Cropp, Fenty to Debate Head-to-Head

Adrian Fenty (Gerald Martineau - The Washington Post)

Linda didn't call Adrian. Adrian didn't call Linda, either.

But their quarrel over debates in the D.C. mayor's race was settled yesterday by a neutral third party: NewsChannel 8 anchor Bruce DePuyt.

After a week-long impasse between D.C. Council member Adrian M. Fenty (Ward 4) and Chairman Linda W. Cropp, who had repeatedly challenged her chief rival to a one-on-one debate, the pair accepted DePuyt's offer to host a head-to-head matchup and broadcast it live on cable TV.

An hour-long showdown between the two leading contenders in the Democratic campaign to replace Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) is now set for 4 p.m. Aug. 28, barely two weeks before the Sept. 12 primary election. DePuyt will moderate but said he will dispense with some of the usual trappings of a political debate.

"There will be no opening statements. No closing statements. I get to interrupt," he said. "I hope to make it a real discussion of the real issues people care about."

Until DePuyt intervened, Cropp and Fenty were deadlocked over dueling demands about who would make the first phone call. Cropp wanted Fenty to call. Fenty refused even to consider Cropp's challenge unless Cropp called him personally.

Yesterday, Cropp spokesman Ron Eckstein declared victory. "We are very pleased that council member Fenty has finally accepted our debate challenge."

Meanwhile yesterday, Fenty and Cropp, along with several other mayoral candidates, met in a more typical forum: a debate organized by the Covenant House Washington Youth Congress in Southeast.

Audience members grilled the candidates on what they would do for Ward 8 residents, complaining that basic services such as health care and public safety lag those available in other parts of the city.

"The police don't respond to our calls like they do in Northwest. We have to get in our cars to go to a hospital in Northwest," said Deirdra Harper, who has lived in the ward for four years.

The candidates promised to meet with residents if elected mayor. Cropp arrived just 15 minutes before the debate ended. She missed a morning candidate forum yesterday and one Tuesday night.

Cropp, whose campaign aides have criticized Fenty for missing previous debates, explained that she had been meeting with School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey yesterday afternoon. She said she had personal business to take care of yesterday morning and was having a private campaign event Tuesday night.

Also yesterday, Fenty, who had a 10-point lead among likely voters in a recent Washington Post poll, shipped his first major mailing to thousands of registered Democrats. The glossy, four-page brochure is filled with laudatory quotes from the local media.

On the cover, it features close-up shots of nine doorbells, a visual reference to Fenty's goal of knocking on every door in the city by Sept. 12. The headline: "This is where the future of DC begins."