What Does Firing Say About Fenty?

Rash, impetuous and too demanding?

Or decisive, confident and fast-moving?

Those are the competing analyses of Democratic mayoral nominee Adrian M. Fenty in the wake of his abrupt firing this week of his chief spokesman just two weeks before the Nov. 7 general election.

Alec Evans , 27, had been Fenty's representative for a year and, to reporters at least, seemed attached to Fenty's hip throughout the campaign. When Fenty drove to Baltimore to visit Mayor Martin O'Malley shortly after winning the primary in September, Evans rode along. Fenty stopped the SUV twice -- the first time for Evans to buy McDonald's chicken strips for him and the second to run into a 7-Eleven for some vitamin water.

Evans seemed as energetic and intense as his boss. He had his own Blackberry and an additional cellphone and seemed to be talking on them as often as Fenty did into his own two Blackberrys.

But when reporters were not around, Evans wasn't always as eager to do Fenty's bidding, sources close to the campaign said. Fenty often asked Evans to attend events that Fenty could not and called Evans at all hours to check on his whereabouts, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the campaign continues.

Last week, Evans told Fenty he could not accompany the candidate to an event in Prince George's County for O'Malley because of a personal commitment, sources said. On Sunday, Evans left early from a staff meeting. On Monday morning, Fenty called him on the phone and relieved him of his duties.

The timing and the way Fenty cut ties with Evans struck some government officials at the John A. Wilson Building as odd.

Even if Fenty wanted him out, why not wait until after the election, when the transition months before the Jan. 2 swearing-in ceremony would seem like a more natural time to make changes? Did he consider offering Evans a chance to resign? And why tell him over the phone?

Fenty declined to address the specifics, calling the issue a private personnel matter.

Terry Lynch , executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations and a close Fenty ally, said the candidate's strength is making up his mind and acting decisively.

"Alec did an outstanding job in what he was hired to do," Lynch said. "But he's had a grueling year, and for that position [Fenty] needed someone who was always there. You've heard the phrase 110 percent? Adrian invented the idea of 210 percent."