Mayor Adrian Fenty begged off a key education reform debate on Monday and some in his inner circle are privately wondering if he’s as committed to retaining his office as he was to winning it. Organizers say Fenty had verbally confirmed that he’d show at a 7 p.m. forum hosted by the Young Education Professionals to debate D.C. Council Chairman Vince Gray. But Fenty’s spokeswoman said late Sunday that the mayor couldn’t keep the feast after all. “They said he couldn’t make it work,” Young Education Professionals President Kate Blosveren said. “At 11 o’clock last night.” Fenty won every precinct in the city in 2006 but now finds himself in a fierce re-election battle with Gray. Fenty’s admirers say that his education reforms — led by Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee — are one of his best selling points, so the Young Education forum would have been a great chance to push back against Gray. “That’s a trump suit for the mayor — education reform,” said Terry Lynch, a spokesman for the Downtown Cluster of Congregations. Neither Fenty spokeswoman Helen Hare nor spokesman Sean Madigan responded to requests for comment. Longtime aides to Fenty say privately that the mounting criticism and stress of the campaign have made the mayor even more resistant to advice than usual. He has had to dip into his multimillion-dollar campaign funds to pay street workers, instead of mustering an army of volunteers to help him canvass, like in’ 06. Young Education Professionals organizers pressed ahead with their plans Monday, offering instead an evening with Gray. “I think it’s unfortunate because it’s yet another opportunity for Chairman Gray and Mr. Fenty to show how different their candidacies are,” Gray spokeswoman Traci Hughes said. “I don’t know if he’s reticent to come up against Chairman Gray.”
