Wins spelling bee

Virginia Democrat wins spelling bee

Don Beyer prevails in the National Press Club's annual event.

By  Jesse Rifkin

Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) won the National Press Club’s “Politicians vs. Press” spelling bee on Wednesday night, narrowly ekeing out a victory over Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post.

Beyer won by spelling apostasy in a 23-round nailbiter emceed by Jacques Bailly, the famous pronouncer of words at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and featuring bells rung to indicate a misspelled word handled by Gokul Venkatachalam and Vanya Shivashankar, the teenaged co-champions of the 2015 Bee.

The words were easier than those at the national contest like this year’s scherenschnitte, yet still proved challenging to the contestants, with four of the very first five misspelled. (A contestant needed to get two words wrong to be eliminated.)

Demirjian had a chance to win the whole thing: After Beyer misspelled lutefisk and bergamot, Demirijan who only had one strike against her would win with impresario, which she misspelled by using two S’s. This kept Beyer in the game, with the two accumulating three straight rounds of perfection until Demirjian misspelled plantagenet, setting up Beyer — who even added “a capital W” when spelling Wisconsinite — up for the victory.

Clinton Yates of the Washington Post came in third place after misspelling interstice and avuncular. “The other week, I saw Ben Carson speak here in this room,” said Yates, the only African-American male competing. “Now I feel like him too.”

The other competitors ranged from the almost-perfect to the much less so.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) misspelled chastisement and disillusion, quipping that he was perhaps “the only Republican on this side of the stage [the politicians] and probably that side too [the journalists].” Flake added, “Just don’t give us ‘Speaker,’ we can’t spell that.”

David Kerley of ABC News started off the night by misspelling ambiguity and magnanimity, lamenting, “I’m a broadcaster! I just have to know how to say it.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) misspelled veterinarian and Connecticuter, noting of his fellow congressmen on stage: “I’m happy to represent this diverse spectrum, which spans from A to B.”

Rep. Brad Ashford (D-Neb.) misspelled appropriations — if you’re wondering, he serves on the Armed Services and Agriculture committees, not Appropriations. He also misspelled kleptocracy, meaning a government or society run primarily based on theft, despite quipping “I use that word every day.”

Nick Gass of POLITICO misspelled theoretician and hallucinogen, though still representing his employer by coming in fourth place.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) misspelled Louisianan, followed by his declaring “I’d like a motion to vacate.” Rather than guessing on empleomania, he instead spelled out “F-R-E-E J-A-S-O-N,” referring to Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian who earlier this month was convicted by an Iranian court on flimsy charges of espionage. (Raising awareness of Rezaian has been a major priority of the National Press Club this year.)

Angela Greiling Keane of Bloomberg News misspelled boondoggle and connivery, declaring it an improvement over her previous spelling bee in fourth grade, when she went out on chocolate and cheddar.

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) misspelled acquiesce and doctrainaire. During his first word after outlasting Flake, who earlier had erroneously pronounced himself the only Republican on the stage, Emmer proclaimed, “Now there’s only Republican up here.”

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) misspelled limousine and scenario, accidentally walking off the stage after his first incorrect word until a National Press Club member dragged him back.

Rod Kuckro of E&E News misspelled bialy and ptarmigan, Yochi Dreazen of Foreign Policy misspelled interpolate and knish, and Ellyn Ferguson of Roll Call went out on consanguinity and Utahn.

Categories for individual rounds included words from the Declaration of Independence, political words like gubernatorial and demagoguery, American regional foods, American inventions, state birds and flowers and trees, and Back to the Future Part II in honor of Wednesday being the day that the main character Marty McFly supposedly arrives when time traveling in the film.