Adrian Fenty

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Adrian M. Fenty

6^th Mayor of Washington, D.C.
Incumbent
Assumed office January 2, 2007
Preceded by	Anthony A. Williams
Succeeded by	Incumbent

Born	December 7, 1970 Washington, D.C.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Michelle Cross Fenty
Profession	Attorney

Adrian M. Fenty (b. December 7, 1970) is the sixth and current mayor of the District of Columbia, having begun his term of office on January 2, 2007. Fenty is the youngest person ever to hold the office.[1]

1 Early life, education, and family
2 Political career
3 2006 mayoral campaign
4 External links

[edit] Early life, education, and family

Fenty was raised in a rowhouse in the Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Mount Pleasant. He and his wife Michelle have twin sons, Matthew and Andrew. He was educated at Oberlin College, earning a B.A. in English and Economics, and earned a J.D. from the Howard University School of Law.[2] Fenty is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.[3] Fenty's parents own Fleet Feet [4], an athletic shoe store in the D.C. neighborhood of Adams Morgan. Fenty is biracial; his mother is white and his father is black.[5]

[edit] Political career

Fenty was an intern for Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH), Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), and Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II (D-MA) before becoming involved in local politics. In addition to serving as an aide to Councilmember Kevin Chavous, he was elected as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in ANC 4C and was president of the 16th Street Neighborhood Civic Association.

In 2000, Fenty ran against longtime Ward 4 Councilmember Charlene Drew Jarvis. Jarvis was well-known and a heavy favorite, but Fenty campaigned relentlessly and — in what was to become his trademark — pursued an aggressive door-to-door strategy that put up countless green yard signs. It worked; Fenty was elected by a 57-43 percent margin. [6] Fenty was was easily re-elected in 2004.

As a Councilmember, Fenty was noted for his tireless commitment to constituent services; his vocal opposition to public funding for a new baseball stadium; and his proposal to fund a $1 billion capital improvement program for public schools, which, in different form, the Council subsequently passed. [7] One of the commonly noted symbols of his attention to constituent concerns is his frequent use of his two Blackberry devices [8] which, along with the black fedora he often wears, are his trademark accouterments.

[edit] 2006 mayoral campaign

Main article: 2006 Washington, D.C. mayoral election

Adrian Fenty formally announced his campaign for DC Mayor on June 1, 2005. In the fall of 2005, then-mayor Anthony Williams made the widely anticipated announcement that he would not seek re-election, and then-Council Chair Linda Cropp announced she would be a candidate for Mayor. Other candidates in the field included businesswoman Marie Johns, then-Councilmember Vincent Orange, and lobbyist Michael Brown (who dropped out of the race in September 2006), though most political observers saw the race as a two-person contest between Fenty and Cropp.

Fenty ran on a platform of bringing a more energetic and hands-on approach to city government. Cropp trumpeted her 25 years of experience in city government and her desire to continue the progress made by Anthony Williams, who endorsed her candidacy. The race was widely viewed as neck-and-neck through the spring of 2006. Both candidates raised significant and nearly equal amounts of money — roughly $1.75 million through June 10, 2006 [9] — and neither gained any significant advantages from the numerous candidate debates and forums.

By July of 2006, however, public and private polling gave Fenty a roughly 10-point advantage.[10] Political observers have debated whether it was Fenty's unprecedented door-to-door campaign (he and his campaign visited virtually every block in the city), Cropp's lack of engagement in the campaign, or the electorate's desire for a new direction after eight years of Anthony Williams. Regardless, Cropp went on the attack during the last month of the campaign. In direct mail and television advertisements, Cropp painted Fenty as unfit for the job and a careless lawyer who had been admonished by the D.C. Bar [11] (in 2005, he received an informal admonishment from the Bar for his role in a probate case in 1999). The attacks appear to have backfired. The reaction, coupled with the endorsement of the Washington Post, extended Fenty's lead in the campaign's final weeks. On September 12, 2006, Fenty won all 142 city precincts — a feat unparalleled in the city's political history — and defeated Linda Cropp by a 57-31 percent margin. [12]

Fenty went on to win the general election easily in the heavily Democratic city [13] and became the capital's sixth elected mayor since the establishment of home rule.

[edit] External links

Preceded by Charlene Drew Jarvis	Ward 4 Representative, Council of the District of Columbia 2001–2007	Succeeded by vacant
Preceded by Anthony A. Williams	Mayor of the District of Columbia 2007–	Succeeded by Incumbent