Vincent Bernard Orange, Sr. (born April 11, 1957) is a former American politician from Washington, D.C., and former president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce.
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.
Although his term was not due to end until January 2, 2017, Orange resigned from the council effective August 15, 2016, in the wake of conflict of interest charges over his new employment at the Chamber of Commerce.
[6] In 1981, Orange worked weekends as a security guard at the Washington Post, a position he kept for fourteen years.
[11] After Wilson's suicide in 1993,[13] Orange was one of seven individuals to file to run to fill the position of Council Chair.
[14] Also filing to run in the race were Ward 4 Councilmember Charlene Drew Jarvis and Linda Cropp.
[15] Orange did not collect enough signatures to run, and his candidacy was disqualified by the District of Columbia Board of Elections.
[19] In 1994, Orange ran for councilmember to represent Ward 5, along with incumbent Harry Thomas, Sr. and eight other Democratic party candidates.
[44][45] In March 2011, the council was trying to close a budget shortfall, and it considered taxing out-of-state bonds for upper-income individuals.
[46] In June 2011, the Washington City Paper reported that Orange received more than $100,000 of campaign contributions from Jeffrey Thompson,[47] CEO of a health provider accused of defrauding the D.C.
[1] Orange felt appointing an independent council member to a position formerly held by a Democrat was a poor idea.
[50] Orange received $26,000 of money orders, which he called "suspicious" campaign donations, all in sequential numbers and written in the same handwriting.
[55] The money orders may have been connected to city contractor Jeffrey E. Thompson, whose home and office had been raided by the FBI and the IRS.
[50] Jeanne Clarke Harris later admitted she had run a straw donor scheme funded by Thompson.
[58] During his term in office, Orange supported a bill to increase the minimum wage to $12.50 per hour for certain large employers.
"In the past, this has been clearly acceptable constituent service, but now you have people looking at it a different way," Orange told the Post's Tim Craig.
To the Washington Examiner, he said, "I don't think it reflects poorly on me at all" and health inspectors allowed the market to open the next day.
[63] He 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.
"[66] Robert White, a former aide to District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine and resident of Brightwood Park, also ran against Orange.
The D.C. Office of Government Ethics said it would soon issue a draft of restrictions that would limit Orange's ability to lobby the council, as required by law.
[76] An issue in the race was DC's paid family leave law, which Orange criticized and suggested repealing.
[78] In the wake of Councilman McDuffie's decision not to seek another term as ward 5 council member,[79] Orange declared that he will run in 2022.
forum for a shameful, unprovoked attack on [Zachary Parker]'s decision to be public about his sexual orientation.
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.