Ward 4 D.C. Council Member Adrian Fenty was never expected to pull in more money than Council Chairman Linda Cropp in Democratic mayoral nominee race, but his fundraising filing Monday proved all doubters wrong.
Fenty raised $635,902 since March 11 and ended the period with $1.2 million in the bank. Cropp, who has the endorsement of Mayor Anthony Williams, collected $435,816 during the same three months and spent $341,847, leaving herself with $897,079 as the summer campaign season kicks into high gear.
“We’ve had a strategy from day one that we’re going to reach out to as many voters as possible,” Fenty said Tuesday. “I take nothing for granted. It’s the only way I know how to campaign.”
Cropp and Fenty are clearly the candidates to beat, said WTOP political analyst Mark Plotkin. But it is perhaps time to acknowledge Fenty, a second-term legislator 15 years Cropp’s junior, as the frontrunner.
“I think he is an organized guy, and I think his organizational prowess in terms of lawn signs and securing endorsements of community activists has now played into fundraising,” Plotkin said, adding that Fenty has worked hard to offset any impression that he’s a pro-tax, anti-business council member.
Other candidates are a little further behind. Former Verizon executive Marie Johns raised $115,798 since March and has $130,122 to spend into the summer. Ward 5 Council Member Vincent Orange raised $96,696 and closed the period with $40,804. And lobbyist Michael Brown spent virtually everything in his coffers, ending the period with less than $3,000.
In the race for council chairman, Ward 7 Council Member Vincent Gray, a first-term legislator but longtime government insider, has outraised his opponent, Ward 3 Council Member Kathy Patterson. Gray raised $186,211 and ended with more than $98,000, while Patterson generated $71,332 and closed with roughly $50,000.
