Edward "Smitty" Smith
Edward "Smitty" Smith
Personal details
Born1980
Washington, D.C.
United States
Political partyDemocratic
EducationBrown University (BA)
Harvard University (LLB)
OccupationAttorney
WebsiteSmitty for AG

Edward H. "Smitty" Smith II (born 1980)[1] is an American lawyer. He was a candidate for Attorney General of the District of Columbia in the 2014 election and a former adviser to the FCC.[1][2][3][4][5]

Early life and education

Smith was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the working-class[2] neighborhoods of Congress Heights and LeDroit Park.[1] His family moved to the District of Columbia in 1943 and he is the third generation to live there.[6] His father taught physics at Ballou High School and his mother worked in the federal government.[1]

After winning scholarships to attend the Beauvoir School and the Potomac School,[1] Smith earned a Bachelor's degree with honors from Brown University, where he was captain of the track team,[7] and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.[1]

Career

Smith began his legal career as an associate attorney at the Washington, D.C. law firm Hogan & Hartson.[1][3] After several years with the firm, he left to work on Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.[1] After the election, he was named Deputy General Counsel of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, and then joined the Department of Commerce, where he worked on the economic development of low-income communities.[7]

At the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Smith was named Program Director of the State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program.[8] Under his leadership, and with funds allocated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the SBDDGP established the $4.7 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, which extended and developed broadband services to reach rural and underserved areas, improved broadband access for public safety agencies, and provided financial assistance to low-income families to facilitate the transition from analog to digital television.[9][10]

Smith later joined the FCC, where he was appointed Chief of Staff and Senior Counsel of the Incentive Auction Task Force, a multibillion-dollar radio spectrum allocation project assessing whether to set bidding limits on Verizon and AT&T, ensuring that the wavelengths at auction remained reserved for smaller carriers.[1][7][11][12] On May 15, 2014, he spoke before an open meeting of the FCC in favor of bidding limits, and the Commissioners subsequently voted 3-2 in favor of the limits.[11]

Following his campaign for attorney general, Smith joined DC government to run the District of Columbia's Justice Grants Administration. [13] He then rejoined the FCC as an advisor before joining the law firm DLA Piper, where he won an award for his work representing T-Mobile.[14][15][16]

He works with DC Vote, an organization that advocates for D.C. voting rights,[1][7] and he sits on the Board of Directors of the We the People Project, which pursues litigation in support of “full and equal citizenship” for residents of D.C. and U.S. territories.[1][7]

Campaign for Attorney General

On July 12, 2014, Smith announced his candidacy for D.C. Attorney General[1][2][5] at the former home of his grandmother in Washington, D.C.'s Shaw neighborhood.[4]

Smith emphasized the need for reform of D.C.'s juvenile justice system.[1] He saw the Attorney General's role as “cooperative” with the Council of the District of Columbia, and has expressed disagreement with sitting Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan's contention[17] that the 2012 budget autonomy act approved by the Council violates the District of Columbia Home Rule Act.[1]

On August 6, the campaign submitted 6,500 petition signatures, more than double the 3,000 required to get Smith's name on the ballot.[18] Shortly before Smith's campaign finance report was released on August 11, he announced he had raised over $185,000 during the first fundraising quarter of the campaign,[19][20] including more from outside donors than all other attorney general candidates combined[20][21][22][23][24] (Karl Racine raised nearly $257,000, but he donated or loaned $225,000 of that total to his own campaign).[22] According to the finance report, Smith's campaign paid a company owned by Jauhar Abraham for petition signature collection.[19][25]

In an interview at the hearing for S.132, the New Columbia Admission Act, Smith told an interviewer at The Atlantic that “as Americans, under no conditions should issues of political convenience or expedience dictate fundamental rights. The fact that [D.C. statehood] might prove politically inconvenient for either party is not a just reason for continuing to deny citizens those rights.”[6]

A mid-October poll conducted by local NPR affiliate WAMU and the Washington City Paper showed Smith tied for second place with Lorie Masters and Paul Zukerberg behind Karl Racine, although a large plurality remained undecided.[26] According to the City Paper, Smith's campaign tried to persuade two of his rivals, Lorie Masters and Paul Zukerberg, to drop out of the race in order to “[consolidate] the anti-Racine vote,” but both rivals declined.[27]

