Where did Mayor Williams stand on the issue of go-go? "No one would be surprised that I'd ask, 'What's go-go?'" Hizzoner replied.

Oh, how far we've come. For all its shortcomings, the Fenty Administration at least knows what go-go is.

Go-go vets Sugar Bear and Junkyard Band are endorsing Fenty at a press conference Sunday at the Old Congress Heights School, according to a media advisory (pictured).

No word yet as to which candidate Chuck Brown is endorsing.

City Desk was scheduled to meet up with D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray for an interview Tuesday afternoon. The venue? The Thomas Sweet ice cream parlor in Georgetown, a place the chairman's mayoral campaign picked. In the process, City Desk–with photographer Darrow Montgomery in tow–may have ruined an ice cream outing for President Obama's daughters, Malia and Sasha, who are said to have a soft spot for Thomas Sweet's sweets.

Sorry, but City Desk did not have any advance knowledge of a White House ice cream outing. We promise!

As City Desk was waiting for Chairman Gray to arrive at Thomas Sweet, security agents with ear pieces came in to check out who was hanging around. Clearly they were trying to be low key. Was it Mayor Adrian Fenty's security detail? Nah. Staffers told City Desk later that the casually dressed guys with buzzcuts and earpiece wires were indeed the Secret Service's advance team.

With Montgomery's cameras out on the table, ready to shoot some new photos of the D.C. Council chairman, City Desk surmises that the Secret Service assumed we were there waiting to capture a priceless ice cream moment involving the first family. Not the case! After a few minutes of procuring some ice cream, the entourage disappeared. Whoever was eating the ice cream would not be doing it inside Thomas Sweet's air conditioned bliss.

After City Desk told the Thomas Sweet crew we were there to interview the D.C. Council chairman, the one Secret Service guy lingering around left as well.

Gray was running late. But he had a very good reason: Earlier in the day, there was an attempted burglary at the chairman's Hillcrest residence across town. We're waiting on an official statement from the campaign on the attempted break-in, but Gray told City Desk that the would-be crooks weren't able to gain access to his home. Police are investigating.

"They probably heard the alarm and I guess they took off. ... They never got in," Gray told us. "I don't know who did this this, but I don't put aside any possibility to tell you the truth."

Maybe it's time to build a big fence around the chairman's home? Oh wait ...

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

"The caller advised Officer Edelen that a guy named Demitrius Eccles was selling crack cocaine in the 6200 and 6300 block of Georgia Ave. NW and advised officer Edelen of Mr. Eccles cell phone number."

Armed with info from the mysterious tipster (a Vincent Gray supporter, maybe?), the officer had an undercover cop call Eccles on his cell and set up a buy.

Sometime later, the undercover officer and Eccles met beside a car wash in the 6300 block of Georgia Avenue NW.  Eccles allegedly sold the cop two pieces of crack for $45. The hand-off thus completed, Eccles walked away. Cops moved in to arrest him. Spotting the advancing threat, Eccles ran for it, court papers show. Cops pursued and had almost cornered him when a wily Eccles ducked behind a fence. He was eventually spotted, however, and took off running again–this time cops grabbed him.

Eccles has a criminal record that includes a 2005 conviction for assault with a dangerous weapon.

According to NBC Washington, Helen Hare, campaign spokeswoman for Mayor Adrian Fenty, was none too happy about the idea of Fenty campaign workers selling drugs and dodging police: "The Fenty campaign does not condone this alleged behavior. Our canvassers are constantly supervised. Mr. Eccles was not working at the time of his arrest and is no longer on the campaign."

It's a story the young and nervy Weaver likes to tell as proof that the incumbent is a "dinosaur" who still plays old-style politics. Weaver most recently told a version of the story at the D.C. Democratic State Convention: In 2006, Graham investigated the questionable dealings of a particular developer, Perseus Realty, only to accept campaign donations from the very same developer years later. Graham also acquired a 20-year tax abatement for the company, Weaver says.

