Don Peebles

Real estate mogul (and D.C. native) Don Peebles is thinking about giving Mayor Adrian Fenty a run for his money, according to a report this morning in the Washington Business Journal. Peebles told reporter Jonathan O’Connell that he will ‘either run himself or support another candidate because of what he called “a continued pattern of a lack of oversight and accountabilty” under Fenty.’ Harry Jaffe had previously reported the Peebles rumors in the Examiner, though the possibility that the businessman could run himself is a new development.

As a candidate, Peebles, who lives in Florida most of the time but also keeps a home in the District’s Ward 3, would almost certainly come under fire from the Fenty camp for running out of spite: Peebles was one of the bidders to redevelop Stevens Elementary School, but Fenty picked another company. Here’s what the developer told the BizJo on that topic:

“I have a company that I think has been successful over the years. Stevens is one of the projects we bid on, and I have had my eye on it for a number of years for a number of reasons. But that is not the reason that I think the city needs to go in a new direction.”

He did add, however, that he thinks the mayor has distributed development projects to friends and campaign supporters, pointing to a Fenty fundraiser hosted by Chris Donatelli of Donatelli Development. Donatelli has won development rights to two projects under Fenty. Peebles called it “an environment of pay to play.”

This is certainly an intriguing development for local politics watchers, but we’re slightly skeptical that Peebles, a political novice, will actually throw his hat in the ring himself. What seems more likely is that he’ll follow through on his promise to raise serious funds for a challenger of his choosing, helping to level the playing field against the incumbent’s $2 million+ war chest. The question then becomes, who would that challenger be? Peebles isn’t saying yet.