DC Wire is reporting that Councilmember Marion Barry received a few stitches after falling down in Anacostia Park.

Barry’s staff sent out a release. It reads in part:

“Mr. Barry received a deep gash over his bottom lip that required several stitches. Despite the minor accident Mr. Barry suffered no serious injuries and is in good spirits. According to Mr. Barry, doctors in the emergency room at Greater South East Hospital said he will have a full recovery and be back at work in a day or two.”

If this happened to a lesser man, we’d be reading about things like “hip replacement” and “major surgery.” But this is Barry. And Barry is indestructible. Well, almost.

No answers yet in the Wilson Building whodunit of the hour: Why was Grayce Wiggins fired?

Wiggins is the rent administrator axed in August, months after a pro-tenant ruling regarding the Kennedy-Warren building in Cleveland Park aroused the ire of local landlords, developers, and lawyers. Tenant advocates have cried foul play ever since the firing.

Yesterday, a joint hearing held by Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry and Ward 3 Councilmember Mary M. Cheh tried to pry out of city officials the circumstances behind Wiggins’ firing. It was tough prying, indeed.

Leila Edmonds, chief of the Department of Housing and Community Development, appeared before the committee, along with her deputy in charge of the Housing Regulation Administration, Anita Visser—Wiggins’ immediate supervisor. Also appearing was Phillip Lattimore, general counsel from the city’s Department of Human Resources.

Why send a lawyer from DHR? That became apparent as soon as questioning began: Lattimore was there to make sure Edmonds and Visser uttered nary a peep about Wiggins’ firing, lest they run afoul of District regulations on the disclosure of personnel records.

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We’re headed into the final weekend. So who will have the biggest war chest to blow in the next five days?

According to reports filed earlier this week, Ward 2 incumbent Jack Evans has better than $184,000 in the bank; challenger Cary Silverman has but $3,440. Unopposed at-larger Kwame Brown has $144,000 in the bank. Republican at-large foes Carol Schwartz and Patrick Mara continue to duel; Mara’s spent more thus far, but Schwartz has more in the bank going forward.

But the fattest kitty belongs to Ward 4’s Muriel Bowser, who has been downright thrifty in her expenditures thus far. She has $224,000 banked.

WARD 2

Jack Evans
In: $20,596 ($605,324 total); Out: $48,672 ($420,718 total); Debts/Loans: $0; Cash on Hand: $184,606

The Skinny: Evans breaks the $600,000 mark on a ward council race. He did it with help from law firms Arnold & Porter and Arent Fox (and the latter’s client, D.C. United), developers Forest City Enterprises, and Shaw race-baiter Leroy Thorpe ($200), among many others. In most parts of the country, the state party apparatus raises money to give to its candidates, but not here: Evans gave a hefty $10,000 donation to the D.C. Democratic State Committee. Much of the rest went to canvassers, consultants, and newspaper ads. (That controversial Current spot apparently cost $1,827.)

Cary Silverman
In: $12,591 ($48,360 total); Out: $13,553 ($44,995 total); Debts/Loans: $10,000; Cash on Hand: $3,440

The Skinny: Silverman’s put together a nice little haul, garnering 83 mostly low-dollar-amount donors since Aug. 10. Silverman has also loaned $5,000 to pump up the campaign’s bottom line. Most of the cash has gone to printing and to direct-mail firm Paul & Partners of Dulles, Va.

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DENVER—This morning, LL grabbed Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry outside the elevators here at the Crowne Plaza. He saw an opportunity for détente on his longstanding ban from the mayor-for-life.

Things started out auspiciously with Barry extending his hand to LL, but turns out Barry didn’t recognize him: “Who you with?” he asked. LL pressed Barry, arguing that perhaps outside of the District of Columbia, the ban might be relaxed.

“Nope,” he said. “Same rules.”

Not sure if this is old news but Congress Heights on the Rise just linked it. So we follow. The blog called The Barry Stops Here! appears to be–at this point–a warehouse of old Barry articles on his past drug abuse and a list of “Barryisms.” The blog also includes a “Why Now?” post:

“In the best of circumstances the mere mention of his name will illicit chuckles generally followed by a “that’s Marion Barry for you”. The only thing shocking about the life and times of Marion Barry is the life and times of Marion Barry. With every new scandal…every lack in ethical judgement he trumps the scandal before and tests the true faith of his few (but die hard) believers and attest to the ineffectiveness of his detractors.”