That particular narrative could frustrate Graham, who's still seeking to get out from beneath the shadow cast over his office by the arrest of his former chief of staff, Ted Loza, on bribery charges. But the incumbent councilmember isn't shrinking from the insinuation.

"There ain't no corruption in me," Graham tells City Desk. "I'm very sorry about what happened to one of my staff members, but I don't do that stuff."

Graham says Weaver's version of what happened between him and Perseus Realty is all mixed up. He's the hero of the story, not the bad guy: "I'm not the villain, nor was I associating with the villains," Graham claims.

In a February article, the Washington Business Journal attributed Graham's success at campaign fund-raising to two things: His cozy relationship with powerful developers and the ability of corporations to side-step the District's $500 political contribution cap:

"The good news for Graham and other city politicos, is that LLCs – limited liability corporations – each have their own contribution limits. So what do some developers do? Contribute the max for each one of their companies."

Though donating at $500 a pop won't amount to millions, it doesn't take a lot of green to have an impact on cash-strapped local races.

2010 fund-raising records appears to show Perseus Realty, responsible for various projects around the District, as one of the companies willing to ante up. City Desk came across contributions to Graham from Perseus Realty Investments, LLC; Perseus Stillman, LLC; Perseus Realty, LLC; 1110 Vermont Renaissance Assoc,VII/SCH-Perseus M Street; LLC and 14W Member, LLC. All have names that appear to be related to either Perseus Realty or a Perseus Realty project. Each LLC gave the maximum contribution of 500 bucks, save VII/SCH-Perseus M Street, LLC, which contributed only $250.

Perhaps Perseus has good feelings toward Graham because of the 14th and W project, a $97 million mixed-use Perseus development that Graham backed and which he readily acknowledges began a "new acquaintanceship" between the politician and the company.

Some five years ago, the acquaintanceship between Graham and Perseus was close to that of the hunter and the hunted. Back then, Graham was handing out subpoenas to Perseus leadership and employees. "Nobody hit them harder than I did," Graham says of that time. Graham was then chair of the Committee on Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, which oversees the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA). DCRA, in turn, regulates District housing.

Graham was after the company because he suspected them of strong-arming renters and misusing a district law, one the City Paper wrote a cover story about in 2006. The law –501(f)–allows landlords who need to make major repairs to an occupied building to vacate the building of tenants while the repairs are made. Though such evacuations are supposed to be temporary, most tenants opt to move on rather than wait the length of time it would take for the landlord to invite them back. After that, the owners are free to develop or sell the property sans pesky tenant rights.

“It’s a sham process,” Jim McGrath of the DC Tenants Advocacy Coalition then told City Paper. “There’s nothing more permanent than temporary removal.”

That's perhaps how it might have gone for Perseus at 1846 Vernon Street NW in 2005: But the tenants of the building wanted to stay and fought the so-called temporary removal. That's when Perseus, a co-owner of the building, allegedly got rough.

According to a final report issued as a result of Graham's investigative hearing on the matter, bad stuff started happening to the tenants in fall of 2006:

In October and November 2006, the tenants of 1846 Vernon Street, NW stated to the Committee that since September 2006, they had observed an increasing number of incidents of violence seemingly directed against tenants and/or the building.  On October 16, 2006, vandals smashed glass panels on the doors of several apartments, and, the Committee was told, selectively cut electrical cables so that only occupied units were affected.

The report reveals that in that same year, tenant Latif Sarkar, who lived Apartment 23, "reported having received threats within the building from strangers, who told him to move out within 48 hours or else." The report also offers an account of the most dramatic moment in the battle, a late night arson:

Even more seriously, on November 5, 2006 between 10:00 and 10:30 p.m., a fire broke out at 1846 Vernon Street, NW.  Chairperson Graham and Committee staffers inspected the premises the next morning and discussed the incident with tenants, who reported the following. Three tenants of unit #28, Mahmuduel Hoque, Nasimuel Hoque and Rabia Begum, stated they were watching television with relatives when they heard two loud bangs in rapid succession, the second of which was far louder and shook their apartment "like an earthquake," according to Ms. Begum.

