By Colbert I. King
Saturday, August 12, 2006

D.C. Council Chairman Linda Cropp sharply changed the tone of the D.C. mayoral campaign this week. First she mass-mailed a glossy brochure assailing front-runner and Ward 4 council member Adrian Fenty for his opposition to the recent crime emergency bill. Next, at a mayoral candidates' forum on Thursday sponsored by AARP, Cropp attacked Fenty for being admonished by the D.C. Bar for his poor job "as a court-appointed guardian of an elderly man." She also accused him of negligence in handling the estate of a deceased man.

Negative campaigning? Yes. Unfair? No. In fact, Cropp's attack on Fenty comes at the right time.

Finding herself behind in the polls with less than five weeks to go until primary day, Cropp was seeking to exploit what she perceives as a Fenty weakness. Whether going negative will help her peel off Fenty supporters is an open question. Others could benefit from her actions, though -- namely Democratic voters going to the polls on Sept. 12. Now that Cropp has landed the first blow, the city has a chance to see what Fenty is made of. It's time to find out if he can take a punch.

Since winning his council seat in 2000, Fenty has had a fine old time jabbing the mayor, beating up on the bureaucracy and launching rhetorical bombshells at controversial ideas such as the new baseball stadium. Hugely popular within his ward and renowned for delivering constituent services, Fenty hasn't had to fend off serious challenges for his seat.

That's not to say several of his council colleagues haven't used every opportunity to cut him up behind his back, describing him as lazy and a politically ambitious showboat. But handling council backbiters (largely by ignoring them) is not the same as responding to a personal attack or a public blast because of a stance on issues. A mayoral campaign is as good a place as any to find out how Fenty, who has shown he can dish it out, responds when he is on the receiving end.

There's another reason to watch Fenty closely. If, as the late Texas senator Lloyd Bentsen once said, "politics is a contact sport," it's equally true that serving as mayor of the District of Columbia means being in a constant state of war with one group or another.

So what should the public expect from a Mayor Fenty when he has to tangle with a quarrelsome council hellbent on running the city, antagonistic community groups that regard the mayor as the source of all their miseries, and an organized city workforce ready to mix it up over the slightest reform?

What better time than the present to find out if he can deal with political pressure?

Of course, Cropp's attack on Fenty, which made The Post's Metro front page and the nightly local news, was little more than a pinprick compared with what lies ahead for him if he makes it.

Yes, it's true, the same rough-and-tumble circumstances await Cropp or the other contenders should one of them win. But unlike Fenty, Cropp has been in the game for many years. She has engaged in more than her share of battles, losing a few, winning most, but usually managing to end up on her feet. In political combat, Fenty is untested. It takes a strong person to hold down the job of mayor.

Listen to Sharon Pratt Kelly (now Sharon Pratt) in her Sept. 7, 1994, interview with The Post as she neared the end of her four years in that job.

" 'I got people protesting me at my house. They were dogging me every which way,' said Kelly, her voice rising and falling as she remembered how 'painful' it was seeing the workforce turn against her. 'They would look at different angles to bring me to my knees, with the help of a whole lot of people who also want to be mayor. People would stand up in a meeting and turn their backs on me.' "

The D.C. Council was her worst nightmare; her political flanks were always exposed. She was an outsider in her own government. The constituency that put her in office seemed to evaporate. She came in as a loner and left alone.

Neither Marion Barry nor the city's first elected mayor, Walter Washington, considered the job a cakewalk. Both took plenty of hits.

Then there is our current mayor, Anthony A. Williams, who sat down for lunch with some of us at The Post a year ago and mused about the prospect of seeking a third term. "I've been sitting in the frying pan since, well, as [chief financial officer], I was in the frying pan," he told us. "As mayor I'm in the frying pan. I'm just sitting here on the griddle now, and I've got to really think, you know, do I want to stay here on the griddle?"

In that same interview, Williams spelled out the challenge of being mayor. "You should not do the job unless you're willing to take risks. And you shouldn't do the job unless you're willing to lose the job, too."

And that means hanging tough even when the other side is landing blow after blow below the belt.

Sharon Pratt, for example, brought some bright and talented women into her administration. Her council detractors dubbed her administration -- behind her back -- the "shoulder pad brigade." And because several of her appointees and inner circle were fair-skinned, like her, Pratt's critics circulated word that she was building a "pigmentocracy." A cruel thing to say in this color-conscious city.

Let's get back to Fenty.

We know he has the energy and discipline to wage a campaign on behalf of himself. But how will he stand up when he is put down for something he's done or has failed to do? Does he have the stomach to fight back? Will he cave under personal attacks?

With only a month until primary day, those questions remain unanswered. That's why Cropp, who is trying to undermine Fenty, is, albeit unintentionally, rendering a public service.

kingc@washpost.com