Friday Question of the Day – Any Idea Who You’re Gonna Vote For?

JT

Come on PoP, your polldaddy selections should have included write-in candidates! Dan for Mayor!

Neighbor

Isn’t it a bad sign that the poll has the wrong name for Phil Mendelson?

PT Varnum

Fenty? Really?

Ragged Dog

Yep.

Amsterdam

At this point, Fenty is the lesser of the two evils, assuming Peebles is the irrelevant candidate I expect he is. Gray’s first rally was with a bunch of unionites who complained that Fenty wasn’t listening to the unions, which in my opinion not listening to unions is a huge step in the right direction. While unions sound fine on paper, pro-union in this city basically means you want everything to be administered like Metro. Fenty is also generally pro gentrification, and I’m afraid Gray would not support development as much.

I don’t know who Clark Ray is, but I’d vote for Daffy Duck over Mendelson, who allows 14 year olds with 9 convictions to remain on the streets. Most murders in DC lead to direct blood on Mendelson’s hands, I don’t know how he sleeps at night.

neener

Gray sealed his fate with that awful rally. Just cost himself the election right there. I have yet to meet anyone who isn’t furious about that display of Barryisms.

Fenty is a shoo-in now.
- lacairaine
  
  Vincent Gray will “smoke” Fenty in this race because everyone has discounted the youth of this city and the working poor. Those are the citizens that will cast their vote for Gray against Fenty, and they don’t do polls like this one.
  
  The more the media and “new Washingtonian” tries to discount Mr. Barry’s 40+ years of working hard for the youthy, poor and elderly citizens of Washington DC, the more those groups will rally around the candidate that they feel hears them and is willing to fight for their rights in this city.
  
  Unless you are those sections of the various Wards that feel disconnected from this government then these polls are irrelevant.
  - rt
    
    There are statistical reasons that the people you mention are only marginally taken into consideration with polling, and that’s because they rarely tend to show up on election day and cast a vote. Until that, those “sections of that various wards that feel disconnected from this government” are irrelevant in a discussion about our future mayor (who is almost guaranteed to be Fenty)
IHeartShaw

Agree on Mendelson… Daffy Duck would be way better.
Keith

Mendelson is the only one with any common sense running for at large. He is the balance on an otherwise unproductive council. The problem with juvenile crime is with the law allowing these criminals to be turned over to the city after sentencing.
Clark Ray has no experience and was a failure as a part of the Fenty administration.

NoFan

How about a “Not Fenty” option for your poll?

Heather

PoP, every time you use a photo like that, I die a little inside.

Prince Of Petworth

Hahaha, I’m sorry.
Anon

HDR! Kill it! Kill it with fire!!

Hopefully in 10 years HDR will be the Flock of Seagulls haircut of the photography world: an embarassing trend we’ll all want to pretend never existed.
- quigley brown
  
  I didn’t use HDR.
  - Heather
    
    It’s a Topaz photoshop filter, which, amazingly, is even worse than HDR.
    - quigley brown
      
      I was just using the 30-day free trial. I didn’t buy it after that. It’s fun to experiment, though.

Homer Price

nice filter on that photo. and by nice i mean awful.

jcm

Where’s the Ward 1 CM poll?

Prince Of Petworth

I wanted to do citywide races. I’ll do a separate Ward 1 poll in the near future.

ontarioroader

I’m completely convinced at this point that anyone even remotely qualified to be mayor of DC would be intelligent enough not to consider ever running for the office. Subsequently we’re left with egotistical, game playing, pandering fools. We get to pick from the less evil of a few lessers.

Ragged Dog

Then take your needs out of it and think about what is the biggest government created problem in the city:

DCPS. If you like the direction of Rhee, vote for Fenty. IF you don’t, vote for Gray.

It’s really that simple.
- dcdude
  
  Agreed. Rhee is my biggest reason for voting for Fenty.

MK

I was thrilled when I watched the news and the father of one of the shooting victims refused to shake Barry’s hand and basically said the elected reps of SE didn’t do crap and haven’t done crap for years. Maybe, just maybe, a tiny flicker of sanity is beginning to dawn.

