A rapid expansion of the District’s budget, easy access to campaign dollars and a taste for the high life have sparked a series of corruption charges not seen in D.C. since the mayoral reign of Marion Barry. “The size of the city as an economic enterprise has nearly doubled [in the past decade].

There’s more money in the campaigns, and combine that with a sense of entitlement and the temptation is great,” said Bill Lightfoot, a former city councilman who also was the chairman of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s failed re-election campaign.