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| Photo by Keith Ivey |
The votes are in and Vincent Gray beat Adrian Fenty in the Democratic primary for mayor. Winning the Democratic primary, as every DC resident knows, guarantees that you will be the next mayor of the District of Columbia. Except. Except perhaps if Adrian Fenty runs as a Republican.
Fenty has said he won't run as a Republican. But when the write-in votes for the Republican nomination for their candidate for mayor are counted, Fenty may emerge the winner: There were no named Republican candidates on the ballot, and reports TBD, there has been a quiet, yet enthusiastic, effort to get the city's Republican voters to write in Fenty. If Fenty wins the Republican nomination for mayor, he has to decide within three days whether to accept.
If Fenty continues his campaign as an Republican, that would certainly make the November election suspenseful. Rather than the game being over in September, DC politics would be in the forefront of people's minds for the next seven weeks. And it would give Republicans and Independents a voice in choosing the mayor.
Should Adrian Fenty run as a Republican? What do you think? You can vote in our poll or comment below.
The concept is outrageous. If Vince were the loser last night, what would The Fenty Mob be saying about discussions of Grey running as a Republican? Fenty played the game and lost. Congratulate the winner and move on!
ReplyDeleteNo, he would be committing political suicide. As it is, he might be able to get a job somewhere with Obama or at a law firm.
ReplyDeleteFenty will be offered some $500,000-a-year job on a corporate board -- He should take it.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous #1, no, they wouldn't be asking that, because there's no possibility that Gray won the write-in vote in the Republican primary, while it's quite possible that Fenty did.
ReplyDeleteStill, Anonymous #2 is correct. It would be pointless for Fenty to humiliate himself by switching parties only to lose again. Many of those who voted for him yesterday would not do so after he switched parties, and that would outweigh whatever independents and Republicans would vote for him.
Republicans and Independents have a voice in electing DC's mayor -- please remember Carol Schwartz won 33% of the vote in her bid against Barry. Just because they haven't floated a viable candidate since then doesn't mean they are disenfranchised; it means they are out of sync with District voters.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of Fenty (my candidate in this race) running as a Republican to satisfy his own political ambitions or to satisfy those supporters of his who cannot lose gracefully is offensive.
Oh and I think he'd still lose. I certainly wouldn't vote for him again.
I voted for Fenty again this time even though I thought he ran a lackluster campaign, despite the accomplishments of the last four years. Running as a Republican would look desperate and only diminish his standing in politics and generally, IMHO. Sorry it turned out this way.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure I would want him to run as a Republican (although that still wouldn't change who he is and what he believes), I would think a grass roots write-in campaign would be the best way to go. At the very least, if he got quite a showing as a write-in, Gray would be more apt to continue some of the things that Fenty did during his tenure.
ReplyDeleteWhy does these things always have to come from the bottom down, why can't the people: Democratic Fenty supporters, Republicans, Green/Statehood, and Independents launch a grassroots campaign to write-in Mayor Fenty. He doesn't have to be "actively" involved or lead. I was involved in the write-in campaign for Mayor Anthony William in 2004 (which he won). Today we have so many more electronic tools and ways to organize. If 40,000 of the Fenty voters stick with him and he can get 1/2 the registered Republicans and Independents he could win.
ReplyDeleteI am an independent voter in DC who really wishes that I didn't have to affiliate with the Democratic party in order to have a voice. I'd be thrilled to have Fenty run as a Republican so that I can actually cast a meaningful vote in a DC election. After this election, I'd love to see some movement towards open primaries in the district.
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly with Tommy John. I'd love to see a grass routes campaign that gets Fenty re-elected. I know, no matter what, I'm writing his name down come election day. If he wins a write-in campaign without being involved, can he really say no?
ReplyDeleteFenty, so I'm told by folks close to him, hates Republicans; hence that is not an option for him. He'd rather eat dirt.
ReplyDelete