Raymo in LeDroit

Fenty. About to donate money to his campaign. Kinda sad he will probably be DC’s last black mayor. (A joke about Marion Barry’s prediction in the 1988)

B. W.

Wait. Fenty is fixing the schools. Facilitating business. Did fine during the snow crisis.

But he’s kind of “aloof.”

Seems like a no-brainer.

USA! USA!

Vote Republican in 2010. It’s the only way to make the Democrats give a **** about DC.

Anonymous

I think that was the brownshirts motto encouraging votes for the Nazi Party to make the National People’s Party give a **** in 1930.
Buttercup

Single party rule has brought beauty and excellence to citizens the world over. Consider China and North Korea.

Anonymous

A bag of hair would be tougher on crime than Mendelson. So I guess I’m voting for Ray.

TaylorStreetMan

Write in: bag of hair

anonymous

How do we get Catania to run for mayor?

Ragged Dog

Where you not paying attention to the anti-gay proportion of the DC voting population? He has basically zero support in Wards 5, 7, 8. He’d make a great City Council Leader though.
- DCster
  
  Agree that Cantania as mayor is not going to happen. You’re being nice “A great City Council leader” though. He’s not exactly a very personable guy. I can’t see him building consensus or rounding up votes as well as Cropp or Gray.
  - ontarioroader
    
    ‘not exactly a very personable guy’ is generous. The guy has a temper and can’t function under pressure. Not even close to mayoral material, and to be honest I’m surprised he’s lasted this long on the council. Obligatory 911 tape in which he completely loses any sense of composure and dignity: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1316404
    - briefly
      
      That story is awesome. Thank you.
      
      Catania is wicked smart, too, despite his temper.
    - Ragged Dog
      
      That was amusing!
      
      I haven’t watched him on DCTV so I don’t know his demeanor outside of a 9-11 call. But I can’t really judge him for that.
      
      I’d be cranky too if I was on DC Council. So. Much. Blatant. Stupidity.

ET

The District’s political pool is really, really shallow.

I don’t want to vote for Fenty but Gray, really?

Anonymous

I’m not in love with Adrian Fenty, but Grays campaign smacks of east river nepotism, and watching him pal around at that rally with Clifford Janey sealed the deal. No thanks, Vince.

snapdragon

Didn’t see the rally, can’t comment on the nepotism comment. I’m adjusting to Rhee, because at least there is change in a desperately dysfunctional school system. However, I often wonder what would have happened if Janey had stayed. He’s an educator who had a vision. Rhee’s vision is not clear to me. I have also personally witnessed a serious decline in my son’s school following Rhee’s arrival. I’ll probably vote for Fenty, as I agree with the general direction of the city, but I think Rhee was the wrong choice, and Janey could have done something great if Fenty had worked with him.

Rukasu

HDR’ing Fenty…really? really?

Prince Of Petworth

You’ll have to upload some proper Fenty pics to the PoPville flickr pool!

Park&Park

In all sincerity, can people explain why they will or will not support Fenty? I will be voting in DC for the first time this year and this is my newbie impression: If you don’t like Fenty, you’re either a teacher (fair enough), a long-time resident who resents gentrification (also fair enough) or you just think he’s an asshole who doesn’t play well with others. If you support Fenty, you acknowledge his personality deficit but point to his reforms of the schools, development projects, and overall improvements in quality of life, such as the fact that the murder rate is the lowest it’s been in 40-something years. If you ask me, again as a newbie to DC politics, the pro-Fenty side has a stronger argument. What am I missing here? Really looking for genuine input. Thanks.

Andrew

Mainly, I see Fenty having a big attitude about presiding over the effects of reforms from Mayor Williams’ time. Whether it’s schools, government efficiency, or the city’s economic growth, it’s not like those things changed–poof!–upon Fenty’s election. He acts like they did, though. While I’d forgive the personality if that’s where the arrogance ended, this issue affects the management of the city:
– He swaps around department directors like Clark Ray as if it won’t disrupt the agencies’ functioning.
– He picks needless fights (baseball tickets, really?) with the Council, turning a group of allies into his adversaries.
– He sneaks out of town all the time, telling practically nobody, causing confusion during crises like the shootings on South Capitol St.
– He thinks he can grant big contracts to his fraternity brothers without Council approval.