How about a blog devoted to the other councilmember across the river? She’s interesting and new. And there’s plenty of stuff worth documenting–the slow development around the Minnesota Avenue metro, the amazing empty space that will soon be filled up with new housing at the far end of East Cap, the persistence of the Shrimp Boat.

In shocking-but-not-surprising news (or is it surprising-but-not-shocking news? or is it neither?) upstart Patrick Mara has won the endorsement of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce PAC over incumbent Carol Schwartz in the Republican at-large primary, LL has learned.

And, in news that is definitely neither surprising nor shocking, incumbent Marion Barry won the endorsement in the Ward 8 Democratic primary, meaning Schwartz is the sole incumbent not to get the chamber nod.

Mara already won the endorsement of the city’s other main business group, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, and the chamber’s nod solidifies the notion that biz is out to get Schwartz due to her support of mandatory sick leave for District employees.

The sick leave maneuver wasn’t a total political disaster for Schwartz: She’s been rolling in the union endorsements ever since. The real proof of the fallout from the supposed biz-world abandonment will come Aug. 10, when the next round of campaign-finance disclosures are due.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

UPDATE, 3:30 P.M.: Kelvin Robinson, the former chief of staff to Mayor Anthony A. Williams who is now a consultant and chair of the chamber’s political action committee, wouldn’t get into specifics of what led to Mara getting the endorsement, except to say candidates are judged “how they best align with the views and the issues the business community cares about” and “their fresh perspective on the issues of the day.”

As far as what those issues are, Robinson cited “level of taxation…and what can we do to stem the tide of excessive regulation that can stymie economic progress in the city,” in addition to general concerns about crime and education.

Mara cited the chamber and Board of Trade nods as further proof of his “real Republican” bona fides, pointing out, “She’s endorsed by SEIU and the AFL-CIO. That just kind of says how we stand on these issues….That certainly says something to Republican voters.”

Mara says he’s continuing to raise money, with two fundraisers already under his belt this week, with two more scheduled before the filing deadline.

An IHOP opened in Congress Heights three days ago. Normally, this would not qualify as big news. The International House of Pancakes isn’t exactly a place of culinary wonder; its slogans are either corny (”An American Icon”) or sad (”This is My IHOP”). The sorriest thing in the world isn’t John McCain’s new ad featuring Britney or Fox’s morning show. It’s this video of a marriage ceremony performed at an IHOP. IHOP is no Original House of Pancakes (the best breakfast place of all time).

Still. The pancake/crepe/T-bone joint is the first major sitdown to open up in Ward 8 since forever. Or long before Barry used the ward’s council seat as his retirement fund. Zing! So Ward 8 finally enters the world of food–huge, huge portions, low, low price–made for old people and drunks.

The CW is that IHOP is a greasy spoon made somewhat depressing by the embarrassingly-named deals, super-sweet concoctions (it’s latest being an apple-cobbler-themed pancake special), and the fact that you must be hammered to consume such products. The food seems created by incredibly stoned evangelicals: wholesome turned vaguely unwholesome.

These are food stuffs mainly inhaled during the hours of 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. It’s dark outside and lonely inside. You only go to IHOP when you’ve struck out for the night. You aren’t getting laid. Fuck it, you go to IHOP, your drunken stupor made correct with eggs, sausage, bacon, three buttermilk pancakes, and bottomless coffee.

That was the Old IHOP.

The New IHOP is located on Alabama Avenue SE just inside the Camp Simms Giant parking lot. The New IHOP is bright, warm, inviting, clean, and boasts 37 cheery employees for every customer. The New IHOP has Karen: The Most Dedicated Waitress Ever.

Karen was our server.

When Karen approached our table, she glowed. This was her second night, she told us. Thank you sitting in her section, she told us. She is very excited, she told us.

My source I was eating with offered a nervous smile to all her replies. After she gave us our bottomless sodas and iced-Ts, she smiled some more. You guys ready, she asked.

My source wanted to know why she was so excited.

