48 Facts About Vincent Orange

An attorney and a certified public accountant, Orange represented Ward 5 on the Council of the District of Columbia from 1999 to 2007, and was an at-large member from 2011 to 2016.

Vincent Orange lost the June 2016 Democratic primary election to Robert White.

Vincent Bernard Orange was born April 11,1957, and raised in Oakland, California.

Vincent Orange graduated from the University of the Pacific, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 1979 and a Bachelor of Arts in Communications in 1980.

Vincent Orange worked as a senior tax accountant for accounting firm Arthur Andersen from 1983 to 1987.

In 1981, Vincent Orange worked weekends as a security guard at the Washington Post, a position he kept for fourteen years.

From 1987 to 1989, Vincent Orange worked for the district's department of finance and revenue.

Vincent Orange was manager of the district's Tax Amnesty Program, and he was acting chief of the District's Office of Real Property Tax Assessment Services Division.

Vincent Orange criticized Wilson's chairmanship of the council's Finance and Revenue Committee, noting that the district's financial troubles happened during Wilson's eleven-year tenure.

Vincent Orange advocated collecting unpaid tax bills, rather than increasing tax rates, as he said Wilson wanted to do.

The next year, Vincent Orange discovered that the university was paying a fuel supplier, Tri-Continental, for fuel it never actually received.

The day after Vincent Orange released his memo naming two university administrators to be at fault, Vincent Orange's employment was terminated.

The university said that Vincent Orange had been hired under an invalid contract.

Vincent Orange did not collect enough signatures to run, and his candidacy was disqualified by the District of Columbia Board of Elections.

Vincent Orange's appealed, saying that the District's requirement of filing nominating petitions with 3,000 valid signatures was onerous, but District of Columbia Court of Appeals disagreed, and Vincent Orange stayed off the ballot.

Write-in votes, including those for Vincent Orange, were one percent of the total.

In 1994, Vincent Orange ran for councilmember to represent Ward 5, along with incumbent Harry Thomas, Sr.

Vincent Orange advocated banning new liquor licenses, developing Fort Lincoln, and building a new convention center at New York Avenue and Florida Avenue.

In 1998, Vincent Orange ran again for councilmember to represent Ward 5; Harry Thomas, Sr.

Vincent Orange emphasized improvements to New York Avenue, improving the economy and schools, and restricting liquor licenses.

Vincent Orange defeated Thomas, receiving 38 percent of the vote to Thomas' 34 percent.

Vincent Orange won the general election as well with 89 percent of the vote.

From 2007 to 2010, Vincent Orange was the regional vice president for Pepco Holdings Inc for the Washington, DC, metro area.

In 2010, Vincent Orange announced his candidacy for chair of council of the District of Columbia, challenging at-large council member Kwame Brown for the position.

Vincent Orange was critical of irregularities in Brown's financial filings for his previous two campaigns, which Brown attributed to accounting errors.

Brown won the Democratic primary with 55 percent of the vote, while Vincent Orange received 39 percent.

When Brown resigned from his at-large council seat, Vincent Orange lobbied the District of Columbia Democratic State Committee to be appointed as the interim to replacement on the council, but they voted to appoint Sekou Biddle to the seat instead.

Vincent Orange was a candidate in the 2011 special election to fill the at-large seat vacated by Brown; Biddle ran in the special election to keep the seat as well.

Vincent Orange only decided to support the idea on the condition that the council would budget spending $500,000 for an Emancipation Day parade at the Lincoln Theatre, where Vincent Orange sat on the board of directors.

In June 2011, the Washington City Paper reported that Vincent Orange received more than $100,000 of campaign contributions from Jeffrey Thompson, CEO of a health provider accused of defrauding the DC government.

Vincent Orange supported new restrictions on medical marijuana retailers and adult entertainment businesses in Northeast DC Vincent Orange was in favor of using District funds to build Nationals Park.

Vincent Orange felt appointing an independent council member to a position formerly held by a Democrat was a poor idea.

In 2012, Vincent Orange ran for reelection as at-large council member, his fifth campaign in six years.

Vincent Orange received $26,000 of money orders, which he called "suspicious" campaign donations, all in sequential numbers and written in the same handwriting.

Vincent Orange won the Democratic primary with 42 percent of the vote and the subsequent general election with 38 percent of the vote.

Vincent Orange agreed he would attend ethics training and never abuse his position again.

Vincent Orange said he thought his actions were an acceptable constituent service and that his behavior did not reflect poorly on him at all.

On November 8,2013, Vincent Orange announced that he would run for Mayor of the District of Columbia in the 2014 election.

Vincent Orange supported demolishing Robert F Kennedy Memorial Stadium and replacing it with a commercial strip, a golf course, a movie sound stage, a hotel, an indoor waterpark, and a film and photography center.

Vincent Orange served on the following committees while on the Council of the District of Columbia:.

On July 28,2016, the DC Chamber of Commerce announced that it had selected Vincent Orange to be the organization's next president.

Council rules permit outside employment, and Vincent Orange said he had received guidance from the city's ethics office that his new job would not create a conflict of interest with his council work.

The DC Board of Ethics and Government Accountability ruled in late September 2016 that Vincent Orange did not break ethics laws or regulations in seeking the Chamber of Commerce position.

In June 2020, Vincent Orange left his job at the DC Chamber of Commerce to run for an at-large council seat left open by David Grosso's retirement.

An issue in the race was DC's paid family leave law, which Vincent Orange criticized and suggested repealing.

In repeated tweets in response to the criticism, Vincent Orange asserted that Parker "made this issue" when Parker announced that he was gay at the start of his run for the council member seat, asking, "why now Mr Parker" in repeated tweets.

Vincent Orange said that, due to legal restrictions on his ability to lobby his former Council colleagues, he would, for the immediate future, focus on adding new members to the DCCoC and raising funds for its operations.

Vincent Orange has three children, and is a member of the Metropolitan AME Church.