School Vote Ends Predictably

Despite a huge build-up by local media outlets, the council easily passed Mayor Adrian Fenty’s schools-takeover legislation with little drama. A second, final, vote on the bill is slated for next month.

Only At-Large Councilmembers Phil Mendelson and Carol Schwartz voted against the measure.

Fenty’s strategy of pushing the schools bill in the first few months of his administration is paying off. Mayor Anthony A. Williams didn’t go for the school takeover until he had been in office five years—just enough time to piss off a critical number of council colleagues.

That school vote became a referendum on Williams, not on the schools-takeover plan. He lost.

Lucky for Fenty, he hasn’t been in office long enough to screw anything up. The last big thing councilmembers can remember about the mayor is a simple Election Day tally: Fenty 56 percent; Cropp 31 percent.