2006 Washington, D.C., mayoral election

Adrian Malik Fenty is an American politician who served as the mayor of the District of Columbia from 2007 to 2011.

The District of Columbia Democratic State Committee is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the District of Columbia.

The District of Columbia Republican Party is the District of Columbia affiliate of the United States Republican Party. It was founded on June 19, 1855 and is made up of registered Republican voters living in Washington, D.C. elected to serve as the governing body of the Party. The party chairman is Jose Cunningham and the party is housed in the District of Columbia alongside the Republican Party national headquarters.

The Statehood Green Party, known as DC Statehood Party prior to 1999, is the progressive political party in the District of Columbia. The party is the D.C. affiliate of the national Green Party but has traditionally elevated issues of District of Columbia statehood movement as its primary focus. Party members refer to the Statehood Green Party as the second most popular party in the District because, historically, STG candidates win the second highest vote totals in the city, ahead of the Republican Party but behind the Democratic Party. As of February, 2023, there are approximately 4,140 voters registered in the Statehood Green Party. That is 0.79% of registered voters in the city.

In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford University political scientists Adam Bonica and Michael McFaul, there is a consensus among political scientists that "democracies perform better when more people vote."

Linda Washington Cropp is an American politician from Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. She was a Democratic member of the Council of the District of Columbia, where she was the first woman to serve as the elected Council Chairman. On September 12, 2006, she lost the Democratic Primary for Mayor to Adrian Fenty. This loss came in spite of the fact that Cropp had been endorsed by outgoing mayor Anthony A. Williams. She was succeeded as Council Chairman by Vincent C. Gray.

Marie Collins Johns is an American businesswoman and former civil servant who served as deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration. She was nominated by President Barack Obama on December 17, 2009, and confirmed unanimously by the Senate on June 22, 2010. Johns is a former president and CEO of the telecommunications company Verizon. She made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic party nomination in the 2006 Washington, D.C. mayoral election.

Vincent Bernard Orange, Sr. 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. He lost the June 2016 Democratic primary election to Robert White. 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.

Michael Arrington Brown is an American politician in Washington, D.C. In 2008, he was elected an at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia, and he served one four-year term.

The Washington Post is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area.

Marion Shepilov Barry was an American politician who served as mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991 and 1995 to 1999. A Democrat, Barry had served three tenures on the Council of the District of Columbia, representing as an at-large member from 1975 to 1979, in Ward 8 from 1993 to 1995, and again from 2005 to 2014.

Anthony Allen Williams is an American politician who was the mayor of the District of Columbia, for two terms, from 1999 to 2007. His predecessor had served twice. Williams had previously served as chief financial officer for the district, managing to balance the budget and achieve a surplus within two years of appointment. He held a variety of executive posts in cities and states around the country prior to his service in the D.C. government. Since 2012, he has served as chief executive officer/executive director of the Federal City Council. His tenure as mayor has been appraised very highly by the policy community and historians, with MSNBC branding him "one of the best and most successful mayors in US history."

Metrobus is a bus service operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). Its fleet consists of 1,595 buses covering an area of 1,500 square miles (3,900 km2) in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. There are 269 bus routes serving 11,129 stops, including 2,554 bus shelters. In 2021, the system had a ridership of 60,603,600, or about 284,800 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2022.

The Washington Times is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout the District of Columbia and in parts of Maryland and Virginia. A weekly tabloid edition aimed at a national audience is also published. The Washington Times was one of the first American broadsheets to publish its front page in full color.