Mayoral Candidates Turn Up the Gas

"She was doing these little shoulder actions. She went all the way down to the floor," Pannell laughed. "She got a standing ovation, and she won votes at that evening, too. Even the karaoke host was saying, 'Mrs. Cropp! We didn't know!' He said, 'Now, I'm voting for you!' "

Back-Room Deal

A sign that the election is on and fixing to be brutal: Political consultant Chuck Thies has publicly accused at-large council candidate David Bowers of violating campaign finance laws. In a complaint faxed Monday to the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance, Thies accused Bowers of accepting use of a back room from Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street NW on top of the maximum contribution of $1,000.

The room, where Bowers in June announced plans to challenge at-large council member Phil Mendelson (D), a former Thies client, is known as the Cosmopolitan and rents for $250 an hour, Thies said. That means the restaurant has donated at least $250 too much to the Bowers campaign, he said.

Thies said he was acting as a private citizen in filing the complaint, not on behalf of Mendelson or former D.C. Democratic Party chairman A. Scott Bolden , another former client. The race "involves two of my friends who I've worked for and who I respect and who I believe should benefit from a level playing field," Thies said.

Bowers said use of the Cosmopolitan Room does not amount to an in-kind donation. Others have raised the issue, he said, but failed to excite the interest of campaign finance officials.

"There is no violation and no in-kind donation of any sort," Bowers said. "We're in compliance, and I would assume that's still the case unless we hear otherwise from Campaign Finance."

Getting to Know You

How well do District leaders and Major League Baseball officials know each other, now that the Nationals have been in town for almost a full season? Not very.

When Cropp recently sent a letter to baseball Commissioner Allan H. " Bud" Selig , she was pointed in her call that baseball sell the Washington Nationals to a D.C.-based ownership group.

But Cropp made one little mistake: She spelled his name wrong.

The letter was addressed to "Alan" Selig, even though the commissioner spells his name Allan.

Oops.

Cropp's staff declined to comment on the goof, but council sources said an aide wrote the letter for the chairman, who had no reason to suspect a spelling error before she signed it and sent it off to Selig.

City to Nader: Sorry

Nader nugget: A few weeks back, the Notebook chronicled former presidential candidate Ralph Nader's battle with the bureaucracy at the city's Office of Tax and Revenue. Nader says he has won an apology for kicking back his tax return and a promise to make tax forms more consumer-friendly.

Staff writer David Nakamura contributed to this report.