Four years ago, as Mayor Adrian M. Fenty faced an increasingly disaffected electorate, a trio of D.C. Council members began positioning themselves for greater power.
One would ride Fenty’s troubles to become the city’s next mayor. Another would rise to capture the council chairmanship. A third would assume more influence over the District’s economic development projects with an eye on citywide office himself.
Take a look at the investigations and where they stand.
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The former D.C. Council chairman also was given two years of supervised release.
Federal prosecutors made the request in court papers filed Thursday.
Ex-D.C. Council chairman also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor campaign-finance violation.
COLUMN | It’s not easy to keep all the D.C. scandals straight. It’s almost as confusing as the city leaf collection schedule.
Vincent C. Gray, Kwame R. Brown and Harry Thomas Jr. were viewed by their supporters as homegrown heirs to the best parts of former mayor Marion Barry’s legacy. They were African American Democrats who understood the city’s complex racial history and hoped to shape its future. They would redeem a generation of black political leadership tainted by Barry’s personal foibles and fiscal mismanagement.
Instead, the men have plunged the District into a new round of crisis, triggering reminders of the worst aspects of the Barry era and fears that the city’s political culture is regressing.
Last week, Brown resigned the council chairmanship before admitting to bank fraud and a campaign-finance violation. Thomas relinquished his council seat in January and is on his way to jail for embezzling $353,500 in taxpayer funds intended for children’s programs.
Federal investigators have secured guilty pleas from two campaign aides to Gray on felony charges that include making illegal campaign contributions and destroying records. The probe is ongoing; the mayor, who ran for office with the slogan “Character, Integrity, Leadership,” has denied wrongdoing.
“Politicians will say there’s a culture of corruption, and often people say it’s rhetoric,” said Bryan Weaver, a Democratic activist who has campaigned for the council. “But when it comes to D.C., there’s a culture of corruption that really exists. What gets passed off as politics as usual are huge ethical lapses.”
Yet for all the familiar talk of malfeasance engulfing the D.C. government, Washington — with its cash-rich treasury and booming downtown — is far different from when Barry presided.
The city is wealthier and no longer majority black, and its relationship to its political leadership is more remote. Under Barry, whose rise from modest Mississippi roots to the mayoralty crystallized the aspirations of African Americans, black professionals obtained city jobs and contracts that had long been the domain of whites. Legions of black youngsters got work through Barry’s summer employment program, winning him the loyalty of a generation of District natives. White Democrats embraced Barry as well, at least in the early years of his mayoralty, when they viewed him as a symbol of racial progress.
“People were personally invested in his administration, and there was a lot of pride around it,” said William P. Lightfoot, a former at-large D.C. Council member. Now, with the waves of affluent newcomers who have moved to the District, many of them disengaged from local politics, “many people in this town do not rely on the government,” he said. “Their personal daily lives are not affected.”
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