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In Sweep, Fenty Draws On Uniting To Conquer
Audrey Hendricks, precinct captain for Adrian M. Fenty, gives Johnny R. Coulter Sr. a campaign sticker. Fenty won in all eight wards Tuesday.
(By Whitney Shefte -- Washingtonpost.com)
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Fenty, by contrast, led Cropp among every category of voters in pre-primary polls -- black and white, young and old, wealthy and middle-class.
Ronald Walters, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, said Fenty represents a new generation of urban leaders that includes Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) and U.S. Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.). Once ruled by lions of the civil rights era, many cities shifted a decade ago toward efficient technocrats such as Williams and Detroit's Dennis Archer (D), Walters said.
Fenty's bunch "have abandoned the eyeshades," he said. "They're not willing to give the city up to the powers that be. They consider themselves of the people, and they want to deal with intractable problems."
The youth, vigor and can-do enthusiasm of these men tend to appeal to residents across the board, regardless of race or income, Walters said.
"I do think politics has changed," Fenty said. "The politics of running big cities these days is about getting things done. Making sure the city is run like a business." Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, he said, "calls it performance politics instead of patronage politics."
Barry, now a council member representing Ward 8, said Fenty has other advantages: A well-oiled campaign operation and a door-to-door strategy that captured the public imagination. Fenty also had an army of enthusiastic volunteers culled primarily from Ward 4, where he is so beloved by residents that political observers expect him to be able to anoint a successor if he wins the mayor's office in the Nov. 7 general election. The city would hold a special election to replace him next spring.
"He worked at it. He's one of the hardest-working elected officials I know," said Barry, who endorsed Fenty in the final days of the primary campaign. "People are starved to see a candidate in person instead of on television and in ads.
"Knocking on doors, that's powerful."
Staff writer Yolanda Woodlee contributed to this report.
