D.C. Mayoral Contenders Reach Early for Votes, Funds

Even for the Undeclared, Parties And Pricey Mailings Fill Schedule

A. Scott Bolden is onstage at Players Lounge in Southeast Washington, face screwed up, eyes squeezed shut, belting out the rhythm-and-blues classic "Thin Line Between Love and Hate." He sings slightly off-key and several beats behind the karaoke machine, but the audience of Ward 8 Democrats is cheerfully clapping along.

"One thing for certain, if we get Scott Bolden for mayor, we'll have a singing mayor!" Ward 8 resident Joyce Scott laughs into the microphone when Bolden is done.

Over by the bar, Bolden sips an iced drink and mops his glistening brow. "Look at me," he says. "You know I'm serious if I'm out here singing at Players Lounge."

Bolden spends every night and all weekend at gatherings like this. Community dinners. Democratic club meetings. Little meet-and-greets. Most people have never heard of the former D.C. Democratic Party chairman, so he's riding the grass-roots circuit. He's been to Ward 8 Karaoke Night at least twice.

With the 2006 election for District mayor more than a year away, Bolden is among a small group of contenders who are running hard, using exploratory committees to raise more than $800,000, throw splashy parties, print glossy brochures, shoot video biographies and otherwise wage what is becoming the longest mayoral campaign on record.

Last week, council member Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4) became the first official candidate, the earliest declaration ever by a major mayoral challenger. But he, Bolden and others have been out there for months in a mad scramble to establish themselves as serious contenders.

"I don't think it's ever been done like this before. We're turning the page on politics and campaigns in D.C.," Bolden said. "We are pushing to expand the political pie to see if we can get a piece of it."

In years past, mayoral contests have typically simmered along quietly until six months, nine months, one year out. If they existed at all, exploratory committees operated behind the scenes, collecting just enough cash to pay for a poll to test the waters.

This year, the lack of an announcement by Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) about his political future has raised hopes among some relatively youthful insiders who have never run citywide. In their haste to build name recognition and establish a political base, they have turned the once-secretive exploratory process into a very public contest for dollars and endorsements.

Campaign Accounts Growing

It is difficult to say whether that strategy is working. Fenty, Bolden and council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), who may yet form an exploratory committee, have conducted polls, but none has released the results. Council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5) conducted a mail-in/Internet survey, but it did not measure the strength of his opponents.

Fenty said he has raised the most money: $300,000, compared with $200,000 apiece for Bolden and Orange, and $100,000 for lobbyist Michael A. Brown. But those figures cannot be verified because Bolden and Brown have declined to make their donations public, and Fenty and Orange have released only partial lists. (Under D.C. law, exploratory committees are not required to report their activities.)

Fenty is the only candidate to attract public endorsements from activists who were once part of Williams's power base. And he is the only candidate to draw sustained fire from Williams, who has flatly derided the young populist, now serving his second council term, as "not . . . the best person to run this city."