Attorney General Pam Bondi’s brother is not popular with the D.C. Bar.
Bradley Bondi was practically crushed in his bid to become the president of the D.C. Bar Association Monday, earning just a fraction of the votes that his opponent, employment lawyer Diane Seltzer, received.
Seltzer earned more than 90 percent of the vote with 34,982 ballots. Bondi, the sibling of the nation’s most prominent attorney, received just 3,490 votes.
The D.C. Bar has approximately 121,000 members, making it the largest unified bar in the country. But the number of votes cast against Bondi makes this election season “extraordinary,” D.C. Bar CEO Robert Spagnoletti explained, during a press call Monday afternoon. That’s because the average number of ballots cast per election for the last five decades has been roughly 7,000, meaning that five times the typical number of voters turned out to naysay Bondi’s chance to run the group.
“Dozens of D.C. Bar members put themselves forward for leadership positions during the call for nominations, and each candidate on the slate is very well qualified to serve in a leadership role,” Spagnoletti said, underscoring the “apolitical” nature of the Bar.
Seltzer was endorsed by nearly two dozen former D.C. Bar Association presidents, who sidled up to her at a time when Donald Trump has made the judiciary a clear target of his administration. The president and his allies have slandered judges who rule against his executive agenda as “rogue” and “deranged,” undermined the courts’ authority by deriding their constitutionally provided powers as “tyrannical,” and have attempted to root out dissent among the branch by placing MAGA loyalists in key seats.
As concerns over Bondi’s familial political ties grew among Bar members, Bondi released a statement insisting that he would not allow the legal association to become a political organization.
“The D.C. Bar is not, and must not become, a political organization,” Bondi said in March. “I will fight vigorously against any attempts externally or internally to change that. The D.C. Bar should continue its role as a nonpartisan, nonpolitical organization committed to the service of its members.”
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