{flickr/Ben Sheperd}

The Washington Post has finally completed a month’s worth of voting to reveal the winner of their new competition, “America’s Next Great Pundit.” Kevin Huffman, a Teach for American executive from the District, won the finally round of voting by beating runner up Zeba Kahn by a few hundred votes.

As is anything in Washington, the winner is not without controversy. Earlier this week, the Washington City Paper reported that Huffman is the ex-husband of D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, leaving some well-informed citizens to wonder: was the competition rigged?

According to a reliable source (a reporter I sit next to when I intern at the Washington Examiner), the Post strongly supports Rhee’s aggressive and often controversial decisions about D.C. public schools. Rhee has been given a mandate, so to speak, by Mayor Adrian Fenty to fix the broken school system. But the D.C. Council has constantly objected to Rhee’s tactics.

It could just be a loose, coincidental connection. Who really knows how close Huffman and Rhee remain, although I’m sure the Post knew about the marriage going in and asked Huffman before he was entered into the competition. It’s just funny how these things are. It’s like D.C.’s own, highly-politicized version of Access Hollywood. Oh the drama.

What remains to be seen is if Huffman sticks. As a reward for winning he signed a 13 week contract to write weekly editorial’s for the Post. If the columns are good enough, they may get published in the paper and online. Huffman’s true test will be the response for a greater variety of readers, many of whom didn’t pay attention to the competition. I’ll be following Huffman’s career for the next few months with great interest. Let’s see where this part time gig takes him.