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Harry Thomas Jr. Was Elected As Chair of the Ward 5 Dems. Opponents Couldn’t Find Anyone to Run Against Him.

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A D.C. Council comeback was perhaps a bit too much too soon last year for Harry Thomas Jr. But as he navigates his political resurrection, chair of the Ward 5 Democrats is a decent consolation prize.

Through a mix of persistence and luck (and some amusing bumbles on the part of local politicos), Thomas was elected as chair of the Ward 5 Dems this past weekend. It amounts to the most prominent post yet for the disgraced former councilmember following his 2012 resignation, though he’s also won spots as an advisory neighborhood commissioner and Democratic state committeeman in recent years.

This latest election, held at the Lamond-Riggs library on Saturday, was relatively (and disappointingly) drama free. Thomas was running unopposed, but his election has, predictably, set tongues wagging in Ward 5 as Thomas slowly but surely inches his way back to political prominence.

“Nobody here has forgiven or forgotten,” says Debbie Steiner, a longtime activist in the ward and a former Truxton Circle ANC, referring to Thomas’ infamous admission that he misappropriated $350,000 in taxpayer funds meant for children’s programs. “That’s why he had to drop out of the primary…When the ward found out he was running again, it was in an uproar.”

The problem, as Loose Lips hears it, is that this uproar was too little too late. Interest in the Democratic organization dwindled in recent months, several local activists tell LL, so hardly anyone noticed that a leadership election was approaching to replace past chair Gordon-Andrew Fletcher. By the time Thomas’ detractors noticed he was set to waltz to an easy win, they weren’t able to find a candidate that met party rules to run against him. Not too many people may be happy about it, but Thomas will once again fill his father’s shoes: Harry Thomas Sr. preceded his son as the Ward 5 Dems’ leader a few decades ago before he spent three terms as councilmember.

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