Washington D.C. mayor’s race won and done?

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Muriel Bowser, who kicked Vincent Gray out of City Hall’s mayoral suite in 2014, won 83 percent of the vote in her re-election bid on Tuesday.

Democrats were still partying at press time, and Republicans have promised to pick up the tab so the city can party through weekend at the Trump International Hotel, which is neighbors with City Hall.

Welcome to Washington, where fake news (like the above) makes dreams and nightmares come true.

The recent and upcoming D.C. Council sessions prove that policymakers and lawmakers are color-blind.

One lawmaker is proposing to use millions in tax dollars to provide free transportation to adults who attend school or attend job-training programs. (Really? Another handout.)

A different lawmaker wants to decriminalize commercial sex (i.e., prostitution) because it harms “communities of color, gay and trans people, people with disabilities, immigrants, and people with criminal convictions, while fostering violence and exploitation.”

It also contributes to “trash and noise.” (And you thought litterbugs were the sources of filthy alleys, sidewalks and the Anacostia River.)

Yet another has sights on the Office of Nightlife Establishment Act, which would create a taxpayer entity to coordinate D.C. agencies, businesses and community groups to manage the after-hours economy. (read: Pass the joint. “How do we wipe out the free market in the District, dude?”)

One of the first orders of business when the council returned from its l-o-o-o-n-g summer recess was the Dining with Dogs Emergency Act, which would permit dining establishments to allow dogs on the premises while you chow down. (Garfield the cat is not included in the legislative proposal, and copperhead snakes aren’t either.)

Lawmakers also are considering giving legal shelter to legal and illegal immigrants nabbed by federal authorities.

So your tax dollars are spent on the front end and would be used on the back end to fight the federal government against arrests and deportations, which you pay for as well.

And education and health care and public safety? Don’t get me started.

Here’s the deal. There was a time when even liberals were more concerned about two-legged beings than they were dogs. We’ve got dog parks and sprays aplenty, while kids at playgrounds, recreation centers and parks don’t even have fountains for a sip of water. (Maybe the days of “white” and “colored” fountains have been supplanted.)

There was a time in the very recent past when D.C. Democrats and Republicans actually got along (forgive me) to find common ground on public safety, education and health care issues.

And, interestingly, that time was long before the pundits discovered the color purple.

It would be nice if the D.C. Republican Party fielded a strong candidate to tie the laces of Miss Bowser’s sneakers in 2018.

Heck, it would be fun even if the candidate were a member of the D.C. Democratic Party or independent.

Two entrenched campaign consultants I bumped into on Wednesday basically lamented that the 2018 D.C. mayor’s race is over: Miss Bowser is running unopposed in the Democratic primary.

And that’s a misfortune for D.C. stakeholders, because the race has yet to begin.

• Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.