By Lori Montgomery and Elissa Silverman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 16, 2006; A01
The race for D.C. mayor has been cast as a battle between proven experience and fresh energy, and that contrast is apparent when you follow the money.
The front-runners, D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp and council member Adrian M. Fenty, each have collected just over $1.75 million, fueling a campaign that is the most expensive in city history. But with two months to go until the Democratic primary, Cropp is raising funds the old-fashioned way, building trust among big donors, while Fenty is hustling for smaller contributions and inspiring more ordinary voters to get involved in the political process.
A Washington Post analysis of campaign finance records shows that much of Cropp's money has come from downtown developers, former government officials and other members of the city's political establishment, while more of Fenty's cash comes from small businesses and his Ward 4 constituents, many of them people writing their first checks in a local election.
Cropp supporters often give as much as they can -- $2,000, the legal limit -- and bundle contributions from family members and affiliated corporations.
Fenty supporters tend to give smaller amounts but do so repeatedly, writing multiple checks for $25 or $50. More than half of donations to his campaign are less than $100; few had hit the $2,000 limit as of June 10, when the most recent reports were filed with the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance. Although he and Cropp have raised about the same amount, Fenty has collected nearly twice as many donations -- 4,407 to Cropp's 2,661.
The reports paint a vivid portrait of the financial support behind Cropp and Fenty, who lead a field of five major Democrats in fundraising and most polls. Together, the five have raised more than $4.5 million, the most ever for a mayoral campaign in the overwhelmingly Democratic city.
Political analysts say the divergent tactics should be expected in a race that pits Cropp, a polished veteran with a quarter-century of political experience, against Fenty, a council sophomore with a populist streak and an adversarial relationship with city power brokers.
Cropp, 58, has been endorsed by all three major business groups, several labor unions and Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D). She promises to continue policies that have balanced the city's books and revived downtown. Fenty, 35, ranks among Williams's most persistent critics and promises to bring youthful energy to intractable problems while also focusing on residents left out of the city's economic renaissance.
"As a powerful chairman, it's very easy for Cropp to go to those people that she works with on a day-to-day basis for money. And there's quite a bit of pressure for them to give to her at that level," said Edwin Bender, executive director of the National Institute on Money in State Politics. "That blocks Fenty's ability to go to those people. So his only real alternative is to do exactly what he's doing: Go out and do a grass-roots campaign, talking about ideas and talking about how he does not represent the entrenched interests."
Cropp's fundraising strategy may make it easier for her to raise cash for the television ads and direct-mail pieces that could sway undecided voters in the final days before the Sept. 12 primary, analysts said. But Fenty's approach gives more voters a direct stake in his victory, they said, a potential advantage given his careful husbanding of resources. As of June 10, Fenty had more than $1.2 million in the bank, while Cropp had just under $900,000.
"From Day One, we have gone after average residents," Fenty said. "It's been a successful strategy not only in raising money, but also in building energy."
Cropp says that it is more important "to have a broad range of contributions from everyone, from all over this city. And we have been successful in doing that."
Overall, Cropp has collected the most: $1.77 million, according to an amended report filed last week. Fenty is close behind with $1.75 million.
About half of Cropp's funds have come from D.C. residents and businesses, compared with 58 percent for Fenty.
Both candidates have also cultivated patrons outside the city, most in Maryland and Virginia. Two of Fenty's biggest backers come from farther afield: Tennessee developer and baseball bidder Franklin L. Haney, his wife, daughters, sons-in-law and various companies gave Fenty $22,000 in May and June. Fenty also collected $24,000 in June from affiliates of Carmel Partners, a California firm that owns several apartment buildings in Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant. Haney did not return calls. An executive with Carmel Partners would not comment.
Cropp and Fenty both received substantial amounts from business entities, which, like individuals, can give up to $2,000 per candidate under D.C. law. Cropp holds an edge in such gifts, with $589,455 compared with Fenty's $544,929 -- about a third of total collections for each campaign.
But the sources of those contributions differ dramatically. Downtown business interests pitched in so much for Cropp that a block-by-block map of her D.C. donations forms a bull's-eye over the center city Zip codes of 20036, 20005 and 20006. Smaller nodes of cash appear on Capitol Hill and in the far northern reaches of Ward 4.
Fenty got his share of downtown dollars from lawyers, developers and parking interests, but he also attracted money from small businesses, restaurants and shops, many of them along Columbia Road, where his parents own a popular running-shoe store. A block-by-block map of Fenty's D.C. donations follows Georgia Avenue out of downtown, with heavy concentrations of cash in Wards 1, 3 and 4.
By almost every measure, Fenty seems the populist outsider.
Cropp has more big contributions: $2,000 gifts make up nearly a quarter of her collections, compared with 17 percent for Fenty.
Fenty has more small donations: Nearly 18 percent of his cash came in increments of $250 or less, compared with 8 percent for Cropp.
Even Cropp's corporate contributions are bigger: On average, businesses gave her $1,200, while Fenty's average was $870.
"Business types and the developers are scared to death Fenty will get in," said Bernard Ross, professor emeritus of public administration at American University. "Linda Cropp has a record of helping development in this city, and Fenty is still an unknown."
The fundraising patterns of the other major contenders are also telling.
Former Verizon executive Marie C. Johns is hailed as an articulate, business-savvy alternative by a core of politically connected backers. She collected the most money from Zip code 20008, in affluent Cleveland Park.
Council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (Ward 5) has campaigned as a champion of economic development. He collected the most from Zip code 20002, home of the Capital City Market, where Orange proposes to build a massive new mixed-used development.
Lobbyist Michael A. Brown casts himself as the candidate of the downtrodden. He collected the most money from Zip code 20001, west of North Capital Street. But virtually all of it -- $12,788 -- came from Brown's North Capital Street office. Brown, who trails badly in fundraising, is his own biggest donor.
As for the front-runners, Fenty collected the most money, by far, from Zip code 20011 in the heart of Ward 4, picking up more than $128,000 almost entirely from individuals. The 20007 Zip code in wealthy Georgetown was second at $88,000.
Cropp collected the most money from Zip code 20036, a small square centered on a downtown stretch of Connecticut Avenue that delivered about $94,000. The 20016 Zip code in Palisades was a close second at $92,550.
Interviews with Cropp and Fenty donors from those areas reveal striking differences in the reasons for their support. Cropp givers interviewed are insiders with long connections to the council chairman or pragmatists who view her as the safe choice.
"I don't think she could do a lot of damage," said Jeffrey Pepper, a paralegal who gave Cropp $50.
Fenty donors interviewed tend to be idealists, bursting with high -- if vague -- hopes for the ambitious Washington native. Socialite Judith Terra, who has given $2,000, called Fenty "an amazing man" and compared their first meeting to her 1960 brush with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Several donors said they don't normally make political contributions but were inspired by Fenty to give and volunteer. Gloria E. Dickerson, a retired elementary school principal, has taken on extra consulting jobs so she can help Fenty's campaign. She said she likes his focus on constituent service and the fact that he will send his children to public school. So far, she has written checks totaling $1,351.
"I was aiming for $2,000, so I haven't finished yet," Dickerson said. "This is the first time in a long time I've just been so excited about a candidate."
Other givers are business owners who know Fenty's parents and believe that he will be sensitive to their needs. Still others say they find Fenty's youthful image appealing.
Cropp "is a very competent woman. But I don't know. It's just more of the same," said lawyer Gabriel Acevedo, who has given Fenty $850. "You need fresh blood in there now and then. And Adrian's a pretty bold guy. He's a good representative of the city."
Fenty's top Zip code is filled with average people ready to gush about their candidate, but Cropp's top Zip code is packed with big-money givers who are not inclined to discuss their political activities. Of 75 Cropp donors in 20036, half wrote checks for $2,000.
Twenty of those checks came from companies associated with Stephen A. Goldberg, a philanthropist and developer at work on major projects near Union Station. Goldberg affiliates gave an additional $60,000 to Cropp last year through an independent political action committee that paid for yard signs and radio ads attacking Fenty. Goldberg did not return calls seeking comment.
Even some of the small donors have big agendas. Larry Berman gave Cropp four contributions totaling $200. He also gave $160 to Fenty.
"I have worked many, many years with Mrs. Cropp," said Berman, executive director of the D.C. Insurance Federation and a lobbyist on health-care issues. "I think she comes up with very pragmatic solutions that would minimize harm."
Loyalty was important to other Cropp givers. The Pedas brothers, Ted and Jim, former movie theater owners who produced Joel and Ethan Coen's first movies, gave Cropp $16,000 through family members and various companies.
"I don't know the other candidates. I know her," Ted Pedas said. "It's very simple."
Staff researcher Derek Willis contributed to this report.