The bangs turned out to have a source, a blaze outside their apartment.

No one was severely injured in the fire. But tenants nevertheless slowly gave up and left.  Probably because they felt their lives were in danger. According to the report:

A fire investigator from the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department stated that the remnants of an exploded gas can was found in front of #28, and indicated his belief that the cause of the fire was arson. Tenants generally were of the opinion that whoever set the fire did so at the direction of the owner and/or the management company.

Though the arson prompted no criminal case against Perseus, Graham says he went after them "hammer and tong" and would have kept going except for having switched committees. He says Councilmember Marion Barry then took over the Committee for Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. When that happened, the investigation screeched to a halt. Graham says he asked Barry to continue pursuing Perseus, but got no response from the Ward 8 councilmember.

In any event, when the YMCA selected Perseus for the 14th and W Project, Graham put all that business behind him. Graham says that when the YMCA told him about its decision, it brought up the bad blood: "We know you've had some bad experiences with Perseus," Graham recalls YMCA officials saying. The organization explained that there was little chance for the kind of trouble that emerged on Vernon Street as there were no tenants to evict as far as their project went, Graham says.

Asking Graham about the Perseus campaign contributions seems to elicit an answer that's tantamount to "Hey, that's politics."

"Am I happy with this? No," Graham tells City Desk. "Am I a pragmatist? I have to be." Graham says he would prefer it if corporations weren't allowed to donate. Still, City Desk notices from recent records that Graham  hasn't sent back any of the money.

Weaver, meanwhile, considers Perseus too tainted to deal with.  He says an associate recently offered to introduce him to someone from the development firm. Weaver says he didn't mind the intro as long as it was understood that he would never take money from the company. Weaver says Graham losing the committee that was investigating Perseus was no excuse for no longer fighting the company. "He didn't lose the Ward," says Weaver. Weaver asserts that Graham lost interest in pursuing Perseus when the media stopped paying attention. "While the Washington Post and everyone was focused on it, he was great," says Weaver.

What happened on Vernon, Weaver says, was extremely upsetting. "It was almost old-school gangster," he says.

Graham shoots back that Weaver is just electioneering: "For Bryan, this is just simply trying to get some votes."

Photo by dbking/Creative Commons Attribution License

This week was a sign of our times
And needs something more than mere rhymes
So check out these shots
Of folks tying knots
Imagine those wedding bell chimes...

If I played it cool, I'd be lying
I'm stoked that this rumor is flying
Colicchio speaks:
They film in mere weeks
Is D.C. the place where they're frying?

St. Patrick, I'm sure, would be proud
That briefly these things are allowed
To all D.C. fogies
Select your best stogies
And smoke with a nice Irish crowd

For walkers, this week was bad luck
While crossing the street, two were struck
Sure, fate is capricious
But why not delicious?
Heck yes, I'd get hit by this truck

It sure seems that Metro's bemoaning
The change that had riders all groaning
With kiosks outmoded
Make fares auto-loaded
Not yet, though, 'cause Catoe's postponing

I'm sad to see Cephas depart
For with him, that man takes my heart
He's clearly an ass
But lovably crass
In my book, bad taste is an art

When casting your vote in the booth
Just think of Graham's bowtie (so couth!)
Whatever you ponder
Don't let your mind wander
To thoughts of cabs, bribes, or that youth

As poet, I feel obligated
To highlight things classic (or dated?)
And yet, here's my screed:
Screw biking in tweed
That whole thing seemed way overrated...

It wasn't much, really, the first candidates' face-off of the 2010 election cycle. But LL's still excited to have a campaign to cover.

The two declared Democratic at-large D.C. Council candidates, incumbent Phil Mendelson and challenger Clark Ray, took turns answering questions for a little more than an hour last night in the basement of a Southwest apartment building. They did so in front of about a dozen members of the New Capitol Park Towers Tenant Association.

Given the early date and the small crowd, LL hesitates to read too much into this candidate pairing. But there's a few points to be made here:

• No surprise on Mendo's talking points: He held himself out as a "fierce watchdog" who is devoted to "accountability and transparency" with a "record of being independent." He also went out of his way on a couple of occasions to note his clashes with Attorney General Peter Nickles.
• If you're wondering how Ray is going to handle the fact he was fired as parks and recreation director, he just isn't. In his opening statement, he went into a long description of his career. He mentioned his service at DPR and simply said, 'I have left that post.'
• Expect to hear a lot about Ray's service as a reserve police officer, though—how he knows what it's like to "walk a beat with the men and women in blue." He brought it up on at least three occasions, any time a public safety issue was broached. He's also find of touting his executive experience—his "time in the director's chair."
• Ray did drop a juicy nugget from his DPR days: When asked about budgeting, Ray mentioned that the city lost revenue when he was asked to waive permit fees as director by folks "on both the executive and legislative sides." Asked after the meeting for details, Ray declined to name names. (Unfortunately, a no-exceptions approach to fee collections seemed to be the whole of his budget-gap-closing strategy.)
• You could tell Mendo was trying to keep his wonk thing in check—keeping his opening statement short and sharp, for instance—but it didn't always work. When asked a question on Metro security, he of course had to preface the answer with a disclaimer about how the Council doesn't control Metro before arguing that Metro needs to look at a "broken windows" approach to policing the system. Then again, his command of debt service statistics and rent control laws can be impressive.
• Both were asked if they'd support a higher top-bracket income tax rate (as proposed by Jim Graham and the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute). Mendo said yes; Ray said he was "not prepared today to say." Both gave weaselly answers on whether employee furloughs are a good idea.
• Neither candidate seemed to be particularly strong when responding to a juvenile justice question. Ray couldn't immediately remember the name of the District's juvenile facility, leaving Mendelson to prompt him: "New Beginnings." Then Mendo rambled about how research indicates this-and-that before noting that he's trying to do something about the veil of confidentiality over the entire system.
• Both candidates brought entourages: Mendelson had three members of his council staff in tow; Ray was accompanied by activist Laurie Collins.

In the end, this was a Mendo crowd—his mastery of their housing concerns (the building is entangled in a landlord-tenant battle) certainly helped his cause, and he got the only applause line of the night when he mentioned that he voted against financing a baseball stadium. The two issues where Ray is trying to distinguish himself from Mendelson—school reform and crimefighting strategy—never really came up in the questioning, and he didn't do much to turn the questions that were asked toward those topics. But Ray is a personable guy who's going to have a hell of a lot more of these candidate forums to polish his presentation.

He also discussed Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's performance. Or not really:

Thanks to our friends at WRC-TV for the video.

Mayor

• Incumbent Adrian M. Fenty—Duh. Dude's got at least $2 million in the bank.
• Sulaimon Brown—D.C. Wire had the scoop on this 38-year-old former Fenty volunteer's challenge. He established his committee on May 5. His Web site fronts a pic with him and Barack Obama where Barack Obama does not seem to be acknowledging his existence.
• Faith, the exotic dancer turned trumpet-tooting, horse-riding perennial candidate, filed her papers on May 1.

Ward 3

• Incumbent Mary Cheh, as of May 15, is officially running for re-election.

Ward 6

• Incumbent Tommy Wells is in. He filed his papers on June 11.

At-Large Council

• Democrat-turned-independent Anthony Motley, who in March said he wanted to "explore the possibilities" of running, is in for real as of June 3. LL ran into the erstwhile minister and Marion Barry confidante at Monday's meeting of the Missionary Baptist Ministers Conference, where he was handing out fliers for his campaign kickoff—to be held a week from Saturday at Tony's Gym and Fitness Club in Ward 8. His Web site has details on that event, and his new slogan: "Lets Make It Happen!" We'll be making it happen without apostrophes, apparently.

  Also of note: Because Motley had to leave the Democratic party, he had to resign his elected seat to the Democratic state committee. On Saturday, the Ward 8 Democrats will be electing a replacement. The candidates are Darrell Gaston and Charles Wilson, both of whom ran against Barry for Ward 8 councilmember last year, plus Ward 8 Business Council President James Bunn and advisory neighborhood commissioner and Bluetooth-earpiece aficionado Anthony Muhammad. Motley says he's endorsing Muhammad.

Those of you searching for a candidate chomping at the bit to take on Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and his $2 million-plus war chest, look out: An honest-to-God 2010 mayoral challenger has made his first nibble.

Well, his dad has, anyway.

Marshall Brown, the longtime political organizer and father of At-Large Councilmember Kwame R. Brown, sent out an e-mail on Sunday night soliciting support for a mayoral draft campaign aimed at his son.

"Would you lend your name to the Kwame Brown for Mayor Draft Committee," the short e-mail asks, telling recipients to "send this to your email list." Two sources consulted by LL also report getting calls from Marshall Brown inquiring whether they might lend support to a Kwame-for-Mayor campaign.

Marshall Brown, reached today, said he was merely passing on the message as a favor to someone he identified as Reggie Robinson.

LL reached Robinson this afternoon; he said he's part of "a bunch of people" who would support a Kwame Brown run: "I mean, we just began to talk about it, that's all." Marshall Brown, he says, sent out some e-mails, and "I sent mine to different other people."

Robinson, a 69-year-old retiree from the D.C. Department of Employment Services, says he's been a friend of Marshall Brown for about 40 years and has known Kwame Brown "since he was a youngster." He's supporting a mayoral run for the younger Brown because, he says, "I think he's qualified for the job."

As for the current mayor, he says, "I'm just totally dissatisfied with him, period—his attitude, everything about him."

Told about the messages his father had sent out, Kwame Brown seemed incredulous. "What?" he exclaimed. "You don't have no e-mail that says that!"

LL informed Brown that he indeed did: "No, it's impossible!"

Brown said he knows "three or four Reggie Robinsons," and thus had no idea who might have been responsible for the creation of the pitch.

LL expressed to him some incredulity that his dad would send out such a message without his knowledge. "I haven't spoken to my dad in about two weeks," he says. "I'm just as shocked as you were if you got an e-mail like that."

Pressed on his electoral intentions, he said, "I have no interest as I've mentioned a hundred time. I dunno how many times I've said it....I'm flattered that people think I've done good work, but right now, I'm concentrated on being an at-large councilmember and a father and that's it."

LL pressed him for an absolute no-2010-run pledge. He didn't get one. "At this moment, I'm not running for mayor," he says. "I'm continuing to focus on education, getting job training for people, and being a great at-large councilmember for the District of Columbia."

Marshall Brown, as it happens, took virtually no visible role in his son's take-no-prisoners re-election campaign last year. The elder Brown, however, has deep city political ties that served his son well in his insurgent run against Harold Brazil in 2004. Less successful was his stint as Linda Cropp's field organizer in 2006. Most recently, he was paid handsomely for running Shadow Sen. Paul Strauss re-election campaign last year.

As for his dad's antics, Kwame Brown says, "Fathers always have aspirations, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything."

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

A draft committee that was possibly the worst-kept secret in local politics in recent weeks has revealed itself today, in a press release and Web site urging Clark E. Ray, recently fired Department of Parks and Recreation director, to run for an at-large council seat.

"We believe that Clark Ray as a member of the DC Council will serve based on his dynamic VISION for what our City can become," the release reads. "He is someone who has proven that he is a man of ACTION and that he can get RESULTS."

The author of the release is Peter Rosenstein, the longtime gay activist who was once Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's most vocal supporter in the GLBT community. The draft committee list of more than 80 names includes a number of folks active in gay-and-lesbian politics (Darrin Glymph, Lane Hudson, Sheila Alexander Reid), some neighborhood activist types (Cary Silverman, Jack Jacobson, Laurie Collins), and a few political wild cards (Adam Clampitt, Neil Richardson, Judith Terra, Jacque Patterson, Cora Masters Barry).

Also notable: The list includes at least two of Ray's former employees at parks-and-rec—John Stokes, the agency's communications director, and Michele Molotsky, the former aide to Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans who runs senior programs for the agency.

Unmentioned in the release is whether they want Ray, who is gay, to run as a Democrat (i.e., against Phil Mendelson) or as an independent (i.e., against David A. Catania, or someone else should Catania decide not to run). The former possibility is widely considered to be more likely. But in either case, having a significant element of the gay political community going out on a limb against either of those sitting members—two of the council's most GLBT-friendly—is notable.

As for Ray, he's playing coy. LL first asked him about the rumors, and last week the Blade's Lou Chibbaro Jr. further pressed him. "I would think it would be foolish to rule out anything," Ray told Chibbaro. "I am flattered that there are those that think I am a viable individual to consider for Council at some point in time in the next two years or whatever. D.C. is my home. I’m going to be here forever. I think I’m young at 45. I plan on being around for a while. So I certainly wouldn’t rule anything out."

UPDATE, 9:45 A.M.: LL got Rosenstein on the horn; "Clark is a Democrat and will run when he announces as a Democrat," he confirms. So why go after Mendo? "I personally want to thank Phil Mendelson for all he has done for our city and for introducing GLBT legislation. But I personally...believe these are not lifetime positions, that you need new blood, new ideas, and need someone who is ready to re-energize the council. While I personal want to thank Phil for all he's done, it think it's time for someone new." He adds, "This is not totally about GLBT issues. I think there are a broad spectrum of issues that need to be dealt with in this city," naming "crime initiatives, education reform initiatives."

Full release after jump.

PRESS RELEASE

Draft Clark Ray for DC Council-at-Large Committee Formed

We are pleased to announce the formation of the Draft Clark Ray for DC Council-at-Large Committee.

We believe that Clark Ray as a member of the DC Council will serve based on his dynamic VISION for what our City can become. He is someone who has proven that he is a man of ACTION and that he can get RESULTS.

Clark Ray has a record of service to people second to no one who has ever run for the Council in the District of Columbia. In his career he has worked for the people of our nation and our City and has a history of hard work and accomplishment. His VISION for our City includes ensuring that we provide opportunities to all and work to make sure that everyone can reach the full potential of their innate abilities.

Clark Ray has spent the last nine years crisscrossing our City serving the needs of people. He has been out five days a week in communities and neighborhoods both East and West of the river making sure that people are served by their government. We know Clark Ray will be the kind of Councilmember who will come to you, knock on your door, and ask what you need to make your life better, and then work to make it happen.

We ask you to join with us to make sure that Clark Ray knows the wide-spread support there is for him in communities and neighborhoods across the District. We urge everyone to go to our website, www.ClarkRay4Council.com, to learn more about Clark Ray and understand why his record of service and his VISION for the future of our City compels us to support him.

Sign up and join the draft committee and let Clark Ray know how you will volunteer, contribute and work to elect him when he announces that he is a candidate. We know that when elected Clark Ray will be working for all of us 24/7.

Signed:
Draft Clark Ray for DC Council-at-Large Committee (in formation)

Linda Adams and Jonathan Greenblatt

Warren S. Arbogast

Sarah Blunt Barnett

Cora Masters Barry

Kim L.E. Bell

Marla Blow

Marsha and Carlos Botts

Kenny Brooks

Adam Clampitt

Laurie Collins

Michael Coscia

James A. D’Orta, MD

Aubrey Dubra

Kristofer Eisenla

Pat Fisher

Dorothy B. Ford

Tim Francis

Gaby Fraser

Marilyn Funderburk

Anthoula P. Gianniotis, RA

Darrin Glymph

Jim Gray

Simone Green

Tom Gross

Brenda Hall

Everett E. Hamilton, Jr.

Edith S. Harriet

Cynthia Harris

Charlene Hamilton and Georgette Walker

Paul Hazen

Audrey Hendricks

Karen Homes and Howard Sargent

Lane Hudson

Jeffrey Jackson

Jack Jacobson

Linwood Jolly

Angela Jones and Donna Broderick

Jim Kane

Dan Katz

John J. Klenert

David Lowenstein

Mike Lawson and Jerry Maready

Tamara Wilds Lawson

Isha Lee

Delphine Lester

Brad Luna

Brian E. Markowski and David Gilmer

Russell Merlin

Vince Micone

Margaret Mitchell

Michele Molotsky

Sondra Norrell-Thomas

Kevin Nourse, PhD.

Mustafa P. Ostrander

Jacque Patterson

David Perruzza

Ray Quintero

Saundra Ratliff

Dionne Reeder

Greg and Candace Rhett

Neil Richardson

Sheila Alexander Reid

Peter D. Rosenstein

Philip Sharp

Cary Silverman

Mike Silverstein

Janet Staihar

Bill Starrels

John Stokes

Al Teitzman

Judith Terra

Trevor Thomas

Macavoy Tyree

Tom Usselman

Douglas J. Ward, MD

Victor Wexler

Don Wilson

William Winebrenner

Charles and Kimberly Young

Raenelle Humbles Zapata, Esq.

As first reported by LL last month, Motley is the first non-incumbent to declare for the 2010 at-large race, but there was some question over whether he would run as a Democrat or not. Motley is an elected member of the D.C. Democratic State Committee, but rumors and a sign posted at his Web site had him running as an independent. Ahem, "Independent Democrat."

No more suspense, though: At last night's DCDSC meeting, Motley announced to the group that we was officially resigning his seat, and that by next week, he would no longer be registered as a Democrat. He received, according to a member present, "polite applause."

Why the party maneuvering? That would be the District charter's prohibition on electing more than three of the five at-large council seats to members of the same party. The effect of that provision in a majority-Dem town is that three of the five seats (council chair and two at-large seats) are reserved for Democrats, while the other two seats are reserved for members of other parties (Hilda Mason, Carol Schwartz), persons whom no party could contain (David Catania), or for Democrats posing as independents (Michael A. Brown, Bill Lightfoot).

Motley's move puts him in de facto competition with Catania, should he choose to run, rather than having to face a bruising primary battle with Phil Mendelson, who beat Motley supporter A. Scott Bolden handily in 2006 and held his first 2010 fundraiser last night. Motley's scheduled a meeting tomorrow with backers at Bolden's law office.

In other DCDSC news, the party passed a pair of resolutions that could be seen as rebukes to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. One was to support the efforts of Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and House leaders Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi to keep gun legislation off the D.C. House Voting Rights Act—not to take voting rights, guns and all, like Fenty has suggested. The other was to support a full public holiday for Emancipation Day. As first reported by LL, Fenty's 2010 budget proposal turns it into a "private holiday" in order to save on overtime costs.

DCision 2010 begins in earnest: We have our first official D.C. Council challenger.

That would be the Rev. Anthony Motley, the Congress Heights minister and civic activist. Earlier this month, he sent a letter to a select group of friends, informing them that he has "decided to launch a campaign for an At-Large City Council seat in 2010" and inviting them to an April 4 meeting at the downtown law offices of A. Scott Bolden to discuss it.

In an interview, Motley, 59, says he simply "want[s] to explore the possibilities."

"I've been asked by a number of people to consider doing it," he says, name-checking his own pastor, Raymond C. Bell of First Rising Mount Zion Baptist Church as well as a mysterious "dear friend of mine in upper Ward 4." Bolden, he says, is "a friend, and Scott had been encouraging to me." (Bolden, of course, ran in this race four years ago as a Democrat and was trounced in the primary by Phil Mendelson.)

The big question is whether he has the backing of Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry. Motley is a confidant of Barry's and is often seen in public with the mayor-for-life, including after his recent kidney transplant surgery. Motley says that surgery has precluded any real talks with his patron: "He's been ill, so we haven't really talked a lot about this, but hopefully once he gets better, gets on his feet, I'll sit down and talk to him about it and hopefully he'll be supporter."

