A D.C. business owner has launched an effort to unseat council member Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1), making her the second District lawmaker in recent months to be targeted by a recall campaign driven by last year’s historic spike in violent crime.
Diana Alvarez, a 41-year-old D.C. native who founded a smoke shop in Columbia Heights, filed paperwork on Tuesday with the D.C. Board of Elections to create a committee to recall Nadeau. Alvarez said in a news release that her business had experienced multiple robberies and that she was driven to act because of citywide crime concerns, namely in Ward 1, where homicides doubled in 2023 from the previous year, according to police data.
And like the organizers of a separate effort to recall council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), Alvarez blames Nadeau for backing liberal criminal justice policies that Alvarez argues fueled the District’s crime surge. The news release specifically cites Nadeau’s vote in 2020 to approve a budget that trimmed the mayor’s proposed policing spending by $15 million, directing the funds instead to alternate justice programs, as well as her vote in 2022 in support of overhauling the city’s criminal code. The latter effort included proposals to lower statutory maximum penalties for some violent crimes, among other major changes that were ultimately blocked by Congress, which has oversight over the city. Both the criminal code revision and police budget cut were passed unanimously by the council.
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“The historic rise in crime is not just mere numbers; they represent shattered lives, eroded trust, and a community living in fear,” Alvarez, who chairs the recall committee, said in the statement. “I am proud to lead this effort because we deserve representation that is responsive to our needs, not in denial of them. Brianne Nadeau has fundamentally failed to take any consequential action to reduce crime, and it is time she is held accountable.”
Nadeau issued a statement in response to the recall, saying worries about crime are “rational and understandable.” She added that public safety is her “top priority.”
“I will always work with and for my constituents to help Ward 1 and the District continue to grow and thrive,” Nadeau said. “A recall does not change that.”
Washington City Paper first reported the Nadeau recall effort. Alvarez declined an interview request through a spokesman Tuesday, but in response to written questions, she said the recall effort includes “a handful of supportive residents and small businesses tired of Brianne’s failures that are eager to see things improve in Ward 1.” Alvarez also said they began assembling the committee before the Ward 6 recall effort was announced, adding there is no coordination between the two campaigns — though her committee is supportive of that recall, too.
Unlike Allen, who formerly led the council’s public safety and justice committee, Nadeau has had less direct oversight of the council’s public safety initiatives; she previously led the council’s committee on human services and now chairs the committee on public works and operations. The left-leaning lawmaker has been reelected twice since taking office in 2015, most recently besting two challengers in the 2022 Democratic primary with nearly 50 percent of the vote.
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In that election, and as concerns around public safety have intensified over the past year, Nadeau’s detractors have accused her of failing to respond sufficiently to constituent concerns around crime. Nadeau has rejected these characterizations and did so again in her statement Tuesday.
“I’ve introduced legislation to bolster police cadet recruitment and provide additional tools to MPD to help them close more homicide cases. I am pressing the Mayor to fix the District’s failed 911 call center and unaccredited crime lab, which has not been able to process evidence needed to prosecute,” Nadeau wrote. She added later: “I have also long worked to address homelessness, mental health and substance use disorder needs, and youth disengagement — the things that evidence and common sense tell us are most effective in preventing crime before it happens.”
Nadeau also voted in favor of the council’s latest public safety effort, an omnibus criminal justice bill called Secure D.C.
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The Nadeau recall committee says it will spend the next few weeks raising awareness and fundraising before filing a notice of intent to recall with the elections board. At that point, the committee will have 180 days to collect petition signatures from 10 percent of the ward’s registered voters, which Alvarez estimates to be about 6,500 people, before the Board of Elections can certify the recall for a special election. If successful, Nadeau’s seat would be vacant until another special election is held to replace her — although an effort to recall a council member has never been successful in the 50 years that D.C. has had home rule.
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