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KLMNO POSTLOCAL Talk to us. Talk to newsmakers. Talk to each other. Join the conversation at
postlocal.com Hot topic Election 2010
Tuesday will be a day of reckoning for many area candidates, perhaps most notably
incumbent Adrian M. Fenty and D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, who are seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for mayor.
JAHI CHIKWENDIU / WASHINGTON POST As primaries near, readers debate Washington Post readers shared viewpoints
on several issues ahead of the D.C. mayoral primary. Recent polls show Gray holding a lead over Fenty among likely voters.
On education overtaxedindc: “The only thing you need to know about Gray is that the teachers’ union endorsed him. Clearly they will be looking for a payback.”
sheridaw: “The gains Fenty claims with
education reform are questionable. I could not vote for anyone who created more turmoil in [the D.C. public school system]. That is precisely what Fenty and [Schools Chancellor Michelle A.] Rhee have done.”
Conversations
Among other key races in the area: The Democratic Party battle to replace Jack B. Johnson, Prince George’s County executive, who is barred by term limits from running again. Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney wrote about the campaign in the populous county in a recent article.
Change coming in Pr. George’s “My friends and neighbors appreciated your
article . . . because it recognizes the importance of Prince George’s County in the region and the importance of the county executive election,” Fort Washington resident Manuel Geraldo wrote in an e-mail to McCartney. Here are more recent reader comments about
the race. The candidates are former state delegate Rushern L. Baker III; Samuel H. Dean, whom term limits are forcing off the County Council; Sheriff Michael Jackson; Del. Gerron S. Levi; and developer Henry C. Turner Jr. TechLawyerInPG: “I never voted for Johnson in the past and am not voting for Jackson now.” winston61: “There is a quiet wave for
Jackson . . . but Baker has a lot of visibility and name recognition to date.” Hellmut: “Regardless of current events, Baker has picked up a lot of strength among the immigrant communities in Prince George’s County.”
You can contact McCartney and read more of his columns at
washingtonpost.com/mccartney.
POSTLOCAL.com COMING TUESDAY Vote, and then weigh in
Tuesday is a big day for candidates and voters in the District, where Democrats will choose their nominees for mayor and D.C. Council chairman; in Maryland, where Republicans will vote in their gubernatorial primary; and in Prince George’s County, where Democrats will pick a candidate for county executive. For results, news and more on these races from the District and Maryland, visit
washingtonpost.com/localelections. On Tuesday, visit
PostLocal.com to share pho-
tographs from the polls, report on your voting experiences and potential problems, discuss re- sults and events with Washington Post reporters and columnists and each other — and, of course, read the latest news. And don’t forget to visit us at
twitter.com/postlocal and
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Join the local political conversation at
PostLocal.com.
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On the candidates’ personalities DumplingEater: “If folks feel like Mayor Fenty and his administration didn’t listen and weren’t responsive to their priorities, then the beautiful thing is they can reject him. Lots of other folks feel pretty positive about the city’s direction, and even some of us who live, work and volunteer in many of the city’s wards have witnessed improved programs and services outside of our neighborhoods over the last three years.” dc_res30: “Funny how it took three years and nine or 10 months and the painful reality of the likelihood of an embarrassing defeat for Fenty to realize the error in his ways. It’s amazing how quickly some people develop a conscience and empathy ONLY when they’re about to reap what they’ve sown.”
Back talk
A reader from the District responded strongly to an item in Thursday’s Reliable Source column in which D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, interviewed by
DCist.com, called questions about whether she would leave town after her planned marriage to Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson “totally sexist.”
‘Sexist’ questions about Rhee’s future? In an e-mail to Washington Post columnist
Courtland Milloy, Joanna Lewton wrote: “I wonder if the good people of Sacramento
are scratching their heads and saying, ‘Maybe we should not vote for Kevin Johnson for mayor because he is going to marry a woman from Washington, D.C., and he may be moving there.’
“I disagree with Ms. Rhee about so many things, but I agree with her quote.” Milloy responded: “Well, Ms. Lewton, I’ve got a sixth sense
that says Ms. Rhee and her fiance, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, will end up living together in Sacramento if they get
married as planned. “California mayor trumps D.C. schools chancellor. If the tables were turned, he’d have to go. Rhee and Johnson are obviously interested in taking their coast-to-coast commuter relationship to another level. You don’t have to be a Carolyn Hax to know that airplanes won’t get them there. “Moreover, Johnson is a graduate of the
Harvard Divinity School Summer Leadership Institute, a program that prepares students for work in faith-based urban economic revitalization. And what is at the core of any faith-based urban economic revitalization? Family, built around a loving couple. “Johnson can’t just talk the talk. He’s got to walk the walk — and I’m willing to bet that Rhee will be walking with him.”
Read more of Milloy’s columns and send him thoughts and quetsions at
washingtonpost.com/milloy.
