar in 2017. In its report, the D.C. Court of Appeals committee noted that Butler had paid only $300 in restitution to the fund over the course of seven years. While not a prerequisite for reinstatement, the committee described meaningful steps toward restitution as “an important factor in showing rehabilitation.”
Butler says that his disbarment was partly a result of him being in over his head as a young attorney and that he’s lacked the financial resources to pay back the fund. Since then, he’s made a living by helping residents with civil matters involving the D.C. Office of Human Rights and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which he is permitted to do without a law license.
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“Although I helped a lot of people, there was a portion I hurt because I did not monitor those cases when I was busy, I’m very, very sorry,” he said. “I’ve shared this story, and I know I’ll need to continue to earn voters’ trust. It was shameful for me, but I didn’t run away.”
Those who were on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission with Butler during his two-year stint described a mixed experience serving alongside him.
“I don’t consider him a viable opponent for Mayor Bowser,” said Clarence Lee, a former ANC commissioner who questioned Butler’s effort and said he was disruptive at times. “Sometimes, I think he’s running only to be a distraction from the other candidates. He popped up, and really nobody knows who he is except that he ran the last time.”
But Peta-Gay Lewis, another former commissioner who worked with Butler, is supporting his mayoral bid. She said Butler was a diplomatic commissioner and put his constituents first.
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“He’s very vocal for the ones that are underserved,” she said. “I know he has the disbarment, but this is America, people make mistakes.”
D.C. native Pernetha Smith is among those who retained Butler’s legal services years ago, but she says her experience was a positive one — she now volunteers with his campaign. Smith pointed to Butler’s proposal to address gentrification, echoing his sentiments about his rivals on the ballot: “If they were going to do something about this it would’ve been done already,” she added.
Smith was among a handful of campaign volunteers who joined Butler on a recent afternoon at Woodberry Village, an apartment complex in Southeast Washington where many of the 170 or so residents have long raised concerns about issues including mold, inconsistent heat in some units and frequent shootings.
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The D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has reported hundreds of housing code violations at the complex. Woodberry Village is in the final stages of a $12 million rehabilitation that will be completed by the end of the summer, Capital Realty Group, which manages the rehabilitation effort, said in a statement. They said tenant concerns are addressed immediately.
“We keep bringing these political folks out here to hear [tenants], and still nothing’s changing for them, to the point that they’re discouraged,” said Rhonda Hamilton, executive director of the nonprofit M.I. Mother’s Keeper, who has worked to support residents at Woodberry Village for more than a year.
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Enter Butler, who has now made several appearances at the complex — most recently last week — touring the grounds with Hamilton, as his campaign volunteers carried a banner bearing his face. He introduced himself to prospective voters, vowing to make up for where other city leaders have fallen short. Some happily greeted him, recognizing Butler from his previous visits. He posed for pictures with children, asking them afterward to give a campaign pamphlet to their parents.
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Several residents were receptive to his pitch. Butler listened attentively after entering the home of Octavia Deans, a young mother who has lived at Woodberry Village since 2018, who says there is mold in her unit that is adversely affecting her 11-year-old son, who has cerebral palsy. Hamilton asked questions and took down Deans’s information before Butler jumped in.
“I’m with you guys. I’d love to have your support on Election Day. We need someone that’s not going to be scared to come out to things like this and tackle the tough stuff,” Butler said.
In an interview later, Deans said she was originally going to cast her ballot for Bowser. Now, she plans to vote for Butler, the candidate who had knocked on her door.
“Not a lot of people are willing to do that,” she said.