Results tagged “polls”

Yesterday the Washington Post asked a number of local political watchers, myself included, if we thought Mayor Adrian Fenty would be re-elected in 2010. Some said yes, others said no. I stressed that without a credible challenger – and none has yet stepped forward – Fenty would cruise to a second term. Well, if that capable challenger ends up being D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray, Fenty may have to start looking for a new job.

A majority of D.C. voters disapprove of the job D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty is doing, according to the results of a WJLA/SurveyUSA poll released this afternoon. Of 500 D.C. voters surveyed, 51 percent disapproved of his job performance, while 40 percent approved.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty is running for re-election, and so far no viable candidate has formally declared an intent to run against the incumbent (though there are plenty of rumors about At-large D.C. Council member Michael A. Brown). A story from the Examiner today may help persuade someone to step to the plate sooner rather than later, however. A recent poll conducted by D.C.-based Successful Capital Strategies shows that six in ten District Democrats would be "open" to voting for someone other than Fenty in the next election.

Look, I know what you're thinking: just when are Virginians going to be able to wear clothing plastered with Terry McAuliffe, Bob McDonnell, or other state candidates or messages to polls, without the fear of being expelled? When will the brutish reign which condemns them to wear but lackluster cloth ever end? For the love of all things tacky, let them free! Well, my friends to the south, I bring you good news: the Commonwealth now says go for it. [Ed. note: Alas, not until July 1st. Thanks aaronw79!] Virginia had banned wearing campaign-related clothes at polling places as a "political act" last fall, but now obviously wants to free up the market for cheap, iron-on decal shirts. (Now to await the McD/McA paraphernalia cottage industry with baited breath.) D.C.'s ban? Still in effect. Baby steps, I guess.

Ice! It's everywhere today. 'Fess up if it caused you to have an ungraceful encounter with the ground on your way in to work this morning.

Here's his statement (via):

The latest is that Obama aides say their candidate is not inclined to to delay the debate, but Obama hasn't come out to say anything definitely yet. What do you think he should do?

The last time the District held a presidential primary, in 2004, they scheduled it first in the country, before even Iowa or New Hampshire, in an attempt to bring more publicity to the D.C. voting rights movement. But in order to get permission from the Democratic party to do so, the primary was classified as "non-binding", which led many of the leading candidates to drop out of the D.C. primary since it didn't matter. Howard Dean, the only viable Democratic candidate on the ballot in D.C. that year, ended up winning with 43 percent of the votes, with the Rev. Al Sharpton coming in with the best results he ever has, in second place, with 34 percent. Of course, D.C.'s delegates at the Democratic convention ended up going 47 percent for Sen. John Kerry anyway, since they weren't bound to honor the votes of the citizens they represented.

Good morning, Washington. Make it to the polls yesterday? If so, we hope you did so before the sun went down — it got cold in a hurry last night, as the area rapidly moved from warmer-than-usual temps to colder-than-usual ones. CapitalWeather is saying that the weekend should be warmer, at least. Election 2007: The results are in, and it looks like it was a good night for Virginia's Democrats. The Dems picked up...

The Examiner reports on a new DMV program that would install SmarTrip chips into every new D.C. driver's license and identification card beginning in October, 2008. The program is a combined effort by the agency and WMATA, the latter of which has made no secret of its intention to make universal conversion to SmarTrip a priority. Recently Metro General Manager John Catoe made SmarTrip cards available for sale at more Giant Food stores and announced...

Now is the time of year when we all get to start complaining about how stupid standard time is and how walking out of our offices last night into pitch black darkness was weird and uncomfortable and made us confused about what time happy hour was supposed to start. That is all. 'Fat Gap' Between Whites and Blacks in D.C. High: We've certainly talked about the income gap between whites and blacks in our city...

Good Morning, Washington. Birds may finally be heading south for the winter now that overnight temperatures are dipping down towards freezing, but if you can believe it or not it's actually looking like Wednesday is going to be warm again, with temperatures predicted to be back up in the 70s. Well, at least if it's going to be tough to find a cab tomorrow, it'll be pleasant enough to walk or bike. CapitalWeather.com points out...

WTOP's Adam Tuss asks an important question: When the new Nationals stadium opens in the spring, fans will head to the Navy Yard stop on the Green line -- even though the Stadium-Armory station on the Orange and Blue lines will be the only stop with the word "stadium" in it. Couldn't there be a lot of confusion on game days? Apparently, WMATA hadn't thought of this until Tuss asked them about it. It does...

