The four major Democratic mayoral candidates battled it out one last time for the television cameras Friday, with the front-runner staying on point and his three opponents lining up to cut him down.
Candidates Adrian Fenty, Linda Cropp, Marie Johns and Vincent Orange have participated in dozens of forums to this point and honed their messages to near perfection. Now only three days remain until the most important District election in 30 years, and few chances remain to get the word out.
“This is a city that was bankrupt,” Cropp, the D.C. Council chair, longtime politician and former educator, said during the forum, held at The George Washington University’s Jack Morton auditorium. “This is a city that had junk bond status. I brought us back from that.”
Fenty, the Ward 4 council member and race front-runner, stuck by his message of responsiveness and accountability. He brushed off, as he has throughout the campaign, any criticism that he spends too much time on his BlackBerry and does not embrace the minutiae of running a big-city government.
“This could be an election eight years ago, 12 years ago,” Fenty said. “[The voters are] saying the same thing, follow-through.”
Orange, the outgoing Ward 5 council member who has languished near the back of the pack, accused Cropp and Fenty of drawing “empty wagons” that put the city on track for a “train wreck.” He urged voters to look at the candidates’ records rather than fundraising and polls.
“Empty wagons make a lot of noise,” Orange said. “My wagon is full.”
Johns, the former chief executive officer of Verizon Washington, said her opponents have a history of not addressing problems such as crime and poorly performing schools.
“Yes, we need long-term solutions, but how long do we have to wait until those solutions are implemented?” Johns said.
The mayoral contest was a five-person race until Thursday, when lobbyist Michael Brown quit and threw his support to Cropp.
