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| | | Get ready, get set ... uh, don't go | | January 13, 2010 | | | | Millionaire developer R. Donahue Peebles turned out to be something of a speculative bubble in Washington.
He burst into town vowing or threatening — depending on whom you talked to — to spend as much as $5 million to unseat Mayor Adrian Fenty.
He told some media folks back in November that he was 85 percent certain he would run. In December, it was 70 percent. Meanwhile, he and his supporters were calling around to see if they could cobble together a campaign organization.
The Washington City Paper ran candid photos of Peebles caught breakfasting with Council Chairman Vincent Gray, who's making his own drawn-out decision on whether to run.
Some business folks in town were privately saying that Peebles would never run. They said he was mainly in Washington to survey the shaky commercial real estate market and pick up some pieces at bargain prices. The campaign froth was just that, froth, they said.
Last week Peebles released a lengthy statement saying how much he cares about the city but explaining that family considerations would keep him from declaring for mayor.
"My desire to work aggressively to bring about change will always be unwavering," he wrote.
Well, he wavered on running for mayor. Peebles left the door ajar to consider the race again sometime in the future. But the political sphere doesn't work that way. He was almost in, and then he was out. Waffles are for breakfast, not campaigns.
The Washington Post this week followed up with a story on how Gray is earnestly weighing his own bid against Fenty. Here's the short question: Does Gray give up an almost certain walk to re-election as chairman to run for mayor with only the potential to win?
NBC4 and the Notebook have reported that Gray might wait until late spring to make a decision. Nearly everyone who knows Gray is familiar with his cautious approach to decision making. They say it's a no-brainer: He won't run. He'll announce that he can best serve the District by remaining a check on Fenty as chairman.
Maybe the Notebook will be surprised. Maybe Fenty will make a few more political mistakes to open the door wider for a challenger. Maybe Gray will decide that at 67, this is his last chance to run.
Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.
That's all we've got for a mayoral race right now.
• A different countdown. While we wait for the mayoral race to jell or fizzle, there's a different countdown in the works.
D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton this week began watch on the 30 legislative days until gay marriage becomes legal in the District. The city law, which was passed in December, must await potential objections from Congress during the 30-day layover period.
Norton insists that she has taken steps to keep conservatives of both parties from derailing the bill. But it's a huge target in this national campaign year. We'll see.
• A first! Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh knows how to behave at public events. But for some reason, Mayor Fenty hasn't traditionally invited her to his events in her ward.
Things have changed.
"For the first time ever," she told the Notebook, "I had an actual invitation from the mayor's office." It was for the groundbreaking last week for the new Janney Elementary School. "This is quite a reversal," she said. "I hope it signals something."
Well, not to pour cold water on her hopes, but it could signal only that Mayor Fenty is running for re-election and -- at least for now -- has stopped his politically shortsighted policy of never inviting council members to his events.
Cheh also is seeking re-election this year. She'll be traveling around her ward a lot and commenting on a lot of policies. It wouldn't look too good for the mayor if Cheh were constantly criticizing him.
• Duh, Department I. We were heading westbound on Pennsylvania Avenue at 13th Street NW, with the hulking Reagan Building on our left, when we saw a big, new (we think) sign that simply reads "DC Visitors" with an arrow pointing to a left turn.
Only, there is no left turn there. You'd go crashing into the sidewalk. We can just picture some flummoxed tourist lost downtown making a sudden left turn to nowhere. What's with the sign? We think it's supposed to be "DC Visitors Center" but somehow the "center" got left off.
• Duh, Department II. A headline on The Washington Post's Web site Monday afternoon shouted, "Mark McGwire Admits Using Steroids." So what happens to his 1998 home-run record? There's not a big enough asterisk in the world to note his transgression. What we need is some Bic Wite-Out ink obliterator. It's $1.99 per bottle. The Notebook will buy all we need to wipe out his name and his numbers.
• And, finally ... This week we came across the online auction site run by Gaston & Sheehan Auctioneers Inc. of Texas.
We were intrigued to see 185 items from the Harriette Walters case. She's the person who stole nearly $50 million from the city tax office and went on any number of spending sprees.
And what's for sale this week? Luxury bags and wallets made by Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci and Judith Leiber, as well as shoes by Giuseppe Zanotti. We admit we've heard of most of these companies. If we cared more, we'd look up the others. But if you care about the auction, go to txauctiononline.com (And yes, tax is misspelled in the domain name. Or maybe it's short for Texas.)
Tom Sherwood, a Southwest resident, is a political reporter for News 4. | | | | | Log in to comment on this article | | | | Richard | Fri, Jan 15, 2010 04:05 PM EST |
| | The DC law only exempts takeout food delivered in paper bags. Customers who receive their food in plastic bags must fork over an additional nickel to the District taxmasters. We're calling it the McDonalds/Five Guys loophole. |
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