While the outward personality is different, this complacency, cronyism, and arrogance of the Fenty administration is more reminiscent of the later Barry years than anything else.
- Ragged Dog
  
  Fenty isn’t a great candidate. He’s just a place holder in the direction the city needs to go in. He didn’t invent cronyism, but he is guilty of it. However, even with the brouhaha over sole source bids, no one is complaining about the quality of work that gets done with the contracts. And if you think that this situation changes under Gray, I have a non-permitted fence I’ll sell you.
  
  “The improvements were arranged by W. Christopher Smith Jr., a 15-year friend of Mr. Gray’s, whose construction and development firms control more than $300 million in projects east of the Anacostia River in Mr. Gray’s ward.”
  
  The problem is Gray returns us to Barry-ism. There aren’t enough volunteer dollars and hours in this city to make up for the crap which constitutes “teaching” in dcps.
saf

He lies. He is steering contracts to cronies without proper bidding. He vanishes for days on end – the citizens deserve to know if the mayor is on the job or on vacation. He refuses to work with the council. He endlessly passes the buck, never taking responsibility for anything. Before he went into politics, he mismanaged (badly) the funds of old folks he was court appointed to care for. He is only in it for the personal power, not for the good of the city.

In short, he’s a young, slightly dim, version of Barry, with exercise in place of drugs.
ET

I am not a tearcher or a terribly long term-er (moved to DC in 1994) but I wasn’t a fan before he ran for mayor. Mostly he was some guy on the council and his campaign didn’t do much to change that. I voted for him but with no enthusiasm whatsoever. I wasn’t a hatter but he was just….blah.

After 4 years I have just decided that there is just no there, there so to speak. Better by a lot than Barry and Pratt-Kelly. For me he is all hat no cattle.

I still don’t hate him I just wish I had better choices – or choices at all (Gray is NOT a choice). As I said before the political pool in DC politics is very, very shallow. DC has come far from the Marion Barry days but not that far and I think we deserve better.

Petworth Diva

I know I’m going to open a can of worms here, but here goes. By the large working class black oposition to Fenty and support for the he’s-not-Fenty Gray, we can come to some conclusions. It takes more educated African Americans used to living and working in diversity to back a post-racial type of mayor as Fenty is. So what if he’s aloof. You don’t have more to say against him than that? What many working class African Americans really mean is that Fenty appears to cater to white people. And what are the so-called white interests if not quality of life issues such as improved schools that they might consider, reduced crime, clean streets, more economic development, on all of which the current mayor has delivered. I remember criticism against Fenty’s predecessor, Tony Williams, who was such a nerd, not down with the brothers, more at home at a policy convention than a backyard barbecue in NE. So what? But to many working class African Americans, it’s all about perception, not services delivered.
Gray has great support among the we hate Michelle Rhee crowd, who really encouraged him to run. They believe Rhee wants older burned out mostly black female graduates of HBCUs out and replaced by mostly white TFA types, who aren’t going to be career educators. Many didn’t see such moves as reform, but taking away black people’s jobs and replacing them with whites. Luckily for Fenty, a lot of the we hate Rhee and Fenty too crowd lives outside of DC.

Andrew

Yes, Williams is a nerd. Yes, I’d say he favored more gentrifying policies than Fenty (like Nationals Park).

However, his government wasn’t a train wreck. His reform was reform, rather than just picking new favorites, be they from TFA or Kappa Alpha Psi.
neener

the HBCU issue is REAL. some of the schools that the teachers attended went bankrupt, lost accreditation, etc. These are not real colleges but hide under the banner of HBCUs.

I am NOT talking about Howard, I’m talking about Southeastern, Coppin State, Virginia University, Cheyney, Elizabeth City U, etc. Some of these schools have very low requirements and I spoke with teachers about their college life that would make you explode- professors who gave straight As, etc.