On past, present and future mamaspearl: “When Fenty ran for election four years ago, he was demonized by [then-D.C. Council Chairman and mayoral candidate Linda] Cropp’s camp as the person who would undo all of Mayor [Anthony] Williams’s work. Guess what? Fenty won. Mayor Williams’s plans continued — more or less. The sky didn’t fall. I think it is irrational to say that Gray winning the election means that the city will go backward.”
Summing up
4Progress1: “Voters appreciate Fenty’s accomplishments, and the city needs them to continue.” sampved205: “Fenty knows that he is losing. Desperate as desperate can be. See you!!”
MIKE DEBONIS
Fenty’s toughest hurdle? D.C.’s 2-party system.
a difference of opinion between the pool of voters who would be eligible to vote in November and those set to pass judgment Tuesday. As with many U.S. cities, the national two-party
M
straitjacket is an awkward fit for the District. This city’s political scene accommodates a wealth of ideological perspectives, from the enviro-focused progressivism of D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (Ward 3) and the union-friendly populism of her colleague Harry Thomas Jr. (Ward 5) to the family-values stylings of mayoral candidate Leo Alexander. And they’re all Democrats, because to get elected in this town, you have to be — or, if you’re D.C. Council member Michael A. Brown (I-At Large), pretend not to be.
But if the point of democracy is to express the will of the electorate, the District’s closed primaries might well be standing in the way of that goal this year. There are indications this year that non-Democratic voters have a strong preference for a Democrat who may not make it onto the general election ballot. That’s why Fenty targeted them heavily with mailers and canvassers and encouraged them to switch. But some forgot to switch, some were hoping to switch on Election Day (elections officials killed that idea last month), and some just weren’t going to become Democrats, even under the threat of Vincent C. Gray. Fenty is left with what-ifs. His respect for New York
City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is well known. He imported his office arrangement, his penchant for school reform and his data obsession. Perhaps he should also have emulated his party affiliation — that is, do as Bloomberg did in 2007 , and renounce his original party affiliation for independent status. If, in a general election, Fenty could pick up a hefty percentage of the 72,435 undeclared voters and the 29,603 registered Republicans, not to mention the 7,728 voters belonging to the Statehood Green and other parties, this election would be a lot closer than polls indicate it is.
But to run as an independent, Fenty would have had to have changed his registration, picked up ballot petitions on July 2 and turned them in with at least 3,000 signatures affixed by Aug. 25. Because Fenty appears not to have gotten the
wake-up call on his political mortality until The Washington Post published a poll Aug. 28 showing him 17 points behind likely voters, that didn’t happen.
If he loses Tuesday, he has options. He could run as an independent write-in candidate on the general-election ballot, but it’s a difficult proposition —as deposed Republican council members Jerry Moore and Carol Schwartz can attest. A successful write-in push requires a vast organization, which requires lots of money. Fenty’s set to tap out his last few hundred thousand dollars in the final week, and squeezing more cash out of well-squeezed supporters for a long-shot, write-in push just isn’t going to happen. A more intriguing possibility: The D.C. Republican Committee has not fielded a mayoral candidate this year, opting to focus its energies on ward council races. Republicans will be faced with a blank ballot, and at least some are going to write in the mayor they’ve come to know and perhaps like: Fenty. There has been some talk of the possibility in GOP circles, and “it seems like that’s going to happen,” says Patrick D. Mara, the 35-year-old Republican who made a game run at the at-large council seat in 2008. “And really that’s about Chancellor [Michelle A. Rhee] and Chief [Cathy L. Lanier] more than anything.” It is possible, even likely, that Fenty would win the most Republican write-in votes, leaving him eligible to accept the GOP nomination. Could he accept? Kenneth McGhie, general counsel for the Board of Elections and Ethics, believes he could, with the caveat that the issue has not been deeply researched. Would he accept? Fenty said on Thursday that he would not. But on Sept. 15 he might have a different perspective. This much we know: Fenty has had little use for institutional Democratic politics in this town. He proudly ran without the support of party regulars in 2006 and pretty much snubbed them at the Democratic National Convention in 2008, and they’re largely with Gray now. But Republicans have never gained much traction here since Home Rule. Schwartz held office for years as an at large council member, protected by her sui generis citywide name recognition and the provision in the city charter that saves two citywide council seats for non-Democrats. The closest thing this city’s seen to a bona fide toppling of Democratic rule was in 1994, when Schwartz gave a strong challenge to Marion Barry’s restoration bid, winning an unprecedented 42 percent of the vote among an electorate that was 7 percent Republican. She still lost, by a lot. But a Dem-to-GOP turncoat, as Bloomberg started
out? In the sea of D.C. politics, those are uncharted waters. Voters tend to hate the stench of desperation, as Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania (R-to-D-to-gone) will tell you. But, as Sen. Josseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut (D-to-I-to-still-kicking) will tell you, sometimes they don’t.
debonism@washpost.com
A complete list of PostPoints Spots can be found at
washingtonpost.com/postpoints.
ayor Adrian M. Fenty is poised to become a victim of the District’s Democratic monopoly. He could lose his job because there may be
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
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