Nearly eight months into D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s administration, he has been unable to shake the misdeeds of his 2010 mayoral campaign. Rather than being able to move forward with a clear message on how he’s running and changing the city, Gray has been dogged by mounting allegations that some members of his campaign acted illegally.
“The campaign has been under investigation — an investigation for which I called as soon as allegations of improprieties were made several months ago — and I cannot comment on specific matters,” Gray said in a recent statement. He added, “In no way are we distracted by the ongoing investigation of a campaign that ended more than eight months ago.”
But even if the mayor isn’t distracted, the public likely is.
Just this past week, the Washington Post reported that Gray’s campaign tried to hide cash donations that were above the legal limit by bundling the donations into money orders. Then The Washington Examiner wrote that the campaign failed to report as contributions the value of rides it had requested of taxi drivers for elderly voters so they could get to the polls for the primary and general elections. The Office of Campaign Finance says it’s now including the information from both news reports in its ongoing audit of the Gray for Mayor campaign. The audit was begun in April after former mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown accused members of Gray’s campaign of passing him cash-stuffed envelopes so he could stay in the race.
Both reports overshadowed a trip to Los Angeles that Gray took to encourage movie and television studios to film in the city. They also dwarfed the news that the Gray administration had found a new home for the District’s lone federal gun dealer and its decision to conduct an independent audit of the city-owned United Medical Center, which could inch the hospital toward a sale.
Some political consultants and Gray advisers have suggested the mayor move forward by shaking up his staff and removing any scent of the campaign that still lingers in his administration.
Regardless of what actions Gray takes, he might not be able to move on until the U.S. Attorney’s Office wraps up its investigation without Gray being charged, said Tony Bullock, communications director in former Mayor Anthony Williams’ administration.
“It’s not reasonable to hold an elected official responsible for everybody else’s conduct,” Bullock said. “The mayor’s ability to move on, though, will be determined by how quickly the U.S. attorney investigation makes its conclusions.”