“I’m alive,” Karen said and then took in a deep breath proving she was alive.

OK.

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From the folks that brought you The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Holidays, The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Dating and Sex, and a wide variety of other books that probably were sold at Urban Outfitters comes The Worst-Case Scenario Almanac of Politics.

The book is not strictly focused on current American politics. No Louis XVI and Jefferson Davis also get proper thrashings. But, D.C. gets plenty of representation in the book’s 260 pages.

I flipped to the index already expecting to see one local name, and I was not disappointed. Read the rest of this entry »

For your afternoon viewing enjoyment, LL gives you Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry and Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh getting down to “Let’s Get It On.” (Yes, Marion Barry would be the one wearing the Marion Barry T-shirt.)

And here’s Barry dancing with at-large colleague and former mayoral foe Carol Schwartz to “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” Behind them, Cheh cuts a rug/lawn with council chair and legendary hand-dancer Vincent C. Gray.

The occasion, you might be wondering, was a picnic—complete with live band!—for councilmembers and their staffs held Saturday at Gray’s Hillcrest home. LL crashed the party; more to come in this week’s column.

Sources tell LL that more than a dozen people were laid off last week from the Washington offices of MacFarlane Partners, the development company owned by San Francisco real-estate magnate Victor MacFarlane. MacFarlane also owns the D.C. United soccer squad and has been pushing a soccer stadium at Poplar Point in Anacostia since buying the team in early 2007.

The most telling casualty is Linda Mercado Greene, the former top aide to Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry who became MacFarlane’s VP for public affairs and community relations in the summer of 2006. Greene was a crucial connection in securing Barry’s support for the Poplar Point soccer stadium and convincing other leaders in Ward 8 to follow.

According to LL’s sources, the only executive remaining in D.C. for MacFarlane will be Dana Bryson, once a top aide to former city administrator Robert Bobb.

The downsizing comes at a crucial time, with three crucial elected officials—Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, and finance committee chair Jack Evans—all reticent to support the $225 million in public financing that MacFarlane has reportedly been seeking. Only Barry has been pushing hard to get a deal done, and with Greene out, it’s likely that will no longer be the case.

Meanwhile, investors and politicos in Maryland have been attempting to lure MacFarlane out of the District to sites in Howard and Prince George’s Counties.

It is unclear whether the layoffs were immediate; Greene’s assistant answered the phone at the company’s regional office on Connecticut Avenue this morning. Greene and other MacFarlane representatives have not returned repeated phone calls for comment.

UPDATE, 4:20 P.M.: MacFarlane spokesperson Julie Chase says Greene hasn’t been laid off, but rather that “her role has been moved.” The move in general, Chase says, isn’t a downsizing, but a “restructuring.” More to come.

UPDATE, 7:53 P.M.: The positions being cut, 14 of them, were not in the D.C. office only, Chase says, but also included the New York and San Francisco offices. As for Greene, she says, MacFarlane “no longer has a need for the role that Linda Greene was filling in D.C.,” which included responsibility for securing support for the soccer stadium. But Chase says that Greene has been offered a position with D.C. United itself “that would allow her to continue to focus on the team’s stadium in DC and Prince George’s County.”

Tomorrow, Ward 8 Councilmember and Mayor-for-Life Marion Barry will be holding his campaign kickoff at the Temple of Praise Church, at 700 Southern Ave. SE. The event is scheduled for 1 p.m. until 4 p.m., which is a pretty hefty window.

It also raises the question, when will the famously unpunctual politico actually show up to his own event?

So LL puts it to you, dear readers: Guess which time Marion Barry actually shows up in the comments (please leave a genuine e-mail address). LL will be there and will note the first moment the guest of honor is seen on the premises. Closest will be mailed the grand prize—a watercolor-it-yourself portrait of the man:

Last night, the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club—the city’s leading gay-and-lesbian political organ—wrapped up their endorsements for this year’s Democratic primaries, with picks for Ward 4, Ward 7, and at-large D.C. council seats. (Read LL’s rundown of what happened last month, when the club endorsed in Wards 2 and 7 and for the congressional delegation.)

Unsurprisingly, each incumbent—Ward 4’s Muriel Bowser, Ward 8’s Marion Barry, and At-Large Councilmember Kwame R. Brown—won endorsements handily.

