Rumor has it that Marie Johns is going to throw in the towel and accept an offer to become city administrator under the next mayor. Adrian Fenty has asked her. Or was it Linda Cropp?
“I have heard those rumors,” Johns tells me.
Any truth?
“NO!” she says. “I’m not even thinking about that.”
Against most odds, Marie Johns is still thinking she can win the Democratic nomination for mayor on Sept. 12, — though polls say she’s in single digits against front-runners Fenty and Cropp — even though most voters still can’t tell you why she’s running.
Unlike many of my cynical colleagues in the nattering class, I believe Johns is running out of true caring for her adopted home. At 55, she’s retired from her suite job running Verizon, and she’s got enough spunk and passion to hit the streets to troll for votes.
She’s also invested $60,000 into her own campaign, which demonstrates a generous commitment to public service in my book.
I caught up with Johns in Chinatown on her way to speak with senior citizens on New Jersey Avenue. She was all done up in warm colors: red cotton jacket, reddish-orange coral necklace, clear fuschia eyeglass frames. Could have been out shopping at Neiman Marcus or shopping for votes near Sursum Corda.
What has she learned while traversing the city since July 2005? She looks out the coffee shop window to people on the teaming streets.
“Too many of them are not prepared to handle jobs,” she says. “We need a mayor to create a more educated city.”
But what has she heard from residents?
“Some are doing well,” she says, “but a lot are scared, angry and not expecting to have a future in this city. They feel the government has turned its back on them.”
Nothing new in that assessment, and not much fresh in Johns’ prescription for fixing the schools. She advocates better early-childhood education, expanded courses at the University of the District of Columbia, and that the city take over school property management.
Herein lies her problem: Lacking the political history or organization or war chest of her competitors, she has failed to ignite passions with bold, new ideas. Which is sad, because she certainly has passion: “How long do we have to have the highest adult illiteracy rate in the nation?” she asks. She wants to “partner” with the school system; I want the next mayor to take it over.
Marie Johns comes alive before a small group of senior citizens at Golden Rule Plaza, the best in senior citizen apartment living in D.C. She asks the dozen folks about transportation and activities and such. Her passion is in providing services, in “sharing” expertise, in working with “energy fields” of government rather than delivering the hard fist in confrontation.
Marie Johns won’t make it as city administrator. But if she comes up short on Sept. 12, she should be the first candidate to head the Department of Human Services.
Then she can practice what she preaches.
Harry Jaffe has been covering the Washington area since 1985. E-mail him at [email protected].
