- Thread starter GWOZOZO
- Start date
A Haitian mother speaks.
"District residents voted for the D.C. attorney general for the first time Tuesday, electing a longtime Washingtonian who served in the past as a public defender, White House lawyer and managing partner of one of the city’s largest corporate firms.
Karl Racine, a 51-year-old Democrat, bested his four competitors with a commanding 37 percent of more than 145,000 votes cast.
Racine topped an all-Democrat field with diverse backgrounds that included Lorie Masters, 59, a litigator for insurance claimants; Edward “Smitty” Smith, 34, the youngest candidate in the race; Lateefah Williams, 37, an openly gay African American woman; and Paul Zukerberg, 56, a criminal defense specialist. Smith, his nearest contender, won 19 percent of the vote.
As the first elected attorney general, Racine will help transform what has been regarded as an important but largely low-profile administrative job into a premier political seat in the nation’s capitol. He will succeed Irvin B. Nathan, the former general counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives who was appointed as D.C. attorney general by mayor Vincent Gray in 2011.
Sean Rankin, a Racine campaign spokesman, said that voters were impressed by the candidate’s integrity.
Local election results
“People want to have faith in their elected officials,” Rankin said. “It started with credibility and it differentiated him for the rest of the field.”
For the past four decades of self-government, the city’s top lawyer, known as “corporation counsel,” was appointed by the mayor to lead a staff of 300 lawyers in defending the District in legal matters ranging from civil rights to land use and antitrust cases.
Past appointees tapped for the position have included Ivy League-educated leaders of storied, top-ranking firms staffed with hundreds of lawyers.
Racine is no exception. During his 25-year legal career, the Penn graduate became the first African American to become a managing partner of a top 100 firm, at Venable LLP, which has 600 lawyers.
The son of Haitian immigrants, Racine grew up in the District and attended D.C. public schools before graduating from St. John’s College High School. A star athlete, he was an All-Met basketball player who later held court with the likes of Patrick Ewing and Michael Jordan in the 1981 McDonald’s Capital Classic.
He later played basketball at the University of Pennsylvania and received a law degree from the University of Virginia.
In between stints in private practice, Racine served as D.C. public defender in the early 1990s and associate White House Counsel during the second term of the Clinton administration, helping to prepare the president for depositions for independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr."
Karl Racine, a 51-year-old Democrat, bested his four competitors with a commanding 37 percent of more than 145,000 votes cast.
Racine topped an all-Democrat field with diverse backgrounds that included Lorie Masters, 59, a litigator for insurance claimants; Edward “Smitty” Smith, 34, the youngest candidate in the race; Lateefah Williams, 37, an openly gay African American woman; and Paul Zukerberg, 56, a criminal defense specialist. Smith, his nearest contender, won 19 percent of the vote.
As the first elected attorney general, Racine will help transform what has been regarded as an important but largely low-profile administrative job into a premier political seat in the nation’s capitol. He will succeed Irvin B. Nathan, the former general counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives who was appointed as D.C. attorney general by mayor Vincent Gray in 2011.
Sean Rankin, a Racine campaign spokesman, said that voters were impressed by the candidate’s integrity.
Local election results
“People want to have faith in their elected officials,” Rankin said. “It started with credibility and it differentiated him for the rest of the field.”
For the past four decades of self-government, the city’s top lawyer, known as “corporation counsel,” was appointed by the mayor to lead a staff of 300 lawyers in defending the District in legal matters ranging from civil rights to land use and antitrust cases.
Past appointees tapped for the position have included Ivy League-educated leaders of storied, top-ranking firms staffed with hundreds of lawyers.
Racine is no exception. During his 25-year legal career, the Penn graduate became the first African American to become a managing partner of a top 100 firm, at Venable LLP, which has 600 lawyers.
The son of Haitian immigrants, Racine grew up in the District and attended D.C. public schools before graduating from St. John’s College High School. A star athlete, he was an All-Met basketball player who later held court with the likes of Patrick Ewing and Michael Jordan in the 1981 McDonald’s Capital Classic.
He later played basketball at the University of Pennsylvania and received a law degree from the University of Virginia.
In between stints in private practice, Racine served as D.C. public defender in the early 1990s and associate White House Counsel during the second term of the Clinton administration, helping to prepare the president for depositions for independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr."
Anyone on the Haiti section truly interested in haiti would benefit from knowing what is going on in the Haitian diaspora.
Especially the US and Canadian diasporas who have started affecting these countries' policies toward Haiti.
That diaspora is taking a political power seat along the traditional haitian local elite in helping shape decisions.
And let's not forget that diaspora's economic force on the haitian economy and purchasing power.
Haitians talk a great game concerning helping their country but in actual efforts come up flat, one of the few things Haitians agree about is that they hate the DR. When it comes to that it's let all hop up on the bus. I remember when she said you Dominican's are white, I told her......lady, I'm as black as Denzel Washington!!!!
LLLLLLLLL CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
LLLLLLLLL CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC