Cropp Attacks Fenty's Stance on Crime Bill

D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp changed the tenor of the mayor's race yesterday in a campaign brochure warning thousands of voters that front-runner Adrian M. Fenty's position on crime "puts our safety at risk."

The personal nature of the glossy four-page brochure marks a change in tactics for Cropp, who had not mentioned Fenty in previous mailings. With a little less than five weeks until the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, Cropp is seeking to reinvigorate her campaign.

In words and pictures, the document paints Cropp as moving quickly to curb the city's crime emergency by marshaling emergency legislation through the council last month. Fenty voted against the bill and has failed to "offer any concrete solutions or alternatives," the brochure states.

Trailing Fenty by eight percentage points among all Democratic voters surveyed in a recent Washington Post poll, Cropp intends to dip further into her sizable campaign funds for radio and TV advertisements as soon as next week, aides said.

"There's a difference between Adrian and me," Cropp said in an interview. "People need to see the differences."

Asked about the charges made in Cropp's brochure, Alec Evans, Fenty's spokesman, said, "They're behind, and they're desperate."

Fenty, the only council member who voted against the crime package, has called the council's action a "feel-good" maneuver that will have minimal impact in reducing violent crime.

Until now, Cropp and Fenty have mostly focused on their own achievements and rarely engaged in debate with or criticisms of each another. The two camps have been so isolated that they have no debates scheduled, even though Fenty is set to spar with telecommunications executive Marie Johns, who is running third with single-digit support in The Post's poll.

Cropp, 58, chairman for nine years, has positioned herself as the experienced council leader who can build on the city's economic growth under Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D). Fenty, 35, is a sophomore council member who has focused on constituent services and says he can bring new ideas about ensuring that prosperity is spread evenly.

Cropp's aides declined to say how many households would receive the brochure but said that the mailing will be widespread.

Once quick to return reporters' phone calls, Fenty has been more guarded in recent months as his front-running position in the polls has been affirmed. Yesterday, he responded with a written statement after his campaign was e-mailed a copy of the brochure by a Post reporter.

"The hastily and politically inspired response to the newest crime emergency underscores the need for new leadership in our city," Fenty said in the statement. "My campaign is about real solutions: putting police officers on the streets, closing down open-air drug markets and drug houses, holding the police department's feet to the fire and addressing the root of the problem by finally fixing our troubled school system."