All Articles Tagged "Adrian Fenty"
Fenty Supporters Continue Long-Shot Write-In Campaign for Mayor
(Washington Post) — They have been compared to the die-hard supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton who refused to give up after then-candidate Barack Obama secured enough votes for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, hardly a compliment in a city where three out of four voters in the primary that year supported Obama over Clinton. But that hasn’t discouraged a small group of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty admirers from campaigning to get voters to write his name on their general election ballots on Tuesday, even though they have little chance of stopping D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray from being elected mayor.
GOP Hitching Ride on Fenty’s Coattails into Four Council Races
(Washington Post) — If voters in Upper Northwest peer closely at David Hedgepeth’s chest, they can sometimes tell he’s a Republican. Were it not for the elephant pin on his jacket, most Ward 3 residents would not know the Bronx native is hoping to ride the nationwide GOP tide into office in the heavily Democratic district. One of four Republicans running for the council on Nov. 2, which party leaders say may be a record, Hedgepeth rarely mentions his party affiliation in his race against freshman Mary M. Cheh (D). Instead, the 42-year-old has attached himself to one of city’s most prominent Democrats, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty.
Fenty Freezes D.C. Spending as City Targets $175 Million Budget Gap
(Washington Post) — D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty froze hiring and promotions in city government Monday and restricted discretionary spending within the agencies as he and the D.C. Council begin exploring ways to close a $175 million shortfall.
The order by Fenty (D), which comes three days after the start of fiscal 2011, also bans most employee travel and training and limits the amount of money available to agency leaders to buy supplies.
When Every Brother Ain't a Brother: The "Not Black Enough" Politicians
by Charing Ball
Former Philadelphia Mayor John Street might have been channeling the lyric from Public Enemy’s “Welcome to the Terrordome”: “Every brother ain’t a brother.”
Recently, Street made some unflattering remarks about current Philadelphia city Mayor Michael Nutter, who will be up for re-election next year. In an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Street, who was investigated for corruption by the FBI in 2005, made the comment that Mayor Nutter is not “a black mayor” but rather “a mayor with dark skin.”
Sound confusing?
Well, for those unfamiliar with term, the meaning “not black enough” has little to do with your skin tone and much more to do with your politics and social standings. Take for instance, Huey Newton and Malcolm X both who were both as red-boned as they come, yet no one would mistake either men for not being “black enough,” because their focus had always been on the benefit of the black community.
So what has Mayor Nutter done or not done to warrant such accusations?
In a city which is majority colored, Mayor Nutter, who was elected in 2007 mostly by the white liberal vote (the black vote had been split by two other black candidates in the race), hasn’t been faring well among the black democratic base. According to a Pew poll, the mayor continues to get far higher ratings on questions of job approval from white residents than from blacks; blacks are evenly divided on him—with 43 percent approving his performance and 43 percent disapproving—while whites voice a positive view by 65 percent to 21 percent.
Some in the Black Philadelphian community have charged that Mayor Nutter, who ran as a reformist mayor, has been reluctant, if not dismissive of the issues affecting the community. Much in the same vain as President Obama, Mayor Nutter has refuses to be pigeon-holed as the black politician and has taken a more universal view on dealing with issues of crime, education and even the economy.
When he was elected to represent Philadelphia, some in the black community asserted that Mayor Nutter’s approach to governing took the black vote, which makes up a large percentage of city’s democratic vote, for granted.
The same could be said for Washington D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, who also ran as a reformist candidate and saw his own political aspirations as Mayor dashed by his inability to respond effectively to the black community. Despite being in a city, whose black population still remained the majority, Fenty had given too many appointments to non-blacks and shunned the black elite of the city.
While I don’t agree with necessarily demonizing either mayor for their failure to draw tribal lines in politics, there is something to be said for the ability of some black politicians to take the black vote as a given. Like any other constituency we want our issues respected and addressed by whoever – regardless of color – is representing us.
The idea that some black politicians are willing to denounce their political blackness to get elected means ultimately that these same politicians will be willing to take positions that are diametrically opposed to our best interest.
And at a time when unemployment for black males is in double digits, the quality of the public schools in predominately black neighborhoods remain subpar at best and the spread of HIV/AIDs is killing our folks across gender and sexuality lines, it is not enough for black politicians and candidates for office to remain silent or indifferent to these issues.
Other Black Mayors Struggle With Forces That Defeated Fenty
(Washington Post) — Once welcomed as a reformist mayor, he developed a leadership style that was criticized as aloof and autocratic. Budget cuts produced clashes with public employees and alienated some of the most important constituencies in the city. Ultimately, the hope he once inspired gave way to suspicion of his “post-racial” brand of politics. That, of course, was the narrative of Adrian M. Fenty’s rise and fall as mayor of Washington. But the circumstances he faced are not unique. Most of those statements could also describe the political arc of mayors Cory Booker in Newark, Michael Nutter in Philadelphia and Dave Bing in Detroit.
Other Black Mayors Grapple with Forces That Led to Fenty's Downfall
(Washington Post) — Once welcomed as a reformist mayor, he developed a leadership style that was criticized as aloof and autocratic. Budget cuts produced clashes with public employees and alienated some of the most important constituencies in the city.
Ultimately, the hope he once inspired gave way to suspicion of his “post-racial” brand of politics.
How 'Post-Racial' Black Politicians Can Relate to Black People
(The Root) – Mayor Adrian Fenty’s loss in Washington, D.C., last week was a crying shame. Black wiser heads muse about how the system prevents black people from voting “their interests” — Harvard Law’s Lani Guinier comes to mind — and yet black D.C. residents kicked out a mayor who, along with schools chief Michelle Rhee, was making the first serious difference in decades in the city’s notoriously decrepit school system.
Last time I checked, public education was supposed to be pretty high on the list of black people’s “interests.” Especially among what Guinier termed “authentic” black people — by which she meant ones rooted in the black cultural experience. D.C.’s pretty “authentic,” no?
The official post-mortem is that Fenty’s reforms required firing and stepping on the toes of too many black people themselves, including ones in the teachers unions. But let’s face it: There would be no way to change an urban school system without doing those things.
How Fenty Lost the Black Vote — and His Job
(Washington Post) — On the last weekend before the Democratic primary, D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty competed in a triathlon, cut the ribbon at a dog park in Cleveland Park, shook hands in Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle, and attended a premiere of a documentary about his controversial schools chancellor.
His chief rival, Vincent C. Gray, meanwhile, was dropping in at no fewer than three black churches, in the Mount Vernon, Shaw and Fort Lincoln neighborhoods.
The election wasn’t lost or won in a weekend, but how the candidates spent that time says something about why Gray defeated a sitting mayor with a long list of accomplishments.
Fenty, Gray Vow Smooth Transition
(Washington Post) — Two days after he won the Democratic nomination for mayor, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray and the man he will probably be replacing, Adrian M. Fenty, hugged at a party unity breakfast and raised their hands in a show of solidarity.
Fenty pledged his support for Gray at the event Thursday, and both men said they will work together to ensure a smooth transition after an election that exposed sharp differences among the city’s voters on what they want from their government.
Rhee Says She Had a Role in Fenty's Loss
(TBD.com) — D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is weighing in on the results of the mayor’s race and her potential role in Mayor Fenty’s re-election loss.
TBD’s Philip Stewart and ABC 7′s Jay Korff caught up with Rhee at the movie premiere for “Waiting for Superman“ at the Newseum. The documentary screened Wednesday night focuses on education in the U.S. and prominently features Rhee as an inner-city school leader who’s turned things around for the better. It was ironic timing, given her now uncertain future with D.C. Public Schools.
