The apparent missteps of a few members of the “Gray for Mayor” campaign and the transition that followed have kept Vince Gray swamped in scandal through the nearly eight months since he was sworn into the mayor’s office. Each time the scandals drip on Gray’s struggling administration, the same names reappear. Getting top billing is campaign worker Howard Brooks, accused of passing cash to mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown. There’s also Lorraine Green, the “Gray for Mayor” chairwoman who Brown says also gave him cash. Green also appears to have helped coordinate hiring for the Gray administration, a process that ended in a nepotism scandal.
On Tuesday, Brooks and Reuben Charles — a top member of the “Gray for Mayor” finance committee — were back in the news as part of a Washington Post report that said Gray’s mayoral campaign accepted cash contributions above the legal limit and then tried to cover it up by exchanging the cash for money orders. Only a few weeks ago, The Washington Examiner reported that a grand jury is already probing the campaign.
“I regret that unresolved issues from the campaign continue to surface,” Gray said in a statement on Tuesday. He added that the schedule for the campaign “was very tight, and I had to trust people to properly carry out the duties for which they were responsible. But obviously, if mistakes were made, the campaign should be held accountable.”
Gray might avoid any criminal violations that could come from his campaign’s alleged misdeeds, but he is losing the battle in the court of public opinion, said political consultant Chuck Thies.
“He has to do more to put distance between himself and the campaign,” Thies said. “The only way to do that is to surround himself with new people.”
Thies suggested Gray soon find himself a permanent chief of staff and “retool” his communications team from “top-to-bottom” because it has proven itself unable to “understand the depth of the problems Gray faces.”
Thies, and Gray insiders, have complained that the administration hasn’t made itself clear to the public, and often comes off as slow or reactionary.
Case in point: Wednesday is the 198th day of Gray’s administration. According to his schedule, he plans to discuss accomplishments from the first 150 days of his administration.