Anonymous

Unless someone else comes out of the woodwork, I’ll end up voting for Fenty. I loathe his association with the Sinclair Skinner (a thinly veiled racist)and there is an air of corruption around the sweet deals Fenty has passed on to his frat brothers in the way of government contracting. But he has improved city services, made significant headway in the atrocious city school system, and seems to be making similar headway in public safety.

Peebles is just a rich guy who wants to play in the political pool to put another line in his bio, and Grey is a barely effective politician who is already pandering to the SEDC Barry crowd. Any doubts I had were overcome by his speech at the rally earlier this week.

I’d vote for Catania if he ran, but I think he recognizes there is still a significant chunk of DC that would not vote for him because he is a gay white guy, and he cares enough for this city not to let his own ego undermine a government moving in the right direction.

Anonymous

Ditto.

I wish I could vote against Fenty b/c he just playing with fire with the Skinner crowd. His cronyism is likely to end up just as bad as Barry. But, as long as he is the candidate most likely to support more gentrification and more improvement in the schools he’ll get my vote.

As for schools. I’m still a little leery about the school reform. For the moment, school reform seems largely focused on getting west of the park whites back into the public schools. So far, I see little to convince me that Fenty/Rhee are doing what it takes to make our mid-city schools as good as those west of the park schools.
briefly

Wow, did Sinclair veil his racism for you? You must rate! 😉
saf

I disagree about Skinner – he’s not veiled at all.

Petworthian

It’s *Phil* Mendelson. And he has my vote.

Prince Of Petworth

Yikes, just fixed it (it’ll will update shortly.) I must’ve combined Jim Graham and Phil Mendelson in my head…
briefly

Please Petworthian tell us why he has your vote?

ColHeights1

There are legitimate reasons to not like Fenty. He has been incredibly secretative about how he runs the government. He has refused to give information to the city council. There are those that believe that he has been breaking the law in not reporting certain things to the council. He has repeatedly given contracts to his friends and frat brothers. He has cut a number of child care services that benefit kids with disabilities. Michelle Rhee has implied a huge number of teachers were abusing kids and has not been honest about the reasons for laying off teachers.

You may like him but to imply that those that don’t like Fenty have no legitimate reasons is unfair. It’s not just about perceptions.

And for my union-bashing friends, 15% of the population of DC are union workers, we live here and deserve to have our voice heard. Blaming unions for all the problems of this city is complete and utter bs. And being pro-union is this city means that you want workers to be paid fairly and work in safe environments.

Dirty

“And being pro-union is this city means that you want workers to be paid fairly and work in safe environments.”

You need a new “pity me, I’m oppressed” line… if you feel you’re underpaid, work harder and get a higher paying job. As for safe working environments… do you work in the coal mines or the steel mills? Why do we have OSHA? You are BS, there are clearly problems with unions in the public sector. 15% of DC may be union, but 95% of them are government workers, that have no reason to be unionized… you work for the taxpayer.
- Ragged Dog
  
  I can’t support a union that can’t clean it’s own house and is not effective. If your union job comes at the expense of educating kids, you’ve failed. Go get a different union job doing something other than getting paid guaranteed annual step increases to babysit kids all day. Kids need an education not a warm body.
  
  And the “not reporting things to the city council” is feigned outrage. The standard practice for mayors including Barry was to go through the Parks budget or whatever it was for the contracts. Fenty wasn’t breaking any ground there.
neener

No. Give up your union BS. I do not believe there is any legal reason why employers of non-capitalist entities should be allowed to form unions. Prior to 1974 this was against the law. I believe it still should be against the law.

Unions are for workers organizing to get their fair share of company profits. They are NOT for soaking the working poor out of their tax dollars, as is the case with the WTU.

I am and continue to be pro-union for the trades and laborers in capitalist companies. My wife and mother are ex-members of NEA.
- saf
  
  No, unions are for workers organizing for fair and safe working conditions, no matter what the industry.
  - neener
    
    nope. wrong.

quigley brown

Please people…can’t I explore PS techniques once in a while? It was just a phase I was going through last summer…

TaylorStreetMan

it’s OK with me, but if it’s not HDR, what is it, please? just curious.

mmm

I would love to hear an argument FOR Mendelson.

