Mayoral Race a Unilateral Assault

Through that process, more than 37,000 voters have been tagged as Fenty supporters and will be the focus of a massive get-out-the-vote drive unprecedented in city politics, aides said. Meanwhile, Fenty has become so confident in his ability to sense the mood of the electorate that he has dispatched with tracking polls.

"A lot of people say, 'You've got to respond to this,' " Fenty said of Cropp's attacks. "But regular people, that's not what they're saying. Regular people say, 'For 14 months, you've been talking about how you're going to fix the District of Columbia and make it a great place to live for everyone. That's what we want to hear.' "

Fenty's strategy of generally avoiding a counterattack troubles some of his closest advisers, who are more accustomed to campaigns in which "if you're attacked, you give as good as you get," said Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations and a member of Fenty's kitchen cabinet.

After all, "negative ads work," said Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist who ran Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign. Brazile, who is staying out of the mayor's race, said ads like Cropp's -- personal and persistent -- can be particularly effective.

"So far, Fenty's acting as if he's made of Teflon," she said. But "let me tell you: He's not made of Teflon."

Cropp's most compelling accusation, and the one she is pressing most aggressively, relates to Fenty's performance as a lawyer after his graduation from Howard University Law School in 1996 and before his election to the council in 2000. In one of his final cases, a judge appointed him in April 1999 to serve as guardian to William Hardy, 88, a retired Navy worker who was allegedly being swindled by his granddaughter.

Fenty neglected the case from the start, court records show: He failed to immediately inventory Hardy's assets. He submitted only one report detailing Hardy's physical condition, although he was required to file one every six months. And when Fenty asked to be released from the case in June 2000 -- in the heat of his council campaign -- he "failed to file an accounting . . . revealing the whereabouts of the ward's assets."

A special master appointed to investigate Fenty's conduct determined that more than $22,000 disappeared from Hardy's bank account on Fenty's watch. The judge ordered Fenty to reimburse Hardy's estate $15,000, saying his errors had permitted "the improper withdrawal of funds by Mr. Hardy's family."

Last year, the Office of Bar Counsel issued an admonishment, its lightest sanction, saying Fenty's work "reflected a disregard of certain ethical standards."

Fenty has apologized for the Hardy case but declined to explain it, saying he will not offer "an excuse."

"I've always said from Day One: I made a mistake. It shouldn't have happened. It happened. It won't happen again. I literally don't know what else I can say about that," Fenty said, adding that the case "was decided by a judge a long time ago."

Cropp said the case raises legitimate questions about Fenty's financial competence and personal integrity.

Meanwhile, Fenty, who has made improving public education a cornerstone of his campaign, said in February that his 6-year-old twins would be enrolling in public school "next year." But when school starts today, the boys won't be going to West Elementary. Instead, they will be staying in the private Tots Developmental School for at least another year, Fenty recently acknowledged.

Fenty said his February statement was a "miscommunication," adding that "I've always said" the boys will start public school "after they finish the nursery school that they're in." But even some of Fenty's closest allies were surprised when they found out that Tots, which Fenty said costs about $6,000 a year, holds classes through the third grade.

Fenty said voters are more interested in his "really aggressive platform on education" than in "my own personal decisions" and that most people would rather hear about the city's future than about his past.

But Cropp campaign co-chairman Max Berry said Fenty had better be ready to respond to Cropp's accusations in today's matchup.

"If I were Adrian, I'd be a little worried," Berry said. "All Linda has to say is, 'Is it true?' "