September 16, 2010 | 3:59 PM | By Anna
The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates on Adrian Fenty:
A lot has been made of the role of race in this campaign, and the sense that Fenty is the tool of white interlopers seeking to turn D.C. into Seattle. Fear of the oncoming white horde of gentrifiers is old in D.C. and I do not doubt that the paranoia was an integral part of the political landscape. But having understood that landscape, it’s a politician job to navigate it.
…The business is politics, not debate club.
It is not enough to simply be right, if only because sometimes you aren’t.
September 16, 2010 | 1:47 PM | By Anna
The National Academy of Sciences
Well, this is tactless:
Vincent C. Gray’s mayoral campaign is responding to comments from Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee that his victory in Tuesday’s election is “devastating for the school children of Washington D.C.”
Traci Hughes, a Gray spokesman, called Rhee’s statement “unfortunate.”
The comments were made last night at the Newseum, where Rhee was on a panel for the premier of “Waiting for Superman“, a documentary in which she is featured. Chancellor Rhee is supposed to meet with Gray next week: “Awkward”, party of two.
September 16, 2010 | 10:21 AM | By Anna
Quick follow-up about Maryland Delegate Saqib Ali, whom we posted about last week after his opponent, State Senator Nancy King sent out campaign mail which featured an altered image of him with a darker complexion; he lost by 227 votes.
“We fought the best race we possibly could,” Ali said. “We spent nearly a quarter million dollars, knocked on thousands of doors. We tried to concentrate on the issues.”
Ali said King’s negative campaign mailers – one of which featured a photo of Ali with darkened skin – did not help her gain ground with voters…
Ali, whose term as delegate ends in January, would not comment on his future in politics. “I’m going to go home, take a nap, rest and see what tomorrow brings,” he said. “We’re going to hold our heads high.”
September 15, 2010 | 4:39 PM | By Anna
The National Academy of Sciences
Michelle Rhee
DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee is such a polarizing figure that yesterday, some voters seemed to be voting either for or against her, rather than for Vince Gray or Adrian Fenty. After Fenty’s loss, Rhee has been on a lot of D.C. minds. Will she stay under Gray? Or will she move on?
I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what people were saying about her, on Twitter. Continue reading →
September 15, 2010 | 2:43 PM | By Anna
We usually serve links in the morning, but after yesterday’s historic primary, we’d be remiss if we didn’t round up the best post-mortems we’ve seen. Today, all anyone can talk about is, “What happened to Adrian Fenty?” The five features below have answers. The first article, from the Washington Post, is excellent– if you can only read one, that’s my pick.
How Adrian Fenty lost his reelection bid for D.C. mayor “…the story of a mayor who misread an electorate he was sure he knew better than anyone, who ignored advisers’ early warnings that key constituencies were abandoning him, who shut out confidantes who told him what he did not want to hear and who began to listen only when the race was all but lost.” (The Washington Post)
Adrian Fenty loses D.C. mayoral primary: Why his re-election bid failed “The price that Fenty was paying for all of those recreation centers, for all of the ribbon-cuttings, for all of the education initiatives, was the most powerful block of voters in town.No one could argue that he’d neglected black neighborhoods, but in the end, that was almost the point: Black neighborhoods, in many instances, didn’t want to see the brand of change Fenty was providing. Asked about the sparkling Deanwood Recreation Center, a Ward 7 resident quoted in the Washington Examiner said, “Fenty is getting ready for white people moving into the community.”" (tbd.com)
Post-Election Analysis: It’s Not The End of The District “Finally, reform just doesn’t turn back on itself, as Fenty tried to say it would. Over the last 12 years, each mayor has left a foundation upon which his successor has built. We can all marvel at what Fenty has done in four years, but not much of it would have been possible without Mayor Anthony Williams. Gray will enter office in uncertain economic times — but also with many of the toughest decisions already made for him. Reforms gain momentum and evolve — and even if he wanted to, Gray wouldn’t simply be able to stop the city and throw it into reverse. ” (DCist) Continue reading →
September 15, 2010 | 10:16 AM | By Anna
Mr. T in DC
A district taxicab.