After talking to him at a crime meeting last winter, I can’t imagine a worse public safety committee chair.

briefly

Second! someone pro-Mendelson please tell us what you’re thinking? Why support him? In my opinion he is a criminals best friend, he caters to the thug and welfare vote to shore up his upper NW voter base, and those of us in not-posh neighborhoods pay the price. Please tell us what he’s done for you lately.
- Ragged Dog
  
  One in the same. My neighbor who has a “I support DC Teachers” sign also sells drugs out of her basement to cars from MD and VA.
  - snapdragon
    
    There are also many hard working, well informed people committed to quality education who have the same signs in their yards. Why? Many good people were shafted needlessly and without just cause. Yes, some losers were fired as well, as they should have been. But I can tell you from my observations as the parent of a former DCPS student that many of the people who were fired were fine, strong educators and others who totally suck and hurt kids are still there. So, the tough talk sounds great, but doesn’t necessarily translate.

DCster

A lot of anger toward Fenty from those East of the River comes from the state of the economy. Wards there have 15% to 25% unemployment. They probably read about all of the money Fenty has put into swimming pools and dog parks, and see Rhee as hostile to long-serving teachers, and so feel like Fenty doesn’t care about them.
I don’t like Fenty’s cronyism (contracts for Omar Karim), his ignoring the Council’s authority (ignoring votes, budget decisions), but he has hired some good people (Lanier, Gabe Klein). Gray has been a very good Council Chair (gotten a lot of good bills passed, came up with fiscally responsible budgets). He would probably do a better job balancing the concerns of residents East and West of the River. He might not be as good as Fenty at staffing strong administrators though.
But like Dan says, it’s still early.

victoria

The joke in the old Barry days was that DC had all the machine/cronyism/nepotism of Chicago or NY but with none of the results. When a Chicago politician paid double to his brother-in-law’s asphalt company, at least the roads did indeed get paved.

Fenty has been very disappointing with his frat-brother deals etc. and “stealing” credit for some projects, but he has started to wrench the city around and get things done.

Vincent Gray has been on the council in a position of leadership for years while the city went to crap around him. Why should we think he would fix anything now as Mayor?

DCster

Vincent Gray, old as he may be, has only been on the council since 2005 (and in a position of leadership as Chair since 2007) whereas Fenty was elected to the council in 2001. So while one could say that Fenty has more years of experience in elected office than Gray, it wouldn’t be correct to claim that Gray has somehow been responsible for city disfunction while the longer-serving Fenty has not. I think our city has actually enjoyed better services and living conditions since the late 90s, and so the question is who to credit, not who to blame.
- CH Family Man
  
  Of course, you forget to mention that Gray was a political appointee in the reigns of Barry and Pratt Kelly. So I call BS on your post.
  - DCster
    
    So Gray was head of Human Services from 1991 to 1995. Was he ineffective in dealing with homeless and drug use during that time? Should we also criticize Eric Holder, US Attorney for DC from 1993 to 1997 for the crime rate when Kelly and Barry were in office? I don’t think it’s right to allege someone was ineffective or corrupt just because they were in office during tough times. But I don’t know about Gray’s work at Human Services, so if you know anything about how he did I’d be interested in that (and I probably wouldn’t call BS on your post too!)
    - CH Family Man
      
      Should we also criticize Eric Holder, US Attorney for DC from 1993 to 1997 for the crime rate when Kelly and Barry were in office? YES. We should hold him responsible. FYI, I’m a DEM and voted for Obama.
      
      During Gray’s tenure the department was appalling. During his tenure the AIDS epidemic in DC was practically ignored by the gov. Let’s not forget all the “no bid” property leases when he ran the agency and the numerous investigates of his subordinates for financial mismanagement. You can look it up in old news clips.

Ragged Dog

I know he’s trolling here anyway, so I’ll come out and say it.

Really, Graham? Really? Your CHIEF OF STAFF? Really?

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dc/2010/04/former_graham_chief_of_staff_f.html?hpid=sec-metro

And it’s not like you didn’t know this guy was bad news.

