Diverse Majority's Choice Signals a New Era

By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 13, 2006

An unusually strong majority of D.C. Democrats, including both blacks and whites, united behind a single nominee yesterday to replace a retiring mayor, giving D.C. Council member Adrian M. Fenty a broad mandate to pursue change in city government and the troubled public school system.

In nearly complete returns, Fenty claimed about 57 percent of ballots cast and led rival Linda W. Cropp by a towering 26,000 votes. Barring a general election upset in November, Fenty -- a 35-year-old triathlete with a shaved head, two BlackBerries on his belt and a reputation for round-the-clock customer service -- will replace Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), the bow-tied technocrat who brought the city back from the brink of bankruptcy.

The question now is whether the Ward 4 council sophomore can translate election promises into government action. In other words, can he lead?

In an overwhelmingly democratic city where elections have long been fractured along racial lines, yesterday's results suggest that Fenty represents the long-awaited rise of a new generation in D.C. politics.

His sweeping victory, which echoed pre-primary polls, also marks a repudiation of the city's political establishment among Democrats: The mayor, the business community, the biggest unions and many of the city's old-guard black leaders all lined up behind Cropp, the council chairman.

Young, dynamic and native-born, Fenty appealed to families, small-business owners and progressive activists from all parts of town who expect him to reach out to those left behind by the city's economic renaissance, bridge a growing divide between rich and poor and rid the government of a deeply entrenched crony class.

"We're bringing in new energy, new ideas -- it hasn't been like this since Barry" in 1978, said Dee Hunter, an advisory neighborhood commissioner from the newly hip U Street corridor, where Fenty pitched a party tent for last night's victory celebration.

Critics worry that Fenty lacks the experience and intellectual gravitas to manage the city's $7 billion budget. And they fear that his hands-on management style and obsession with streetlights and potholes will lead him off into the weeds.

"Can he deliver for people, or are they just going to get frustrated? He's not going to be able to run the constituent services of the entire city off his BlackBerry," said council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), who campaigned for Cropp. "It just ain't going to work."

Fenty has pledged to come in with "guns blazing" to fix what he sees as lingering problems: dysfunctional agencies, an unresponsive police department and, at the top of the list, the city's troubled public schools.

The next mayor inherits a city at a turning point. Williams lifted the District out of insolvency and into an era of civic affluence and bureaucratic competence. The economy is booming, the population is rising and basic services have improved dramatically. Now voters want to shift attention to the poor and forgotten. Along with newcomers to gentrifying neighborhoods, they think better schools are the place to start.

Over the past year and a half, the state of the school system has emerged as a top priority for city residents. They have identified education as the city's biggest problem in nearly every poll conducted during the 2006 campaign.

As mayor, Fenty would supervise a landmark program to spend more than $1 billion to rebuild and modernize public schools, now plagued by leaking roofs, worn-out boilers and stopped-up plumbing. He would have to shape the proliferation of charter schools, independently run but publicly financed institutions that have drained more than 17,000 students from the traditional system.

But his biggest decision might be whether to wrest the system from the control of the city's independent school board, about half of whose members are appointed by the mayor. The board is scheduled to revert to a wholly elected body in 2009.

Williams tried to take over the schools two years ago but failed in the face of council concerns that his heavy out-of-town travel schedule would leave the system adrift. Fenty wants to try again, at least by taking over failing schools. Depending on the measure used to define "failing," that could mean removing most of the city's more than 140 schools from the board's jurisdiction.

Fenty has also said he would consider pushing for a full takeover. Such a move could alienate Superintendent Clifford B. Janey, who has instilled fresh optimism in many public school parents since his hiring two years ago.

But Fenty has made clear that he doesn't think Janey is moving fast enough. During the campaign, he sought advice from New York schools chief Joel Klein, a former Washingtonian who offered to help remake the D.C. system. Fenty also met with Miami-Dade County schools chief Rudolph Crew, who turned down the D.C. job before it was offered to Janey.

"I think Janey has aptitude and he has promise," Fenty said in a recent interview. "But the old days of the mayor sitting on the sidelines while education was handled by other people are over."

Evans said the council is unlikely to approve a mayoral takeover. Eliminating the elected school board -- the first body D.C. residents were permitted to choose by popular election -- would be politically difficult. At any rate, Congress would have to make the final decision, Evans said.

Fenty would face a host of other challenges. The city's relative calm has been broken by a frightening spike in violence. A shrinking supply of affordable housing threatens to change the face of many neighborhoods. The new baseball stadium remains a source of contention and misgiving. And, after years of rapid expansion, tax revenue may be starting to level off.

Right now, the financial outlook is fairly good. The city is entering fiscal 2007 with a balanced budget and $738 million in the bank. But last month, Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi announced that he could not increase his quarterly revenue forecast as anticipated, citing "some softening in the D.C. real estate market." The news forced Williams to scrap plans to expand a variety of programs and led the council to start looking for other ways to pay for 350 police officers it decided to add in July.

Fenty has said he would spend more on schools, public safety and programs for the poor. And at a forum in May, he pledged to spend $1 billion on affordable housing and neighborhood redevelopment programs advocated by a citywide coalition of churches known as the Washington Interfaith Network.

Fenty also has vowed not to raise taxes, a promise Williams has disparaged as irresponsible given the changing economic picture.