Mayor Adrian Fenty says he’s sorry.
He’s sorry he hasn’t communicated well with others; he’s sorry he hasn’t been inclusive.
“The obvious thing about me, I focus so hard on just going 100 miles per hour, getting things done,” the mayor said as he issued his mea culpa during a debate on TBDTV Wednesday morning. “As mayor, I didn’t make the adjustment I should have [from being a councilman]. I haven’t done a good job of communicating and including people.”
He said in his next term, he’ll do better.
The statement represented a change in direction from the message Fenty has been sending to District voters.
One of Fenty’s five 15-second television commercials illustrates Fenty’s earlier approach.
The commercial opens with a woman saying “some people say Adrian has changed, that he’s arrogant” and finishes by saying, “[but] he listens and then gets about doing the job.”
The commercial tries to deflect the notion that Fenty doesn’t communicate well. On Wednesday, the mayor simply said he’s sorry.
A Fenty staffer said the change was the result of internal discussions and the realization that Fenty needed to take “responsibility for things people were irritated with.”
The staffer said Fenty has always been apologetic in private conversations with voters, but this was the first time he did it in a large public forum.
A recent attack ad that spliced footage from NBC 4 and was released by the Gray campaign on You Tube showed Fenty doing just that.
In the ad, a woman approaches Fenty and says, “You were helping us. And then you turned your back on us.”
Fenty responds by saying, “I didn’t do the job I’m supposed to.”
