The D.C. Office of Campaign Finance may fine organizers of last fall’s Adrian Fenty write-in campaign for improperly using Fenty’s primary campaign materials in their own effort.
The Washington Post reports former Fenty ward coordinator Joshua Lopez “and other leaders of the Save DC Now committee used unused campaign signs, leaflets and stickers to try to get voters to write in Fenty.”
But D.C. Watch’s Dorothy Brizill and a lawyer for Vincent Gray’s campaign filed a complaint, alleging “that campaign finance laws forbid a political community from using materials paid for by another.” The OCF told them to stop, but later found that the order was ignored and the materials were being distributed on Election Day.
Lopez, who is now running an energetic campaign for the vacant At-Large D.C. Council seat, “called the $18,500 fine ‘historic and unconscionable.’” He later called the Post story itself a “press hit” and said “the timing of this brings up even more questions.”
In other special election news, Alan Page, one of Lopez’s rivals in the April 26 special election, is the first candidate up with a website detailing his positions. The campaign to draft Bryan Weaver to run in the special election reports raising about $1,000 in less than two weeks. Tom Brown, founder of the nonprofit group Training Grounds, may get in the race. And candidate Wayne Dickson tells Borderstan that “he has 15 people out collecting petitions; you need 3,000 valid voter signatures to get on the ballot.”
Elsewhere in the DMV:
* In his Post column, Robert McCartney says “for all those critics who say he’s too deliberative and collaborative to get anything done,” Mayor Vincent Gray “has a one-word rebuttal: ‘intentionality.’” Gray told McCartney that intentionality means “by design. … When I say intentionality, I want to do these things, and your job is to make sure they happen.” McCartney writes that Gray “allayed some of my concerns about his transition and debut since taking office Jan. 2. Like some others, I thought he was off to a slow start.” Gray struck McCartney “as someone who moves deliberately, yes, but has a clear sense of where he’s going and how he wants to get there.”
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
* Gray is making an effort to win over Ward 3, which he lost by a four-to-one margin in last September’s D.C. Democratic primary. The Washington Examiner reports Gray spent two evenings last week in the ward.
* Gray “is open to removing city-imposed student and employee population caps at D.C. universities, a policy change which could have sweeping implications for Georgetown and other neighborhoods,” the Georgetown Dish reports. Some community leaders “say removing the caps would harm surrounding neighborhoods and would have a negative economic impact on the District.”
* This from D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown on Twitter: “It is time we stop excepting schools systems that Gail our children.” I hate it when schools rename my children. (Brown later corrected the tweet.)
* The Post reports D.C. Councilmember Michael Brown “paid his outstanding District property tax bill in full Friday, settling a debt that had been building for 18 months,” according to a spokesperson -- just hours after the Post reported that Brown and his wife owed the city more than $14,000.
* The Advocate calls D.C. the “eighth-gayest city in America,” topping San Francisco, but trailing… Pittsburgh? “In the past few years, D.C. has been loosening its tie and doffing the boring blue blazer,” the magazine says. But DCist says “how they got to naming the gayest cities in America is a little interesting,” and that “their metrics are not scientific.”
* Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell says he will attend the inauguration of Maryland peer Martin O’Malley on Wednesday. The Post notes that McDonnell “was invited, but did not attend,” Gray’s inauguration in D.C. this month -- even though D.C. is closer to McDonnell’s house than Annapolis. WBAL reports O’Malley’s inaugural festivities will be “scaled back due to the economy, and the fact that this is the start of a second term.”
* Red Maryland’s Mark Newgent argues that “one simple solution” to the state’s budget deficit “is cutting and capping K-12 education spending. However, special interests like the state’s powerful teachers union have made that portion of the budget sacrosanct.”
* The Baltimore Sun reports that “less than a week after WBAL Radio said Kendel Ehrlich was leaving the station to spend more time at her kids’ sporting events, she and former Gov. Bob Ehrlich were said to be shopping their radio show around. Maybe the Ehrlichs found life on the sidelines wasn’t what it was cracked up to be.”
* The Manassas News and Messenger reports Virginia Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter “has introduced legislation that would require police to check the immigration status of anyone arrested. The legislation would essentially extend Prince William’s illegal immigration enforcement policy to all Virginia.”
* The Post reports attorney Marc Greidinger, a Democrat, entered the race for Fairfax County Board of Supervisors last week, but first, he invited over “his neighbor and soon-to-be rival,” Republican Supervisor John Cook, to tell him the news “over some very good beer.”
Follow P.J. Orvetti on Twitter at @PJOinDC
