D.C. officials' quest for cash and power leads to corruption charges

D.C. officials' quest for cash and power leads to corruption charges
By: Freeman Klopott
Examiner Staff Writer
A rapid expansion of the District's budget, easy access to campaign dollars and a taste for the high life have sparked a series of corruption charges not seen in D.C. since the mayoral reign of Marion Barry.
"The size of the city as an economic enterprise has nearly doubled [in the past decade].

There's more money in the campaigns, and combine that with a sense of entitlement and the temptation is great," said Bill Lightfoot, a former city councilman who also was the chairman of Mayor Adrian Fenty's failed re-election campaign.

The District's total budget has grown by about 43 percent over the past decade, going from $6.2 billion to the $10.8 billion spending plan for next fiscal year approved by the council this week. Over nearly the same period, campaign contributions to some citywide offices have almost doubled. All of those dollars have made winning the power of elected office more valuable, and might have turned some officials down unethical paths.

Mayor Vincent Gray and Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas are the subjects of federal investigations. The D.C. Office of Campaign Finance is pushing for another into Council Chairman Kwame Brown and is investigating Ward 7 Councilwoman Yvette Alexander's alleged misuse of her constituent services fund. At-large Councilman Michael Brown pushed through a plan to legalize online gambling in the District without letting it be known he has ties to a law firm that was backing it.

Total dollars raised by winning candidates in citywide council elections
At-large council races:
2004: $481,000
2006: $751,000
2008: $1.3 million
2010: $774,000
Council Chairman races:
2006: $701,000
2010: $1.1 million
Total dollars raised by the two leading candidates in mayoral elections:
2006: $6.7 million
2010: $7.7 million
Source: Office of Campaign Finance

That makes for more investigations than at any given time during Barry's 16 years as mayor, although some of his top officials were jailed and he landed there, too, on a drug conviction.

"The overriding theme is that they're spending more than they're making on cars, trips and sailboats," said one council member, who spoke to The Washington Examiner on condition of anonymity. "They have easy access to money, and they're taking it."

Chairman Brown owns a 38-foot yacht named Bulletproof. It was his 2008 at-large campaign -- currently being scrutinized by the city's campaign finance sheriff -- that pushed the envelope on contributions to citywide elections. The uncontested campaign raised more than $825,000. Nearly one-third of those dollars were paid to a company owned by his brother via a third party, according to an OCF audit. The D.C. attorney general has accused Thomas of funneling more than $300,000 of city cash meant for kids into his wallet so he could buy an Audi sport utility vehicle and take golfing trips to Las Vegas and Pebble Beach, Calif. Both councilmen deny wrongdoing.

The accusations of campaign misdeeds leveled against Gray by former mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown have drawn Congress into the mix of investigators. For now, though, "the [House oversight] committee is not looking to micromanage the District," a committee spokesman said.

D.C. is still riding on the momentum of the past decade's economic boom and a perception that the nation's capital finally became cool. But for how long, former Attorney General Peter Nickles said.

"When [District employees} read in the paper about fully loaded Kwame Brown, or Sulaimon Brown getting a $110,000 salary without an interview ... there's an adverse effect on their morale and that will do damage," Nickles said.