Imperfect recall: How a city council fight is roiling Congress

Bob Holste, chief of staff for California Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley, said a friend was assaulted in Penn Quarter. Holste, who has lived in the city off and on since 1978, also had his bike stolen from his home in Southwest.

“I know that’s not a human rights abuse, but it hadn’t happened in a long time,” said Holste. “And we’re all feeling the effects. I got a note from my insurance company that my premiums went up 80 percent. Why does that happen? I said to my agent, ‘Is there anything I could do about it?’ She just laughed at me and said, ‘Move to Virginia.’”

Noah Yantis, executive director of the Congressional Western Caucus, woke up several weeks ago in his Navy Yard home to alarms going off. A few blocks away there was an active shooter, and a police officer was hit.

“I have had friends that have asked me to walk home from work, or go out and run errands with them in the evening, because they don’t feel safe,” said Yantis, who stands a hulking 6 feet, 6 inches tall.

“You can’t go to Bullfeathers or Hawk ’n’ Dove or Tune Inn without hearing staff talk about how bad it’s gotten,” he said, naming popular bars near the Capitol campus. “My true fear is one of my staffers walks home after late votes and is assaulted.”

Those donors to the recall campaign, as well as two other Republican staffers who requested anonymity because they aren’t authorized to speak to the press, all pointed to a change in the city that started during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While crime rose temporarily in many cities, most have since seen it level off or drop. President Joe Biden, for instance, issued a statement last week celebrating a record decrease in murders in 2023, according to FBI data.

But things in the District have been different. And Ward 6 has not been immune, even though it’s anchored by the relatively affluent neighborhood of Capitol Hill, where row homes can sell for millions. Metropolitan Police Department union head Greggory Pemberton testified last week that homicides in the ward increased 188 percent, robberies were up 66 percent, sex assaults rose 42 percent and carjackings jumped 57 percent in 2023.

Citywide, carjackings roughly doubled, MPD data shows. The city’s 274 homicides last year were the most since 1997 and the fifth-highest per capita among major American cities, according to a Washington Post analysis. And all of this happened as the city’s police force hit a half-century low, fueling the idea that fewer police has led to more crime.

“Every week that I get on a plane and I fly to D.C., my husband wonders if something is going to happen to me while I am here working,” Oklahoma Republican Rep. Stephanie Bice said at the hearing.

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