Evening star., 1948-01-19

Of the Auchincloss plan for a
council-manager form Of city gov
ernment here.
They had in mind the historic
reasons for the creation Of the Dis
trict as the seat of the Federal
Government. Any election would
stir up politics" even recurring
factional battles, it is agreed. But
the authors found no persuasive
reason why the 861 900 District
residents-more numerous than the
population of 13 States-should not
be permitted to elect top municipal
officials of their own choice.
To put crimp into the machina-
tions of any ward heeler or political
boss, the bill provides that all elec-
tions shall be by nonpartisan bal
lots. 1t specifically provides that all
candidates for elective Office shall
run as individuals and not as politi-
cal party nominees. Party labels
would be barred from the ballots.
Lively Campaigns Expected.
Sponsors Of the measure, practical
politicians with experience in elec-
tion campaigns, do not suggest that
the nonpartisan ballot will prevent,
or should prevent, hot election cam
paigns here.
On the contrary, they expect that
in city with a suddenly swollen
population, where a budget of $780,
100000 year fails to satisfy all
service and improvement demands,
there will be lively campaign.
Their objective was to keep poll
tics here on the local or individual
basis and away from national party
campaigns. On this point, the re-
port of the Auchincloss Subcom-
mittee of the House District Com
mittee said:
Students of local government be-
lieve that its essential problem is
one of sound, efficient management
and that partisan politics do not
assist in the solution of this prob
lem.
Party Ties Mean Nothing.
"Since the voters in the District
do not vote, as such, in State or
national elections, identification
with either of the two major poll
.ical parties would have little mean
ing.
This does not mean that candi-
dates could not be Endorsed or op-
posed by civic, industrial, labor,
church or other groups as persons
All candidates should run as indi-
viduals, individually nominated
rather than as party candidates"
The pertinent section of the pro-
posed charter reads:
Ballots and voting machines
shall show no party afiliation or
emblem. No one shall publish, or
state in public meeting, the ma
tional party affiliation of a candi-
date for the purpose of influencing
or where the normal effect of the
action would be to influence, the
voting of qualified elector"
Vote on At-Large Basis.
A novel election area plan also is
proposed by the authors of the bill
designed to suit the peculiarities OF
the District. Under this, all candi-
dates for the council, and also for
the Board of Public Education, would
be elected by the votes of the whole
city, although some specified candi-
dates would have to be residents OF
the areas of the District from which
they were nominated.
This is designed to keep away
from ward politics, while still giving
various sections of the District rep
resentatives of their own on the
council and the board.
Four of the IL councilmen would
Nbe elected "at large" to represent
the District as a whole. OF the other
eight, two each would represent four
councilmanic districts into which the
city would be divided.
For the eight-member school
board, four would be elected at
large and the others one each from
the voting districts.
The terms of councilmen and
school board members would be four