 Chair Vincent Gray and Phil Mendelson, both Democrats, were not up for reelection in 2008, so only one of the seats up for reelection could be won by a Democrat.Democratic incumbent Kwame R. Brown was running for reelection and was likely to win, which made it nearly assured that the other seat up for election would go to a non-Democrat.Brown later admitted to accepting an illegal $125,000 donation from Jeff Thompson during this campaign.