Fenty Seeks Tips From Big-City Mayors

By David Nakamura and Elissa Silverman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 5, 2006

The scheduling software in Adrian M. Fenty 's BlackBerry is getting just as big a workout as the e-mail and phone services: He has booked trips to New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles for this month.

Fenty's trips aren't for pleasure but to meet the mayors of those cities for brainstorming on best practices that he might borrow for the District, assuming the Democratic mayoral nominee wins the general election Nov. 7.

Fenty met last month with Baltimore's Martin O'Malley (D). He intends to talk with New York's Michael Bloomberg (R), Chicago's Richard M. Daley (D), San Francisco's Gavin Newsom (D) and Los Angeles's Antonio R. Villaraigosa (D). He said he admires different aspects of each.

Fenty is considering a takeover bid of the D.C. public schools in the model Bloomberg created in New York, and he has analyzed Baltimore's CitiStat program, a data-based analysis of city agencies designed to eliminate waste and increase efficiency. Fenty said he will bring a model called CapitalStat to the District, which he will implement along with Dan Tangherlini , who agreed this week to be Fenty's city administrator.

Lining Up for Fenty's Seat

The word is that Fenty has handpicked a candidate to campaign for his Ward 4 D.C. Council seat if he wins the mayor's race on Nov. 7.

But ask anyone involved in the ward's political machine and they can string together a list of candidates who are vying for that coveted seat.

Michael A. Brown , who abandoned his bid for mayor at the last minute, was the first to talk publicly about his intentions. But then Fenty sent out some signals when he was observed introducing Muriel Bowser , an advisory neighborhood commissioner who lives in the northeastern section of the ward, to residents at a block party soon after the election. Fenty has said on the record that he thinks Bowser, who campaigned for him, "would make an excellent candidate."

If any of the political posturing was meant to frighten off challengers, it's doesn't appear to be working.

Among the first wave of potential candidates said to be eyeing the council dais according to political observers are: Ted Trabue , Douglass Sloan , Willie Flowers , Artee Milligan , Dwayne Toliver , Charles Gaither , Charles Lowery , Graylan S. Hagler , F. Alexis H. Roberson , Renee Bowser , Joe Ruffin , Dwight E. Singleton and Neil O. Albert .

Stay tuned. The election is not until spring.

Vermonter Pushes D.C. Rights

As D.C. voting rights' advocates hunt for supporters of the cause, they might want to look to Vermont, where Jerry Trudell , an independent candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, is pushing statehood for the nation's capital.

"First of all, I'm already raising the issue here," said Trudell, 52. "They claim to bring democracy in Iraq. I say have you forgotten Washington, D.C."

Trudell, a pilot who takes aerial photographs of Vermont that appear on postcards, used to live in Washington. He drove a cab for 10 years, so he said he knows about the District's struggle for statehood.

While he's pushing voting rights, he has also proposed a transportation plan for Vermont that includes his driving a bus when Congress is in recess.

But in the interest of D.C. residents, he said if elected, "I will meet immediately with the D.C. Statehood people. I would try to bring national attention to the issue."

Roasting the Mayor

Will NBC4 political reporter Tom Sherwood receive all of Mayor Anthony A. Williams 's frequent flier miles as reward for serving as master of ceremonies at a Oct. 18 roast of Hizzoner?

The mayor's penchant for travel is a likely target at the gala benefiting Southeastern University. As the first local reporter to hammer away at the mayor's frequent trips out of town, Sherwood has gotten plenty of mileage out of Williams's eight years as mayor. Williams leaves office Dec. 31.

Also scheduled to appear at the roast are Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and George Washington University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg . D.C. Council members David A. Catania (I-At Large) and Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) are on the list, as well as the man Williams insisted wasn't ready to be mayor, Adrian M. Fenty.

Fenty won the Sept. 12 Democratic primary despite (or because of?) Williams's endorsement of Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp .

D.C. Politics Charms

HBO's "The Wire" takes place in nearby Charm City -- Baltimore, for the uninitiated -- but an episode that premiered Sunday night made reference to a storied strategy in D.C. politics.

In the cable TV drama, the fictional incumbent mayor, Clarence V. Royce, is locked in a tight Democratic primary race with black council member Tony Gray and white council member Thomas "Tommy" Carcetti.

Royce, who is black, and his political advisers worry that Hizzoner and Gray might split the majority-black city's vote, allowing Carcetti to win. So Royce's chief of staff encourages him to make efforts to rally his black political base, showing him red-green- and black-striped campaign posters with Royce's picture above the slogan that Royce "makes us proud."

Royce frowns at the African nationalist-themed posters. "You want me to start wearing dashikis? Go all Marion Barry . . . ?" asked Royce, referring to the four-time D.C. mayor and current Ward 8 council member's dashiki-outfitted mayoral comeback win in 1994.

Staff writers Nikita Stewart and Yolanda Woodlee contributed to this report.