Fenty Wins D.C. Mayoral PrimaryCropp Concedes in Democratic RaceBy William BraniginWashington Post Staff WriterTuesday, September 12, 2006; 11:26 PMAdrian M. Fenty won the Democratic nomination for mayor of Washington, D.C., tonight, decisively defeating his closest competitor, D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp, in a primary that sets the stage for him to become the youngest chief executive of the nation's capital. Fenty claimed victory shortly before 10:30 p.m., telling jubilant supporters, "This victory belongs to the residents of the District of Columbia." Speaking at the same time that Cropp was giving her concession speech in another location, Fenty pledged to make good on campaign promises to fix the city's beleaguered school system and create a more accountable government. With more than 91 percent of precincts reporting, Fenty had 57 percent of the vote, trailed by Cropp with 31 percent, according to returns posted by the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics. Other candidates lagged far behind.Since nearly three-quarters of the city's 388,000 registered voters are Democrats, the winner of the primary is considered a shoo-in to be elected mayor in the Nov. 7 general election. The Republican and D.C. Statehood Green parties also held primaries today, with mayoral candidates for each running unopposed.In the Democratic primary race for D.C. Council chairman, the post vacated by Cropp, freshman council member Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7) defeated Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), a 12-year veteran of the council. Today's voting was marked by glitches and a lighter-than-expected turnout in some precincts.Polls opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 8 p.m. However, results were slow to come out after the polls closed "due to a change in procedure," the board of elections announced. Instead of sending results from paper ballots by modem to the central board office as in past elections, the results from those ballots and from touch-screen voting were driven to the board office with police escorts because of concerns about electronic hacking.In his victory speech tonight, Fenty said he ran "the right campaign the right way for the right reasons." Chief among those reasons, he said, were "fixing our school system" and making the city government "more responsive." He said District employees must know that when they work for the city, "you're going to be held accountable." Although the Nov. 7 election for mayor is regarded as little more than a formality because of the importance of the Democratic primary, "we're going to take nothing for granted," Fenty said. "To all my campaign staff and hard-working volunteers, you've got another two months of me!" he shouted. Supporters responded with a chant, "Two more months! Two more months!"Going into today's contest, Fenty led Cropp and four other candidates in pre-election polls in his bid to replace Anthony A. Williams as mayor. Williams, who was elected in 1998 and served two terms, decided not to seek reelection and threw his support behind Cropp.Voting got off to a shaky start when some electronic ballot machines malfunctioned and several precincts opened late. Some would-be voters left their polling places frustrated because they were unable to cast ballots, campaign workers and a neighborhood commissioner reported.Fenty, 35, began campaigning energetically 15 months ago in a bid to become the District's youngest mayor. He focused his campaign on improving services for D.C. residents, holding city agencies to account and investing in "the full continuum of education." According to Fenty, his door-to-door campaign sent volunteers to visit every house in the city, and he estimated that he had personally been to more than half of them."I think we've raised bar on how campaigns should be run in the District of Columbia," the candidate said on News Channel 8 tonight as he awaited the primary results. "My ultimate goal is to raise the bar on how the city should be run."Cropp, 58, stressed her lengthy experience in D.C. government, having served on the D.C. Council for 15 years, the last nine of them as chairman. Before that, she spent a decade on the D.C. Board of Education, including a stint from 1988-89 as its president. She campaigned on promises to maintain the city's economic growth, provide more funding for social needs and push for dramatic improvements in the District's public schools.The latest poll of likely Democratic voters, conducted late last month by Greenberg Quinlan and Rosner Research, showed Fenty leading Cropp by 40 percent to 31 percent, with 14 percent of voters undecided. Other candidates were far behind.That survey represented a slight narrowing of the race. The same polling group showed Fenty leading Cropp in mid-August by about 12 percentage points. It was about that time that Cropp began attacking Fenty in political advertisements, describing his handling of a probate case as a lawyer in 2000 as "incompetent" and denouncing his association with a failed charter school.Also on the ballot for mayor in the Democratic primary were council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5), retired business executive Marie C. Johns, engineer Nestor Djonkam and Artee Milligan, executive director of the Metropolitan/Delta Adult Literacy Council. Another candidate, lobbyist Michael A. Brown, dropped out of the race last week and announced his support for Cropp, but his name remained on the ballot.Johns finished in third place in the primary with 8 percent of the vote, followed by Orange with 2.8 percent. The other candidates each took less than 1 percent.Running unopposed for the mayoral nomination of their respective parties were Republican David W. Kranich, a real estate agent, and Statehood Green candidate Chris Otten, a freelance Web designer.Democratic voters also were choosing candidates for the District's delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, chairman of the D.C. Council, an at-large council member and four other council members representing wards 1, 3, 5 and 6.Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton easily won the Democratic nomination for a ninth term as Washington's nonvoting representative in Congress, overwhelming Andy Miscuk with 93.5 percent of the vote. Two-term council member Phil Mendelson easily won the Democratic primary for the at-large seat, taking 63.5 percent of the vote. A. Scott Bolden, a K Street lawyer and former head of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, had 36.5 percent. D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), who is not up for reelection today, endorsed Fenty's candidacy and attended a rally for Fenty Saturday night. Hours later, Barry, 70, was detained and ticketed by the Secret Service after uniformed officers stopped him near the White House for running a red light. Staff writers Bill Brubaker, Theola Labbe, David Nakamura and Lori Montgomery contributed to this report.
Fatback
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Nice recovery!
I think the guy I bought records from last night would too. Guy had a giant shlong & nads sculpture on his bathroom wall AND living room display table. Woah.
Dude was driving under the influence.