Graham denied the allegation. "If you have a video of any of my staff taking down signs, bring it forward," Graham told Smith last night.

Smith further accused Graham of employing city contractors to hang up his own signs around town. Graham said there's no impropriety. He's paying the contractors to do campaign work outside of their public duties.

Fellow Ward 1 candidate Bryan Weaver, meanwhile, emphasized the "power of we." At least until the subject of the playground at Oyster-Adams Bilingual School came up.

"If you can bounce up and down on that rubber, think of me, " said Graham, apparently referring to a piece of playground equipment at the school. Weaver's voice went up as he stated that the new playground was great, but that the neighborhood boundaries of the well-performing public school need to be redrawn: "It's a Woodley Park school, it's not an Adams Morgan school," said Weaver.

Graham opened by rattling off some of his Ward 1 accomplishments, including getting rid of the scores of undesirables who once hung out at 17th and Euclid NW. "Now there's a police camera there," he said.

"I'm running for re-election on that record," said Graham.

Smith concedes that Graham has accomplished some good things during his long tenure as council member, but it's time for him to go. "Eight years would have been plenty, 16 years is too much," Smith said.

When candidates were asked about funding for the arts by debate moderator Davis Kennedy of the Current newspapers, Smith took the opportunity, as he would many times that night, to point out some of Graham's many shortcomings. Smith said that Graham's version of funding the arts involved giving out earmarks to his favorite non-profits. Smith also charged that the incumbent has given out more earmarks than anyone else on the council, excluding Marion Barry.

Graham countered that he stood by his earmarks: "They spend the money responsibly," he said of the organizations he's funded.

Weaver didn't join in the scuffle but stated that non-competitive earmarks were a problem.

However, he later took a swing at Graham for his relationship with developers, pointing out that after Graham had helped get $8.5 million in tax abatement for Donatelli Development Inc., the company contributed $5,000 to his reelection fund.

Graham challenged the accuracy of that remark, and then brought up how he'd championed development in Ward 1 without getting rid of its low income residents:"We have not torn up the fabric of our diversity," he said.

As the night wore on, Smith and Weaver continued to bring up various Graham controversies. But it was the moderator who brought up the biggest one of all: Ted Loza. Asked whether the incumbent would ever rehire his former chief of staff, now up on bribery charges, Graham simply stated: "Let Ted Loza have his day in court.".

In his closing remarks, Graham attempted to portray himself as a unifier. "Where we have worked together is where we have worked our best," he said. In their closing remarks, both Smith and Weaver took parting shots at the incumbent. Weaver  pulled a line from the movie Wedding Crashers: "I'm not saying marry me. I'm saying just don't marry him."

Councilmember Jim Graham has generally kept quiet on the taxicab bribery case that has so far snared his right-hand-man Ted Loza. But at a recent Kalorama Citizens Association meeting, Graham apparently couldn't help himself. According to sources in attendance, he blasted federal law enforcement for busting Loza.

Recalls one source who was there: “[Graham] basically said Ted was entrapped by the FBI. The gentleman Kamus…He said he and Ted were very, very good friends. I thought it was a very bizarre thing to say."

Says another: “He talked a little bit about the investigation. He went back and forth from sort of defending Ted and throwing Ted under the bus a little bit. He talked about how Kamus was a really good friend of the office and a good personal friend of Ted’s.…That’s when he came up with the FBI entrapment….It’s a close friend of Teddy’s who got caught up in the investigation.” [See pictures of Loza and Kamus].

And finally, here's one more source from the KCA meeting: "I heard him talk about the taxicab investigation and how tragic everything was....It gets you paranoid. You don’t be expecting to be talking to someone and thinking you are talking to the FBI."

Pretty deep insights from the Grahamstander.

When we asked the councilmember to confirm or deny his comments, a staffer offered up a very unique retort.

Brian DeBose, Graham's new spokesperson, replied via e-mail: "It was an off-the-record meeting. That means you want him to verify something. He wants to know what you want him to verify before he talks to you." (This item initially misspelled DeBose's last name)

I replied that there's no such thing as an off-the-record public meeting. DeBose replied: "Incidentally, I know a community meeting is by definition not off the record. However, Dennis James assured the Councilmember it would be."

Denis James did not return calls seeking comment.

Bryan Weaver, an ANC Commissioner in Adams Morgan, says the meeting was not advertised as off-the-record. “I don’t know how you can have public meeting be off the record," he says. "It’s impossible. They had probably a 100 signs up in the community featuring Jim Graham as the speaker…It was the only thing on the poster.”

Eventually, Graham agreed to be interviewed. Yesterday, I was told that he would be calling. He never did. This afternoon I got another, final response from DeBose: "The councilmember was unavailable for comment by press time."

*photo by Darrow Montgomery.