Afternoon Read: Early Missteps Hurt Gray in Poll

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s low approval rating according to a Clarus Poll released this week was due to some missteps early in his term, he said on WTOP’s The Politics Program with Mark Plotkin Friday. 

"It probably relates to some of things that happened in earlier in the year, some of the missteps that occurred," he said. "Those are things for which I have taken responsibility. I think we have moved past those."

That’s how he described the Sulaimon Brown scandal. Gray continues to deny knowing anything about Brown’s allegations that Gray’s 2010 campaign paid Brown, then a minor mayoral candidate, and promised him a job in exchange for harassing incumbent Adrian Fenty on the campaign trail.

The mayor’s confident his numbers will rebound because of the “fiscal performance of this city.”

*Washington Examiner transportation reporter Kytja Weir noted that transit benefits for federal workers were forgotten in the payroll tax fight. The $230-per-month maximum drops to $125 in 2012. Congress isn’t likely to address that again before February, which means if the maximum is raised again, it likely won’t be before March. Federal employees use the benefit to help pay for commuting costs.

*The Fix announced its choice for who had the worst year in Washington in 2011: All of Congress.

"In 2011 Congress managed to underperform even the low regard in which the American people hold it," Chris Cillizza wrote.

It wasn't just that lawmakers didn't do much in 2011. It was that they didn't do much in a year in which the economy continued to struggle, the nation's collective anxiety soared and, for the first time in modern memory, our fiscal foundations seemed genuinely shaky.

*While the year winds down, Maryland lawmakers are gearing up for the next General Assembly session. In addition to studying up on the coming issues, lawmakers are getting their personal lives in order – medical appointments, family business – before the 90-day session,

The Gazette reported

.

Contact Us