Joel Caston has filled many roles during his 26 years of incarceration, from youth mentor to published author to financial literacy instructor for his fellow inmates.
Now he’s seeking a new job: elected official.
Caston ran in November for a long-vacant seat on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission, D.C.’s most granular level of local government, with the goal of representing inmates at the D.C. Jail as the first person to hold the office while incarcerated.
Read MoreWASHINGTON CITY PAPER
“After weeks of radio silence, she enlisted help from ANC 6B Vice Chair and current at-large candidate Chander Jayaraman, who notified D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine about the issue.”
Read MoreHOT TOPICS AFTER DARK
Chander talks about his passion for creating career pathways for young DC residents and how his time as an ANC commissioner has prepared him to run for DC Council At-Large.
Read MoreFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Every “independent” candidate except one in the DC Council at-large race switched parties to run as an independent. At least eight of them were still Democrats at or around the time they filed to run for the seat. And several, including Ed Lazere and Marcus Goodwin, ran as Democrats in previous elections.
The one is Chander Jayaraman.
Read MoreFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America has awarded the 2020 Gun Sense Candidate distinction to Chander Jayaraman, a candidate for an at-large seat on the DC Council. It is the first year the group has awarded the distinction in a Council race.
Read MoreWASHINGTON INFORMER
ANC Commissioners from across the District hosted a frank online conversation Saturday about policing, with city officials and community activists inviting the public’s participation. Overall, more than 100 people joined the 90-minute Town Hall titled, “Reimagining Policing in the District of Columbia” via a Zoom webinar.
Read MoreCAPITOL HILL CORNER
A Saturday morning virtual town hall style meeting “Reimagining Policing in the District of Columbia” began a conversation on policing in DC. It was hosted by some 50 ANC Commissioners representing districts in Wards across the city.
Read MoreWTOP
Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners, councilmembers and representatives from the police department and mayor’s office held a virtual town hall on Saturday to start the discussion of re-imagining policing within the District.
Read MoreCAPITOL HILL CORNER
Last night, Shawn Townsend, DC’s Director of Nightlife and Culture, told the Barracks Row Working Group in a virtual meeting, that plans are being laid to expand the outdoor dining space for restaurants in three parts of the city to help them reopen under the Mayor’s Phase I Reopening Guidelines.
Read MoreMontmartre Chef Stephane Lezla, who is Chris Raynal’s business partner in Capitol Hill’s institutions Montmartre and 7th Hill Pizza, confirmed today that the two restaurants are closing permanently. Lezla said, “Continuing doesn’t make sense – we were hit by a perfect storm and lost our best three months – March, April, and May – when we have most of our income.
Read MoreChander was quoted on the District’s Model Projections of COVID-19, click the link below to view:
Read MoreUnprecedented Citywide ANC Virtual Discussion Provides COVID-19 Pipeline to Mayor, Council
by Larry Janezich
A new initiative in the form of virtual conferencing for all ANC commissioners citywide provides a forum for comment feedback to city officials on the city’s response to COVID-19.
The unprecedented virtual conference is the brainchild of former Chair and current Vice Chair of ANC6B, and current City Council a Large candidate, Chander Jayaraman. The first of the meetings – hosted by Jayaraman and current ANC6B Chair Brian Ready occurred March 25. Fifty ANC Commissioners from across the city participated on the Zoom platform.
Read MoreMore than 50 of the District's ANC commissioners convened on a virtual call last Wednesday, March 25th, to discuss the needs in their neighborhoods as a result of the COVID-19 crisis and to develop recommendations to city officials based on their on-the-ground experiences.
ANC 6B Vice-Chair Chander Jayaraman, who organized the Zoom call, shared the commissioners’ questions, concerns, observations and recommendations with the mayor, Council members, city administrator and the Mayor’s Office of Community Relations and Services. The call was for ANC commissioners only and included representatives from all eight wards.
Read MoreDCIST
D.C. Council candidate Chander Jayaraman is now the first candidate in the at-large race to qualify for matching funds through the Fair Elections Program, receiving nearly $90,000.
“People know what I’ve done. They know I don’t play sides, and I work always to find solutions that everyone can live with,” Jayaraman says about his success in reaching the necessary number of donations for the Fair Elections Program. He calls himself a “true independent” and stresses that he’ll be an outside voice on the council.
Read MoreHILL RAG
The Chair of Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) has tossed his hat in the ring.
Chander Jayaraman said that he will file a declaration of candidacy Friday, Oct. 18 for the At-Large DC Council seat currently held by David Grosso.
Read MoreCAPITOL HILL CORNER
Chander Jayaraman is running as an independent for a Member-at-Large-seat on the DC City Council. He filed papers today, and says that he’s running to offer a new vision of leadership across the District. Elements of that vision are apparent in his work on the ANC which he says is a microcosm of the issues facing the District.
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