The Fray Tracker: Day 9
Washington, D.C. — As the mayoral election between Washington, D.C.'s top two Democratic candidates — Adrian Fenty and Vince Gray — heads into its last weeks, TBD will be tracking away. Herewith, all the controversy, debates, forums, polls, issues, endorsements, statistics and killer quotes we can muster.
Tuesday, Aug. 31, 1:07 p.m.
DISTRICT GOP ASKS FOR INVESTIGATION INTO GRAY ADS
The D.C. Republican Party is asking the Office of Campaign Finance to investigate whether Vince Gray's mayoral campaign violated campaign law with two advertisements that appeared in the Current Newspapers.
The ads in the Aug. 18 and Aug. 25 editions of the Current appear without a Gray campaign authority line. The party — which has been less than subtle in its support for Adrian Fenty and D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee — asked for a similar investigation over advertisements that appeared in The Hill Rag earlier this summer.
"Candidates running for elected office have rules in place that should be followed," D.C. Republican Committee Chairman Bob Kabel said in a statement. "This is sadly not the first time we have seen the Gray for Mayor campaign benefit from unknown advertisements. These unknown advertisements and the use of Council resources to benefit a candidate is an unfair advantage and is detrimental for fair elections."
The party is also requesting an investigation into the office of Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry's use of council e-mail accounts to endorse Shadow Representative candidate Nate Bennett-Fleming.
A spokesman for the Office of Campaign Finance said he was checking to see if the office had received the more recent requests.
Tuesday, Aug. 31, HIGH NOON
TBD COMPILES EARLY VOTING GUIDE, NOT-SO-SECRETLY HOPES FOR EARLY VOTING PROBLEMS
Don't say we never did anything for you, Washington.
TBD has painstakingly compiled a comprehensive guide to early voting, attempting to answer all the important questions for you, The Voter. Check it out on the TBD Community blog.
If you have more questions you want answered, send them to slarimer@tbd.com. We'll do our best to get a response. And please let us know if you have issues/complications/complaints after casting your ballot in the primary. We just love stories about failure.
Tuesday, Aug. 31, 11:12 a.m.
RADIO STATION DENIES CLAIM THAT CALLS FROM GRAY LED TO BIG G SUSPENSION
Anwan "Big G" Glover, the District go-go artist and actor who found national fame on HBO's "The Wire," is (at least temporarily) off the air at WKYS/93.9 FM.
Whose fault that is remains a little unclear.
Glover, a vocal supporter of Adrian Fenty, blames the campaign of Vince Gray, the mayor's main challenger in the upcoming Democratic primary. At a press conference Sunday, Glover told reporters that his First Amendment rights had been violated, claiming that he was "indefinitely suspended" from his time slot at the station because the Gray campaign complained about a Fenty radio ad.
"If everyone is aware, I have been doing these commercials for the two months endorsing Mayor Fenty," Glover said, reading from a statement. "I have not expressed any views on my regular radio program, however, only participated in commercials. ... I will continue to endorse Mayor Fenty, as he has supported me in my time of need, which is why I am able to have my radio show and be an actor and an entertainer in my community."
Gray campaign spokeswoman Traci Hughes said in an e-mail that the chairman had nothing to do with the decision. In a recorded statement on the station's website, WKYS Program Director Neke Howse has also denied Gray's involvement.
"Big G was not fired and I'm happy to report that he's still an employee of WKYS," she said. "So the allegation that Mr. Gray caused Big G to lose his job is simply not true. And he did not ask us to take any action against Big G. In fact, we look forward to the return of Big G on Sunday nights once the election is over. We're a media company, and our job is to inform. We do not want our on-air talent to endorse political candidates over our radio station, because we are not in the business of choosing winners or losers."
Glover has been a part of Fenty campaign songs and appeared at events in support of the mayor, though he says his radio commercial did not air during his WKYS show.
Fenty's ties to Glover run deep. A then-councilmember Fenty wrote a letter to help keep the actor out of jail after a gun charge in 2004. Glover also appeared at a news conference with Fenty after the fatal shooting of his brother in 2007.
"Hopefully they didn't call (WKYS) and ask for some retribution against Big G, because even though first amendment rights are important, to me, he represents everything that is great about D.C.," Fenty said Sunday. "He grew up in D.C. he admittedly went through sometimes where he made some bad decisions but he learned from those decisions. And he's as much an entertainment star as we've ever had in the city."
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