His rhetoric, unsurprisingly, jibes with Barry's last-least-and-lost chestnuts. In his letter, Motley wrote, "It is my desire to reach out into our beloved city and touch those whose lives are being impacted by the conditions which have compromised the safety and stability of our neighborhoods, and created uncertainty among our employees, families and businesses. It is my hope that I can share my vision of a city that cares for its people, protects its most vulnerable, our seniors and youth, and secures a future for our children and their children."

Another tricky issue is his party affiliation: Motley's an elected member of the D.C. Democratic State Committee, but his thus-far bare-bones Web site takes a page out of the Michael A. Brown playbook and bills the candidate as an "Independent-Democrat." A Democratic run would pit him against Mendelson, who is expected to run for a fourth term, while any other affiliation would put him up against David A. Catania, should he choose to run for a fourth full term.

Motley says he isn't yet sure about his affiliation: "I'm a registered Democrat. I believe in the Democratic principles, but we haven't made a decision yet."

LL indulged his math and computer nerdness and pulled the Fenty 2010 data filed last week into a spreadsheet, then, with assists from CPers Will Atwood Mitchell and Ryan J. Reilly, he began coaxing whatever facts and figures he could out of the numbers. In the online column, you'll find breakdowns of the haul by ZIP code and industry, plus a look at how commercial interests pad their fundraising totals and the government employees who pitched in.

A couple of additional interesting items you can find in the print column, however, haven't made it online just yet due to technical difficulties.

One breaks down the Fenty haul by donation size. Back in 2006, after all Fenty was lauded for pulling in lots of small donations thanks to his door knocking and populist message. But what about this time around? Since taking office, Fenty raised the ire of plenty of folks who feel he's betrayed that popular support.

A look at the numbers would confirm that impression:

• In 2006, his average donation amount was $518.30; this time around, it's nearly doubled, to $960.60.
• Where $100 was the most common donation amount in 2006, the plurality of donations thus far for 2010 are the $2,000 maximum.
• In 2006, Fenty raised 28.5 percent of his total from donations of $500 or less; this time around, that's dropped to 12.7 percent. Looking at the take from donations of $100 or less, the proportion has gone from 5.5 percent to 1.6.

LL also broke the numbers down geographically. In 2006, Fenty raised about 60 percent of his money from inside the District; for 2010 thus far, only 47 percent of his money has been from D.C. Maryland is the next biggest state, with 28.8 percent ($587,181), with Virginia at 10.7 percent ($218,680), New York at 4.8 percent ($98,470), and Florida at 1.4 percent ($28,850).

There's a few caveats here: First, the Fenty 2006 data is based on only about 78 percent of that campaign's total haul. That's because LL can only crunch numbers filed electronically, and the Fenty campaign didn't start using the city's e-filing system until it had already submitted three reports. (On the other hand, there's reason to believe that omitting the early reports would tend to weigh in favor of the big corporate donations that Fenty picked up later in his campaign, when it became clear he would trounce biz darling Linda Cropp.) Second, LL hesitates to draw conclusions based on Fenty 2010's take so far, if only because Fenty hasn't embarked on his legendary door-to-door canvasses just yet. There's plenty of time to gather small donations, but he'll have to collect a hell of a lot of them to match his numbers from last time.

And get this: LL is committed to open-source reporting! If you'd like to examine the numbers yourself, download LL's spreadsheet, in Microsoft Excel format. Put your findings in the comments!

According to documents filed late last night with the city campaign finance office, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has already raised over $2 million for his 2010 re-election campaign.

It's an absolutely staggering sum, considering both the lousy state of the economy and that for the whole of his 2006 election campaign, he raised a total of about $3.9 million. With $2,042,225.63 already banked, Fenty's gotten more than halfway to matching that little more than three months since announcing his re-election push.

If any potential challengers are looking for signs of weakness, they're not to be found in the 440-page report. The haul comes from 2,126 different donors, with about 750 having given the maximum $2,000 donation.

Thus far, the campaign's spent about $90,000—most of that for supplies and other arrangements for Fenty's Dec. 6 birthday party/fundraiser held at the home of developer Chris Donatelli. And $20,000 of that is payment for campaign money man John Falcicchio, who LL is going to say earned every cent of that.