I’m of the “Captain of the Ship” school of leadership. If something goes wrong on the ship, the Captain is to blame. There is just too much stuff that goes wrong while you’re captain.

Metro immediately comes to mind.

anon

Where is Fenty’s scally cap?

briefly

Its disgusting how many people are saying ‘couldn’t care less’.

Bromance

I agree with the above poster, especially when it comes to Mendelson. Voting out Mendelson could literally be the difference between life and death. By doing nothing to seriously strengthen anti-crime laws, he is complicit in the actions of the domestic terrorists that rob and kill law abiding citizens.

Anonymous

I’m a DCPS teacher, and I’ll be voting for Fenty. While I have my quibbles with Rhee, she is a vast improvement over the previous status quo. Would I tell many of my colleagues I was voting for Fenty? Hell, no. I’d be an outcast at my school. People are right. Older teacher really really hate Fenty and Rhee. But most of them live in Maryland anyway.

Petworth Teacher

OMG, anonymous @ 4:57!! I’m a DCPS teacher too and could have written your post!! I do have my quibbles with Rhee too but agree with you completely. Things are better in many ways than before. Rhee is not just cutting; she is slashing and burning. Several teachers I knew who were totally deadweight, who were just waiting to retire are gone. Yes, I know good teachers were also let go in the RIF but certain schools were budgetted for say 850 students and only 690 enrolled, necessitating cuts. And somehow I feel imune to Rhee’s RIFs, despite the fact that I’m closer to retirement than you probably are. I continue to get good evaluations, have changed a lot of my practice (really improved my methods) due to IMPACT and am not burned out.
As for telling my colleagues who I’m voting for? I’m just going to have to lie and say I want Gray so that Rhee will be gone. But I secretly want her to stay. Though they might not believe me; everyone says the whites support Fenty. For my coworkers, everything is about race.

briefly

Thanks for these insights, DCPS teachers, and for all you do!

snapdragon

Second that, briefly!

Classic

It is really crazy to me that people dont seem to have a problem with the fact that Adrian Fenty at worst has broken the law, at least has bent and ignored the law. Peter Nickles has worked to help him side step the law for the last four years. I have a big problem with that and for that reason he can not have my vote. Only in a perfect society to we expect to see the perfect candidate. I have to vote for the person that will work in my best interest and Fenty is not the one. I gave him my vote four years ago, he has not earned my vote a second time.

lacairaine

They don’t care because it doesn’t affect them. It only affects those neighborhoods and people who “these folk” feel are beneath them or the least of the city. This new Washingtonian would have all poor people of color pushed in the Anacostia river or Prince George’s County, MD, anywhere but it the very city that poor people of color built.

Adrian Fenty has exhibited the EXACT same behavior as the person that they supposedly hate–Marion Barry. He has broken the law, exhibited cronyism, steered contracts to his friends, used city services to his benefit at the detrament of the taxpayer. Plays white elite Washington against black poor Washington. Exhibits discrimination in hiring by displacing employees and candidates aged 40+ to the benenfit of those under 40 years old.

His arrogance is very secondary to me, but his fiscal mismanagment, racist behavior, and classism at the forefront of why I will NEVER vote for him; and I worked his campaing during his first term. He discounts Marion Barry but he used his style to get himself elected in Wards 5, 6, 7 and 8 and then immediately if not soon turned his back on those very constituents.

This city is divided by race and class in a way that is unprecedented. We need to try and unit this city and not continue to divide it. This is not the legacy that generational Washingtonians want to leave our children.

Keith

Catania has every reason to be upset with the 911 call taker, as the department is poorly managed and way off the mark with a lack of good service. Janice Quintana has not been an asset to the call center instead she has placed bad policy in effect and has likely caused people to not get the help they need in time.

