The “anybody-but-Fenty” crowd has been giddy for days. In a recent Clarus Research Group survey of 501 registered District voters, 41 percent of the respondents indicated they would support D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray for mayor, while only 37 percent said they would re-elect Mayor Adrian M. Fenty.
The ABF crew may think it smells blood. But wishing and hoping won’t end Fenty’s political career. And a few words of caution about reading that survey: The margin of error is plus or minus 4.4 percent, which means Gray and Fenty actually were tied. Further, a significant number of the individuals (38 percent) said they didn’t know enough about Gray or never heard of him. That may explain his low disapproval rating (16 percent).
Despite a disapproval rating of 49 percent, Fenty received overall high marks for his handling of issues facing the city, which means he has a platform. Truth be told, for an executive who has badly managed his public image and been aided in that self-mutilation by some council wannabes, Fenty isn’t doing badly.
In some respects, he’s exactly where his predecessor was during his first tenure.
Remember former Mayor Anthony A. Williams, affectionately called by some “a bow-tie-wearing-numbers-crunching technocrat.” Although the first politician in the city’s history actually to be drafted, many residents didn’t love him. Who could forget the time his security rushed him out of Union Temple Baptist Church in Ward 8, fearing a mob attack?
Williams also fell out of favor with early supporters. Critics accused him of not listening; hating poor people; loving white people; being in developers’ pockets; enriching his personal friends; and taking too many out-of-town trips.
Some of those same folks, who tried to burn Williams at the stake, start striking matches at the mention of Fenty’s name.
Don’t get me wrong, Fenty has made huge mistakes, not the least of which has been flouting District laws and failing to develop a more collaborative relationship with the council. But he also has made several improvements in the government. The Clarus survey acknowledges some of his successes.
Style is killing Fenty’s popularity the same way it eroded his predecessor’s. Williams was called aloof and remote. Fenty has been called arrogant and cold. Not unlike new-styled political leaders, they are not from the touchy-feely era. They are technocrats and tacticians, more interested in measured outcomes than coffee klatches.
The battle being played out in the District, captured in the Clarus survey and in the mayor/council tensions, is over which cultural and political style will dominate: one rooted in the 20th century, embodied in Gray’s approach, or one tagged to the 21st century, embraced by big-city mayors like New York’s Michael Bloomberg and Newark, N.J.’s Corey Booker.
In 1998 and 2002, District voters chose Williams, a 21st-century corporate-style politician. In 2006, they made a similar choice with Fenty. They could change course in 2010. But what are the odds of that?
Jonetta Rose Barras, hosts of WPFW’s “D.C. Politics with Jonetta,” can be reached at [email protected].
