President Herbert Hoover promised a "chicken in every pot." At-large D.C. Council Member Kwame Brown wants a "Hoffman, Jarvis or parking garage owner in every pocket." Well, not yours or mine, but his.

In his July 31 campaign report, the chair of the council's Committee on Economic Development received a total of $5,000 from the Jarvis clan, the matriarch of which is Charlene Drew Jarvis, president of Southeast University and former council member. She provided a $1,000 contribution to Brown, as did Ernest, Deborah, Daphne and N. William. Ernie and Bill are developers jostling in the exclusive rights scramble currently under way for various parcels of land in the District.

PN Hoffman or its affiliates - PNH Union Warehouse LLC, PNH Union Square LLC and Hoffman-Struever Waterfront LLC, among others - contributed $6,000. Don't forget Carl Struever's $1,000; every penny counts.

In the District, the parsing can be more exquisite than that perpetrated by former President Bill Clinton. But a stink still smells. Hold your nose.

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Hoffman-Struever won exclusive development rights for the Southwest Waterfront - an $800 million project. Earlier this year, Brown hauled its representatives before his committee threatening to do damage if the company didn't work out an agreement with the leaseholders on the site, including the Channel Inn. He said that place was "part of my family history."

It's hard to know what moved Hoffman-Struever: the possibility of losing a multimillion-dollar project or the poignancy of the council member's oral history. One thing is certain: The company isn't taking any chances. Neither are other developers. Of the 282 contributors, 100 were developers or businesses. They provided $82,520 of the $148, 538 raised by the council member. None of this is illegal.

But it raises questions: Should Brown accept money from companies that may appear before his committee? Can he be expected to make objective decisions about which deals to approve or disapprove while he's lining his campaign coffers?

"Money will never influence me and my positions," Brown says during an interview, adding that 40 percent of his funds came from donations as small as $5.

Brown's cozy relationship with Hoffman, Jarvis and others may highlight the need for campaign finance reform. But there are other reasons for changes to the District's election laws.

There is the mischief candidates, hoping to win their long-shot bids, create by making obviously false accusations that the government must investigate, forcing it to become a pawn in the opposition's efforts to discredit. There is confusion about citizen initiative and referendum laws, and those pesky special elections.

On Aug. 21, a special election will be held to fill a vacancy on the State Board of Education for the 1st District. Mary Lord is the sole candidate on the ballot. But the government will spend $250,000 for an election where the outcome is already known.

Does preserving Democracy mean suspending common sense?

Jonetta Rose Barras is the political analyst for WAMU-88.5 and the D.C. Politics Hour with Kojo and jonetta. She can be reached at rosebook1@aol.com