Endorsements

Result

Smith came second in the election for attorney general, polling 21.12% of the vote. The winner, Karl Racine, polled 40.65%.[33]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Mike DeBonis (2014-07-07). "Edward 'Smitty' Smith, former federal lawyer, joins D.C. attorney general race". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  2. 1 2 3 "Smith launches bid for DC attorney general". The Washington Post. Associated Press. 2014-07-12. Archived from the original on 2014-07-26. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  3. 1 2 Will Sommer (2014-07-07). "Ex-FCC Lawyer Enters the Attorney General Race". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  4. 1 2 Will Sommer (2014-07-14). "Attorney General Hopeful "Smitty" Launches Campaign in Shaw". Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  5. 1 2 Edward "Smitty" Smith Launches Campaign, NBC4 WRC-DT Washington, D.C., 2014-07-12, retrieved 2014-07-22
  6. 1 2 Andrew Giambrone (2014-09-22). "Is D.C. Statehood a Matter of Civil Rights?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2014-09-22.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Who We Are". We the People Project. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  8. ↑ BroadbandCensus.com Transcript of NTIA Mapping Workshop, 2009-07-27, retrieved 2014-10-21
  9. ↑ Broadband Stimulus Post-Game Recap Archived 2014-07-12 at the Wayback Machine October 5, 2010
  10. ↑ National Telecommunications and Information Administration
  11. 1 2 "Broadcast TV Spectrum Auction". C-SPAN. 2014-05-15. Retrieved 2014-07-27.
  12. ↑ Ryan Knutson and Thomas Gryta (2014-04-21). "Verizon, AT&T Are Facing Spectrum Bidding Limits". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
  13. ↑ Mike DeBonis (2015-01-21). "Key D.C. posts remain in flux three weeks into Muriel Bowser's administration". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2015-03-22.
  14. ↑ Eggerton, John (13 October 2015). "FCC's Wheeler Taps Ex-Wireless Tech Exec as Media Advisor". Multichannel News. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
  15. ↑ "Former FCC Legal Advisor Edward "Smitty" Smith joins DLA Piper". DLA Piper. 9 February 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  16. ↑ "DLA Piper partner Edward "Smitty" Smith named a Law360 Telecommunications MVP". DLA Piper. 20 October 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  17. ↑ "DC Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan Questions Legality of Budget Autonomy Measure". Office of the Attorney General of the District of Columbia. 2013-01-07. Archived from the original on 2014-07-27. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  18. ↑ "SIMMONS: Race for attorney general shaping up", Washington Times, 2014-08-07, retrieved 2014-08-13
  19. 1 2 Attorney General Candidates Dig Into Their Own Pockets, Washington City Paper, 2014-08-12, archived from the original on 2014-08-12, retrieved 2014-08-12
  20. 1 2 Smitty for AG Report of Receipts and Expenditures (PDF), District of Columbia Office of Campaign Finance, 2014-08-11, archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-13, retrieved 2014-08-13
  21. ↑ Lorie Masters for Attorney General Report of Receipts and Expenditures (PDF), District of Columbia Office of Campaign Finance, 2014-08-11, archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-13, retrieved 2014-08-18
  22. 1 2 Racine for AG Report of Receipts and Expenditures (PDF), District of Columbia Office of Campaign Finance, 2014-08-11, archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-13, retrieved 2014-08-18
  23. ↑ Lateefah Williams for Attorney General Report of Receipts and Expenditures (PDF), District of Columbia Office of Campaign Finance, 2014-08-11, archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-13, retrieved 2014-08-18
  24. ↑ Zukerberg for Attorney General Report of Receipts and Expenditures (PDF), District of Columbia Office of Campaign Finance, 2014-08-11, archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-13, retrieved 2014-08-18
  25. ↑ Smitty for AG Report of Receipts and Expenditures: Amendment 1 (PDF), District of Columbia Office of Campaign Finance, 2014-08-11, archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-26, retrieved 2014-08-22
  26. ↑ "Poll: Karl Racine Leads Attorney General Race by 10 Points, Still Trails "Undecided" by 16", Washington City Paper, 2014-10-24, retrieved 2014-10-30
  27. ↑ Smitty Campaign Tries, Fails to Get Two Other Attorney General Candidates to Drop Out, Washington City Paper, 2014-10-20, retrieved 2014-10-30
  28. ↑ Kaminski, Matthew. "What Labor Wants." Wall Street Journal. September 18, 2009.
  29. ↑ Mike DeBonis (2014-09-16). "'Smitty' Smith, Elissa Silverman pull down AFL-CIO endorsements". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2014-09-18.
  30. ↑ Will Sommer (2014-09-16). "Attorney General Candidate "Smitty," At-Large Hopeful Silverman Land Labor Endorsements". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 2014-09-18.
  31. ↑ Will Sommer (2014-10-01). "Police Union Backs "Smitty" for Attorney General". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 2014-10-03.
  32. 1 2 3 Will Sommer (2014-10-07). "Endorsement Roundup: D.C. Working Families, Stein Club Back Smitty for Attorney General". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 2014-10-10.
  33. ↑ "Karl Racine wins first-ever race for D.C. attorney general". The Washington Post. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
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