Also in the Mayor's Race, the Final Four

Candidates Share Ambitions, Goals With Front-Runners

The attention in the mayoral race has been focused on the five candidates with the most money and the highest name recognition -- Michael A. Brown, Linda Cropp, Adrian M. Fenty, Marie C. Johns and Vincent Orange.

But four other candidates on Tuesday's ballot also have high hopes of moving into the executive suite at the John A. Wilson Building: Democrats Nestor Djonkam and Artee Milligan, Republican David W. Kranich and Chris Otten of the Statehood Green Party.

Their platforms vary, but their struggle is the same: how to get their message out with little money or paid staff and minimal access to the debates and forums where residents and voters gather. Each candidate is convinced that he will overcome long odds and defeat the others.

"I hear it everywhere I go," said Djonkam, a naturalized citizen who grew up in Cameroon. "I believe that I will win. Washington, D.C., deserves a great leader."

Djonkam, 46, came to the United States 16 years ago, and worked for a dozen years as a mechanical engineer. Then he quit, he said, to run for mayor. Djonkam's family raised coffee in Cameroon. He rose early and stayed up late to work the fields, experience, he says, that gives him particular insight into the District's dispossessed. He plans to reopen D.C. General Hospital, cut the property tax rate for seniors and donate half his salary to senior programs.

He is critical of the council members -- Cropp, Fenty and Orange -- who are running for mayor.

"They were among those who closed down our libraries, closed our schools and took our surplus for a stadium," he said. "That's wrong."

Otten, 31, a computer designer, also is worried that the city has been too focused on downtown development at the expense of poor and middle-class residents. He opposed public financing for the new baseball stadium. He wants to transfer some of the power held by the council and mayor to advisory neighborhood commissions. He has proposed giving the commissioners, through a majority vote, the authority to place initiatives on the citywide ballot, a significant annual allotment for community projects and an annual stipend.

"They are closest to the people," Otten said.

One of his pet peeves is the school system's "massive move" to sell surplus land. He has worked as a Wall Street analyst and said it makes more sense to lease property than sell it. Likewise, he thinks the pace of school modernization is too slow. But he was impressed with Superintendent Clifford B. Janey's call for a moratorium on charter schools.

"I have been the only candidate pushing this idea," Otten said. "I am in the race to win. The only reason why I feel I may be a long shot is due to the mass media blackout of third-party candidates and alternative voices in general."

Kranich, the only Republican running for mayor, shares the view that the news media have focused too sharply on candidates who have raised a lot of money. Because he and Otten are unopposed in the primary election, both are virtually certain to appear on the Nov. 7 general election ballot.

Kranich, a real estate agent, has lived in the District for 12 years. He's single and has no children, but it was education that brought him into the race. He points to the crime emergency as a poor example of problem-solving.

"Many of the problems we have can be mitigated with a good education," he said. "I think crime is largely an after-effect of the lack of education, unemployment and a breakdown in the family structure."

Kranich plans to consolidate schools that are half-empty. And to ease another problem -- affordable housing -- he would transform some of those facilities into low-cost housing. Given his background, however, Kranich said he understands that requirements for affordable housing cannot be so stringent that they push developers to the suburbs.

Being a Republican in the heavily Democratic city where only 8 percent of the voters are registered Republicans can be a challenge. Although abortion has not been an issue in local elections, Kranich points out that he is pro-choice, though personally against abortion.

"I don't think that's the government's job," he said, noting he is for smaller government.

Kranich said he also plans to cut taxes, renew the push for voting rights and repeal the city's ban on handguns. "It hasn't worked," he said.

Milligan can also point to plenty that has not worked. He spent 20 years as a manager in corporate America but now heads the Metropolitan Delta Adult Literacy Council that helps adults obtain their general equivalency diplomas. He has nothing good to say about District public schools and would bring vocational education under his control.

"DCPS is not a nurturing environment," he said. "Students need to know they are special. There is too much negative reinforcement."

Milligan, 50, moved to the District in 1994 and believes that one of the most pressing concerns is affordable housing. To get more vacant units on the market, he plans to double or triple the taxes levied on vacant properties to prod developers to build or sell. Milligan also wishes that the incumbents, and Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), would stop crowing about their successes in attracting business and new residents.

"It's because people have gotten tired of the long commutes," he said, noting that the focus must return to those with low and moderate incomes. "The people that are going to sustain this city are the working class. This city does not know its constituents."

As part of that effort, he would require that all city workers reside in the District, and perform an overhaul of the police department, which he describes as "arrogant." He would fire Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey to start. But he would also take a hard stand on residents who own the types of cars that are frequently stolen by placing a surtax on those cars.

"Insurance companies charge people for smoking," he said. "This is a business."