Bloomingdale2001

-using police resources to stop traffic so that his friends can ride bikes
-having a 75,000 heater installed in his favorite city pool
– having his name scrawled in super sized letters on the new soccer field
-using city money to throw a frat party
-Cut D.C. Fire Cadet Program (few programs that allowed 18-22 yr to become firefighters.
-DCPR Fires Day Care Workers
-Peter won’t release the books on NCRC and AWC
-Fire Truck Scandal
-Police unhappy because how he outed the involved officers in the Deonte Rawlings case
-The PERB Board Standoff
– Summer Youth debacle
-HIV rates climbed to the highest and federal money mismanaged (Bars HIV Director from meeting w/ HUD’s top brass.
-D.C. Youth Facility inmates escape twice
-Shut down the Department of Mental Health
-Grace Wiggins Firing (DHCD)
– Pretty much denying any Director testifying to the council
-OCTO Scandal
-Peachoholics given funding without written contracts or results
-Paying the police to escort him and his boys
-$83million laundered to friends
– DC Housing Authority’s secretly issuing a Christmas eve check for $2.5 million to Banneker Associates
– God Daddy Nickels aka Attorney General for City, yet never defends the citizens of D.C.

As for the comments of improving DCPS, I would read Mr. Turque’s “Feds poke holes in DC Race to Top bid”, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcschools/2010/03/feds_poke_holes_in_district_rt.html#more. The Department of Education pretty much validated what many stakholders who question Rhee’s data and motives. Again. This was the Department of Education.

As for the comment “watching him pal around at that rally with Clifford Janey sealed the deal”. I would suggest reading about the great things he is doing in Newark.
http://blog.nj.com/njv_joseph_wardy/2009/08/newark_schools_superintendent.html

briefly

Bloomingdale, while some of these events are indeed egregious, frankly they’re pretty minor overall in my book, especially by DC standards. Also, things like the data collection problems mentioned in the WaPo link are reflective of a widespread culture of incompetence that can hardly be blamed only on Fenty/Rhee. In addition, its possible their opposition to WTU cost the fed funding, as reported in WaPo Saturday (http://bit.ly/cjshRK). While I am appalled at some of Fenty’s mis-steps and idiocies, I voted for reform when I voted for him last time and will do so again, though with some reservations. Replacing him now would empower the old-DC guard of self-serving unions and welfare addicts and I’d rather see them fade away entirely.

Now, if Gray could actually speak of a plan other than supporting Marion Barry’s constituency I might reconsider, but frankly he doesn’t seem like a serious candidate yet. I’m keenly interested to see how all this plays out on primary day… Of course if my plans work out I will be far away from this place by then!

had enough

“Bloomingdale, while some of these events are indeed egregious, frankly they’re pretty minor overall in my book, especially by DC standards. ”

__________________________

DC standards are changing. We’re demanding more than what we’ve received in the past.
- briefly
  
  Well good, and I hope the standards continue to change in the direction of more accountability, higher standards, and reform of DC agencies overall. I am not 100% behind Fenty, I think some of what he’s done is atrocious and mildly retarded, not to mention politically inept. However, do I think Grey would be better across the board? No. His supporters seem to range from rather uninvolved and living in MD (WTU) to outright racists trying to keep the Barry flame alive and free money flowing. No thank you, I’ll stay on the reform horse and hope Fenty learns some communication skills and manners, and throws Skinner under the bus before the election.
  
  I still wish someone would explain why they’re voting for Mendelson.

Anonymous

There are statistical reasons that the people you mention are only marginally taken into consideration with polling, and that’s because they rarely tend to show up on election day and cast a vote. Until that, those sections of that various wards that feel disconnected from this government are irrelevant in a discussion about our future mayor (who is almost guaranteed to be Fenty)

briefly

Another good point. What are voter registration and turnout rates in Wards 7 and 8, anyways?

Bloomingdale2001

@ Briefly…if the above is minor then your standards must be low. For example he over spent by 30 million in 2008 on summer youth jobs. Then we have him removing a steward for affordable housing, because she held Fenty’s development buddies accountable (and he refuses to tell anyone why she was let go). Wit holding the Director of HIV from meeting with the very folks who fund your program tells me that you will put your ego over the constituents your serve.

