Peter Rosenstein, long a faithful adviser to D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams, waited for months for some kind of sign. But every time he asked about the 2006 election -- Would Williams run again? Should Rosenstein start raising money? -- the mayor said he wasn't ready to decide.
So two weeks ago, Rosenstein made a decision of his own: no more waiting. After helping to craft Williams's campaign platforms in 1998 and 2002, Rosenstein announced that he will lend his talents in 2006 to a different candidate for mayor: council member Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4).
Peter Rosenstein says he supported Williams twice, "but after eight years, it's time for new creativity."
(Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)
|
|
Rosenstein is not alone. Some two years before the 2006 election, more than a dozen foot soldiers from Williams's previous campaigns have abandoned the mayor and crossed over to enemy camps. Some said they are convinced that Williams (D) will not seek a third term. Others credit him with sparking an economic renaissance in the nation's capital but said the District needs a more charismatic leader who will spend time in its neighborhoods, unite its people and bridge a growing class divide.
"I think the mayor was the right person at the right time for both of his elections. I think the city is a lot better off for having had Anthony Williams as mayor. But after eight years, it's time for new creativity," said Rosenstein, a member of the mayor's gay and lesbian advisory committee and vice chairman of the University of the District of Columbia's board of trustees.
Many other longtime supporters said they stand ready to back Williams if he does choose to run again. But in the past few months, as the mayor's office has radiated silence about his political future, Fenty and other potential candidates have aggressively wooed the army of community activists that drafted Williams, then the city's chief financial officer, to run for mayor in 1998. Many have succumbed, primarily to Fenty, a young populist who was born in the District and seems to his supporters to offer a warm antidote to the aloof, brainy Williams, a native of Los Angeles who has not bought a home here.
In addition to Rosenstein, Fenty has persuaded Williams's Ward 2 coordinator, Budd Lane, to sign on to his exploratory effort. He also nabbed Anne M. Renshaw, who served as Williams's campaign coordinator in Ward 3. And this week, one of the original leaders of the draft-Williams movement, Marie Drissel, will host a fundraiser for Fenty's exploratory committee in her Sheridan-Kalorama home.
In an interview, Williams acknowledged that many longtime supporters are looking elsewhere. But he said he is "under a lot of pressure" to form an exploratory committee. And if he does seek reelection, he said, "I'm confident that, both with the folks that I still have and the new alliances that I've built, we would have a very strong team."
Three others have formed mayoral exploratory committees: council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5) , lobbyist Michael A. Brown and former D.C. Democratic Party chairman A. Scott Bolden.
If the mayor runs, his team would not include Drissel, who, like some other former Williams partisans, was reluctant to publicly discuss her reasons for breaking with the mayor. "I guess I really don't think he's going to run," she said.
Others talked openly about their disillusionment. Several said they had lost faith in the mayor because he has lost touch with the hundreds of grass-roots activists who worked so hard to put him in office.
Renshaw, for instance, recalled her enthusiasm in 1998, when Williams offered salvation from a corrupt and bankrupt city bureaucracy. Asked to circulate petitions for the draft campaign, Renshaw said she collected 9,000 signatures and scrubbed out "every single Mickey Mouse."
When Williams won, he appointed Renshaw to the Board of Zoning Adjustment. But the mayor didn't ask for her help when he launched his reelection campaign, which was marred by a scandal over fraudulent nominating petition signatures. And when Renshaw resigned from the zoning panel in 2002, she said, she did not receive a thank-you note from Williams.
"There was not one toot from him. No letter. Not even a form letter saying thank you for your service," said Renshaw, a native Washingtonian and veteran advisory neighborhood commissioner. "Mayor Williams, unfortunately, is very distant. He's away a lot. It's as if he forgot about us."
Laurie Collins, president of the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance and a member of Williams's transition team, had a similar experience. Although she has entertained Williams in her home on several occasions, she said he did not bother to call when he decided not to reappoint her to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board in 2003.
• 