But LL goes to these things for reasons other that merely recording the outcomes. He speaks of the lively debate, the friendly company, and the distinct possibility that Rick Rosendall might freak the fuck out.

Which he did. The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance’s VP for political affairs did so while questioning Bowser about her vote last year against a council action to relocate the gay clubs dislocated by the construction of Nationals Park. Even though the measure had been heavily diluted by amendments, Bowser voted against it anyway. Asked why she did so, Bowser gave a classic cop-out line: I was just following the will of the councilmember in the affected ward (Ward 5’s Harry Thomas Jr.).

Bowser also claimed that the bill would limit neighborhood input, and Rosendall wasn’t having any of that. “That’s not true, Muriel!” he shouted. “You’re mischaracterizing it!”

As club president Mario Acosta-Velez tried in vain to keep order, Rosendall kept on, his voice quickly rising to freak-out levels. “They did have a voice! They do have a voice!…You know what the bill said!”

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LL was hanging out outside the office a few minutes ago when another City Paper employee passed and said, “Marion Barry blocked me in.”

Indeed, Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry is currently appearing on WPFW-FM, with whom we share our Adams Morgan building, speaking about his personal health issues and issues in the African-American community on the Heal DC program.

Behold his champagne Mercedes E320, complete with Ward 8 councilmember plates, on the City Paper’s cramped parking deck:

After the employee went down to the radio offices to complain, an aide came out to move the car into a proper space.

Oh, and here’s a tidbit from the interview: “I don’t ever want to be mayor again. I don’t even want to hear that word,” he said. “I just want to be mayor-for-life.”

UPDATE, 1:45 P.M.: Here’s some detail from the rear bumper, which shows some damage, which may or may not be related to the whole bus run-in thing.

Campaign finance reports were due Tuesday. LL’s spent the last couple of days poring over them to give City Desk readers the inside dirt not found in certain daily newspapers. It’s grueling work, so LL will be sussing out the various races piecemeal today and tomorrow. First up, Ward 8:

• Marion Barry: Unsurprisingly, the mayor-for-life has been raking it in with a shovel—a snow shovel. On the contributions side, the donor list is a veritable who’s-who of the city power elite. LL feels the best course of action is just to start listing names (unless noted, all donations are the $500 max):

  Former/Current Public Officials: Former Ward 3 Councilmember Jim Nathanson, Former Ward 7 Councilmember H.R. Crawford (plus a max donation from his Crawford-Edgewood Management Co.), Shadow Sen. Paul Strauss (plus max donations from wife Katherine and the Law Offices of Paul Strauss), Law Offices of (former at-large councilmember) Harold Brazil ($350), former Ward 1 Councilmember Frank Smith, former Ward 7 Councilmember Kevin Chavous, Acting UDC President Stanley Jackson ($200), former Democratic State Committee chair A. Scott Bolden (plus $500 from his law firm, Reed Smith), Sports and Entertainment Commission vice chair Bill Hall (plus wife Melissa), Taxicab Commission chair Leon Swain ($200), and—wait for it—former Mayor Anthony A. Williams

  Biz Types: Developers John Akridge, Jair Lynch, Herb Miller, and PN Hoffman, Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (plus their top lobbyist, Andrew J. Kline), Sam Wang Produce (which is hoping to redevelop the Florida Avenue Marker in Ward 5), lobbyists David Wilmot and Max Brown, Tina Ang (lobbyist John Ray’s right-hand woman; their firm, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, also kicked in), and Paramount Title & Escrow, the outfit run by Fenty money man Ben Soto, plus various lawyers and construction interests galore

  The Soccer Lobby: D.C. United, MacFarlane Partners spokesperson Julie Chase, United prez Kevin Payne, and MacFarlane lobbyist Craig Engle

  Charter School Advocates: Public Charter School Board chair Tom Nida, Friends of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS) Executive Director Robert Cane ($100), FOCUS Deputy Director Ariana Quinones-Miranda ($200), Building Hope prez Joe Bruno ($400), Building Hope VP Kathleen Padian ($100)

  Others: Mega health insurer CareFirst’s political action committee (why this is important), MedStar EVP Michael Rogers, former Barry chiefs of staff E. Faye Williams ($100) and Keith Andrew Perry ($100), and get this: Alice Rivlin, the former control board chair who spent years trying to undo Barry’s fiscal mismanagement. The current Brookings Institution fellow gave $500.