Oh in the latest is the Skinner et al tripled billed the city to build those new rec centers. http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2010/04/05/hill-rag-skinners-firm-hired-out-survey-work-pocketed-markup/

As for Rhee, she cites “data” as her reasons for test score gains. They lost the most points in this area because it was questionable at best. It was a The washpo has made it know who they support and Bill Turque is one of the few bloggers who actually tries to be a bias journalist. That’s why the washpo barriers his blog.
I’m not too thrilled on how Vincent Gray has come out of the gate, but the current leadership doesn’t even try to represent the diverse city. It seems like some folks just want Fenty because he get’s ride of those undesirables (poor and minorities). Do folks really want to like in a diverse city (both racially and economically) or do they want a more cookie cutter city?

briefly

Yes, after 20+ years in DC, my standards are rock bottom. Again, I don’t love Fenty and truly wonder if he’ll avoid indictment until election day, much less win the election, with the steady stream of revelations coming out about him. I just have less faith in Gray and his ability to make at least some progress. I believe, were he to win, the hounds of Barry’s legacy would begin looting and pillaging the city with absolute abandon. Also I seriously question his ability to win, many of his professed supporters (WTU for example) are not even DC residents.

And that’s why we all get to vote this fall, so lets see what happens then. Who knows, I may abandon Fenty altogether!

I’d still like to hear ANYONE list why they support Mendelson!!!!
briefly

Also, really I don’t care too much about diversity myself, to be honest. I want safety and literacy and opportunities for folks, I am not voting based on skin color, which would (in my book) make me a racist. I don’t think we’ll ever see a non-diverse city, DC being what it is, so keeping a large black or white or latino or whatever population is not that important to me. I do work on home ownership issues with NACA which seeks to empower everyone to own their own home. I believe that does reinforce diversity as blacks and latinos have lower rates of home ownership than whites overall, and owning your home is more likely to keep you somewhere versus renting (or being housed by the city). But I’d feel uncomfortable in the extreme to say I was forcing whites to move in, black to stay, whites to move out, blacks to move out, or anything of the sort. People have every right to live exactly where they want modulated by where they can afford to (this being a quasi-capitalist country, which is beyond my control). Just my opinion of course…

ChinainDC

Amsterdam: Clark Ray was a former police reserve officer and has actually walked the police beat. Mendo has been at the Wilson Building for 32 years. What has he done for any of us?

Joel

There are many, many reasons I support Clark Ray for Council, At-Large, but the following is particularly potent if anyone is comparison shopping:

“When I asked Mendelson what he would do to keep defendants arrested for gun possession from returning to the street, he said, ‘I don’t believe that’s happening. That’s very anecdotal.'”

http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/8002.html

dbrighthaupt

@ Keith – have you sat and talked with Clark Ray?

@ Joel – I could add a few items for those comparison shopping. Thanks for sharing, I’ll add that to my list.

All I ask is DC give Clark Ray a few minutes of their time before a final decision. I found him to be pragmatic, practical, all inclusive on ideas and knows what preventive legislation as opposed to reactionary band-aid hearings mean.

As far as Gray is concerned, can’t see taking away an entire Ward’s sovereignty one day – and talk Mayoral race the next. Sure, W8 got nada before MBs Censure, but W8 definitely gets nothing these next 2 years with that move. May have been understood if any of the Councilmembers took W8 into consideration post censure – but they all scrambled for their own personal political gain. Imma remember that.

Ward II

Adrian Fenty v. Vincent Gray
Adrian was a nice experiment, but a failed one. I’d welcome new leadership and Vincent Gray would be a breath of fresh air.

Jack Evans v. Kwame Brown
Jack has literally transformed my neighborhood into a much better place to live (real progress) and I wholeheartedly continue to support him. He listens and his staff always jumps in to help. I’d actually love to see Jack run for Mayor or for Congress. He’d get my check and my vote.

Phil Mendelson v. Clark Ray
Phil Mendelson — “Dead or Canadian?” comes to mind. It’s not a newsflash that Phil has the leadership vigor of a basset hound. Plus, he’s shown himself to be shifty in cashing your check and then turning around and doing exactly what he promised not to do. I don’t trust him — nor should anyone else.

I’ve met Clark Ray and like his platform and like his energy. It’s time for a change in that seat, and we all know it. Good luck Clark.

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