The Washington Post has an interesting article about one group of Gray supporters and how they pitched in yesterday: cabdrivers.
The city’s roughly 6,000 taxi cabdrivers, a group made up largely of African-born immigrants, have long been upset with Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) over his 2007 change from the city’s zone fare system to meters. On Tuesday, they waged what one union leader called “the fight for our very lives.”
I take cabs frequently and I can vouch for this; by this summer, drivers were inquiring about for whom I’d vote and asking if I’d like more information about their take on the race. When I discovered that many of them didn’t live in the district and thus, couldn’t vote themselves, they’d only get more vocal about their inability to do so– and my need to be educated before I cast my ballot.
While the article examines the dynamic of African immigrants focusing their ire on an African American mayor, I met several African-American cabbies who had been born and raised in D.C., who had lived in this city for six or seven decades, and they were passionately disappointed with Fenty, too. Continue reading →
September 15, 2010 | 2:02 AM | By Anna
The Associated Press just “called” the D.C. Democratic Primary for Vincent Gray. Via NBC4:
With 90 percent of precincts reporting, Gray held about a 53-46 percent lead (59,285 votes to 50,850 votes) over incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty.
“Tonight the people of the District sent a message loud and clear that they want to bring character, integrity and leadership back to the mayor’s office,” Gray told his supporters just before 2 a.m. Wednesday. ”It’s time that we come together as one city.”
September 14, 2010 | 12:29 PM | By Anna
Over in Ward 8, when the The Advoc8te, who blogs at Congress Heights on the Rise tried to vote today, she encountered this drama, involving an ANC Commissioner, two police cars and allegations of electioneering:
On my way into the elementary school I did see Commissioner Mary Cuthbert (8C03) (she of the n-word infamy) sitting alongside the fence directly in front of her the school in support of her candidate (Gray) and clutching some “Gray for Mayor” t-shirts… It seems Mary was clearly (and I mean clearly) within the “campaigning free zone” which had been indicated by very direct signage advising there would be no campaigning beyond that point.
…The polling station manager asked Ms. Cuthbert to please move farther down the fence beyond the posted signs – she refused. He asked again and she refused again stating that the law is she can’t be within 50 feet of the door so she didn’t care where he put the signs she wasn’t moving (please note: all the other campaigners stayed outside of the campaign free zone). At some point William Lockridge got involved and he started yelling at the polling manager and getting up in his face and someone called the police.
Continue reading →
September 14, 2010 | 10:02 AM | By Anna
GLAA
GLAA Ratings
It’s finally election day in Washington, D.C. (and Maryland).
With all the attempts– and by this I mostly mean television ads– to frame Mayoral challenger Vincent Gray as regressive and old skool, I found it interesting that GLAA, The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C., gave Gray a score that was twice as high as Adrian Fenty’s on their primary ratings, a screen shot of which is to the right.
Fenty disagrees with GLAA on a number of issues, and his record is mixed. While his administration led the exceptional legal fight to keep and defend our marriage rights; they also spent nearly two years obstructing the Domestic Partnership Judicial Determination of Parentage Act, which is now a model law protecting the rights and responsibilities of LGBT parents. We were struck by the numerous promises made four years ago that were promptly broken.
September 13, 2010 | 3:54 PM | By Anna
In a feature titled “The Chocolate City’s Two Faces”, The Root kicks off a three-part series examining D.C.’s local political scene:
…(Harry) Thomas said there are pockets of the city and residents who are not benefiting from its new status, with a population that is steadily increasing as urban centers become more attractive. “The issue becomes not just about race but about economics, salaries and opportunities,” he said…
Some members of Congress “ran this city like a plantation until Marion Barry came into office,” said Bernard Demczuk, assistant vice president of District of Columbia relations at George Washington University. “Blacks made up 70 percent of the city and did not have those jobs.”
Continue reading →
