How long do you suppose it will be until Condit's come-back? As you can see, some pols have no shame...
Barry Making His Return In a Much Different D.C.
By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 8, 2002; Page B01
At the core of Marion Barry's quest for political revival are true believers like Benjy Little. In Barry's four terms as mayor, he funded Little's recreation center, employed his parents and gave him a series of summer jobs.
"I call him my father," said Little, 30, of Anacostia, who survived a bout of drug addiction to become a school mediation counselor and start a small music magazine. "Marion Barry is the only person I had."
Butmore than 20 years after Barry first rose to power, Washington has fewer and fewer Benjy Littles, with direct personal and economic ties to the political machine Barry built as the dominant power in city politics over decades.
As Barry mounts his latest comeback attempt, he faces a city that is wealthier and whiter -- and a government that is less devoted to political patronage -- than it was in his heyday. And much of his traditional constituency has moved to what Washingtonians jokingly call Ward 9 -- Prince George's County.
That Barry is still regarded as a formidable force is testimony to the enduring power of his politics. They are populist and personal, giving him a fighting chance to overcome demographics and voting patterns that are shifting against him.
"A lot of people who had been his base are now sitting in the suburbs somewhere," said Ronald W. Walters, a University of Maryland political analyst.
Barry seemed unconcerned by this at his 66th birthday party Wednesday night, hours after ending weeks of coy no-comments by announcing to reporters that he is planning to run for an at-large seat on the D.C. Council.
The mood at the party, which was east of the Anacostia River, where his support runs deepest, was triumphant. With cameras rolling and incumbent Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) singing along, Barry waved a silver pie server like a conductor's baton to the beat of a gospel-tinged version of "Happy Birthday."
The gist of his campaign message emerged quickly that day. Barry spoke again and again of "a void" in government, with no one speaking out for issues he's long championed: summer jobs, housing, help for seniors and the downtrodden. He lamented the flight of African Americans to Prince George's County, which he attributed to a shortage of affordable housing.
The number of blacks in Washington has dropped by 100,000 over the past 20 years, while the white population remained stable, census figures show. As a percentage of the city population, blacks have fallen from 70 percent to 60 percent as whites have remained at close to 30 percent and Asian and Latino populations have grown.
Washington's per capita income also has grown, as compared with both the nation and the surrounding suburbs, since Barry's glory years in the 1980s, when the city lagged behind the suburbs. For the past decade, including Barry's latest term as mayor in the mid-1990s, the city has had a higher per capita income than the suburbs.
The trends are even more striking in voting patterns. Whites have voted in higher percentages than blacks since Barry was last on the ballot in 1994. The declines in black population and voting are clearest east of the river.
Barry, who said it was "unlikely" that he could be beaten, vowed to return these disaffected voters to the ballot box. Barry claimed to have registered 12,000 new voters in 1994, when he made his comeback to the mayor's office. He vowed this time to register 5,000.
"They're turned off," he said. "We're going to make sure they know they can make a difference."
As the birthday party wound down, the politics of race found their way into the conversation. In an interview, Barry warned that "unqualified white people" were getting jobs in city government over qualified blacks. And he said the 13-member D.C. Council, with its one-vote white majority, should become majority-black again.
"The city council ought to reflect the demographics of the city," Barry said. "If the city's majority-black, it makes sense the city council ought to be majority-black."
And though he largely avoided talking about Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) -- "I'm smart enough to know not to talk about Tony Williams" -- Barry acknowledged that many will see his candidacy as a challenge to the mayor.
"Some people may see my coming back as a balance to some of the things that the Williams administration is doing," he said.
Barry has political problems of his own. Aside from Mendelson, who has a natural constituency among the liberal white voters who turn out in high percentages in the city, lawyer Beverly J. Wilbourn also plans to run in the Democratic primary for the at-large seat.
Wilbourn has ties to the black middle-class and upper-middle-class sections of Wards 4 and 5, which are east of Rock Creek Park but west of the Anacostia. Barry once drew many voters from those neighborhoods, which is home to many city employees and retirees.
Analysts say Barry's best chance for victory comes from energizing voters east of the river while reaching deeply into the black middle-class that is mostly west of it. But he also must reckon with the flip side of the energy he generates -- those who loathe him, whoseimage of Barry is not rec centers and job programs but the videotape of the mayor lighting up a crack pipe.
"I think he's going to have a hard time," said former at-large council member Bill Lightfoot, who is chairman of Mendelson's reelection campaign. "The city has changed. The voters have changed."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company |