  As far as the expenditures go, two in particular stand out: $5,000 to Barry’s son, Christopher Barry, to serve as a consultant; and $4,000 given to this year’s Martin Luther King Day Parade in Anacostia for “advertising.”

  One thing’s for sure: Barry will have the best-advised campaign in Ward 8. For a campaign just announced a couple of weeks ago, he’s got a lot of well-paid folks around to help him out. Hakim Sutton, who was involved in failed campaigns to elect Kathy Patterson council chair and Michael A. Brown Ward 4 councilmember, alone has received nearly $21,000 since late March. In all, 10 different folks have been listed as “consultants,” hauling a total of $40,000. Also notable: a $2,400 phone bill and a $10,000 printing bill.

  The Totals: In: $108,545; Out: $74,922.51; Cash on Hand: $33,622.49; Debts: $0

• Darrell Gaston: Young Garfield Heights activist Gaston hasn’t exactly set his neighborhood afire just yet. Of the $941 he’s raised, $433 has come from Ward 8. All of that, incidentally, is listed as coming from the same address Gaston gives as his own. Besides $3 and $5 cash donations, Gaston himself has pumped $300 into the race. All of Gaston’s expenditures to date have been on campaign materials.

  The Totals: In: $941; Out: $795; Cash on Hand: $146; Debts: $0

• Sandra “S.S.” Seegars: The longtime Congress Heights rabble-rouser seems to have benefited from Barry’s support of a single-beer-sales ban: She’s piled up more than 20 big checks from liquor stores and groceries throughout the ward. Only one $200 check doesn’t come from a beer-dealing business or Seegars herself (she pumped in $2,000). She’s spent a pittance so far on printing and advertising, giving her the biggest challenger war chest in Ward 8.

  The Totals: In: $7,500; Out: $629.57; Cash on Hand: $6,870.43; Debts: $0

• Yavocka Young: Young, executive director of Main Streets Anacostia, raised LL’s hopes that her run might attract the support of forward-looking development types. That doesn’t seem to have happened yet. Young’s garnered mostly small neighborhood donations, most of which have been spent on trips to Staples and Kinkos.

  The Totals: In: $1,563; Out: $984; Cash on Hand: $579; Debts: $0

• Did Not Report: Ahmad Braxton-Jones, Howard Brown, Chanda McMahan, Cardell Shelton, Charles E. Wilson

As longtime readers know, the Loose Lips column has always been obsessed with candidate literature, but this campaign season, LL has seen little to truly light his passion for the subject. That is, until recently, when in LL’s found some bold, colorful, and often inscrutable items in his e-mail inbox from Ward 8 council candidate Sandra “S.S.” Seegars. LL is going to go ahead and declare these, three months ahead of the primary election, the campaign materials of the year.

Here’s a card sent out by Seegars about a week ago:

Seegars must have a lot of faith in her name-recognition efforts over the years: Her actual name, as it will appear on the ballot, appears nowhere on her materials, only her “S.S.” sobriquet. The pièce de résistance, however, accompanied this message from Seegars earlier this week:

Greetings,

Summer is upon us. Try to stay cool.

June 2008 calendar attached.

S.S.

Ah, a handy calendar of campaign events? Nope:

Seegars did not immediately return a phone call about the symbolic meaning of the floating eye and all those feathers. Here’s a possible campaign slogan: “S.S. gives you wings!”

UPDATE, 5:46 P.M.: S.S. speaks! The design was all done by the candidate herself, and had somewhat somber roots. The angelic theme, she says, is “related to death, and we’ve lost so many people over here in Ward 8.” The theme hit home last week, she says, when a campaign volunteer was killed in a motorcycle accident.

As for the name issue, Seegars says the S.S.-only branding is by choice—”it’s easier to remember”—though it has backfired in the past, such as when she ran last time around. “People asked me, did you get married? I thought you were [former Ward 8 Councilmember] Sandy Allen. The candidate’s name will appear on the ballot as “Sandra ‘S.S.’ Seegars.”