Just in case you were still tap, tap, tapping your fingers in anticipation of what Sen. Larry Craig would decide to do about his scandal-ridden Senate career, the wait is over: Craig has changed his mind about resigning and will remain in the Senate through next year. He made his decision this afternoon, shortly after a Minnesota judge ruled Craig could not withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct in a men's restroom at a...

Via PreservationNation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has started a campaign to save the original Tomb of the Unknowns, or Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as it's commonly called, at Arlington National Cemetery. Who would want to mess with the tomb? According to the National Trust, it's the folks who run Arlington National Cemetery themselves, as well as Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) -- perhaps one of the senate's most famous military veterans and fathers...

Mayor Fenty has until October 31 to issue an executive order about whether the city will make a switch away from the much-maligned yet beloved-by-many zone system in our taxis, but tomorrow, the D.C. Taxicab Commission will meet to vote on their recommendation to the Mayor. Everyone knows that the zone system is unpopular, especially with visitors to the city who often end up angry and confused about how much they should be charged for...

WTOP says that Metro General Manager John Catoe will announce the details of his plan for a proposed fare hike at a meeting next week. We've been expecting this announcement for some time now, though specific details of the increase, which is expected to be put into effect in January 2008, possibly tied to inflation or the consumer price index and increased accordingly every January thereafter, have been scant. How much will the first hike...

After being removed from committee postings by his Republican colleagues in the Senate and being called upon to resign by the likes of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), embattled Sen. Larry Craig went "on vacation" with his wife Wednesday, according to the Washington Post. The fallout surrounding his guilty plea to lewd conduct in a men's bathroom in the Minneapolis airport has only intensified since Roll Call first broke the...

The Examiner reports on a $36,000 bill received by the organizers of the 2007 Capital Pride Festival from the D.C. police and the Emergency Management Agency, who say they need the money to pay for overtime and other costs for security incurred during the June festival. But the festival's organizers and some members of the D.C. Council are questioning the charges, since the agencies waived these same fees last year and other annual parades, like...

It's a time-honored D.C. tradition, for some at least: Half-day workdays on Fridays in August. It's the reason why the lunchtime rush will be worse than you expect it to be today, your co-worker has a swimsuit under her officewear, and DCist comment threads are slooooow. It's also one of the classic sources of ill will between close friends in this city. To wit, from all of us who don't take half-day Fridays in...

As we mentioned briefly yesterday, the second fire in two years at Capitol Lounge has been found to have resulted from the same reason as the first: a cigarette, which was left burning in a trash can behind the building. Last week's fire caused about $100,000 of damage to the Lounge as well as the Trover Gift Shop next door. Now The Examiner reports that D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin is calling for a new...

Interesting story in today's Examiner, which tells the story of Logan Circle resident and dog owner Daniel Greenberg. Greenberg likes to let his dog off its leash inside Logan Circle, even though the practice is against city code. He was caught with his dog off-leash by an MPD officer back in May, and was actually arrested on criminal charges -- even though the D.C. Council has passed legislation that makes having a dog off its...

Metro General Manager John Catoe is considering replacing late night weekend trains with buses -- both as a way to save money and to create more time to complete track and station maintenance tasks. This is very bad news. No one could argue that Metro needs to rethink how it accomplishes maintenance tasks -- the number of weekend track work delays, regular elevator and escalator outages, and out of service trains that need repairs has...

Hey look, someone who writes for Gawker doesn't know where to go out in D.C., and thinks that everyone who lives here works for the government and never changes out of their work clothes! How adorable.Yesterday, I was trying to get home from Miami, but the weather had other plans, and the plane I was on got diverted to Washington, D.C. To Dulles Airport, to be exact, which is way farther outside of the city...

Via this morning's Examiner, the city is focusing on strategies to reduce the traffic impact of the new baseball stadium when it opens next April. One of the considered options is a reduced "ballpark fare" to try and entice more people to take transit. While reducing the amount of cars and congestion on game days is a certainly a crucial goal, the reduced fare doesn't necessarily seem like it would make much of a difference....

Via the Examiner, we learn that a new ranking put out by Dulles-based AOL places Washington, D.C. as the "most email addicted" city in the country, beating out the likes of Atlanta, New York, San Francisco and Houston, which all placed in the top five. The prevalence of mobile email devices such as Blackberries and Sidekicks in the city was attributed to the result, as well as the large number of government employees, most of...

No matter how you feel about a city known for its hippie culture or holier-than-thou aging baby boomers, you sort of have to love Takoma Park, Md. Commonly referred to as "The People's Republic of Takoma Park" or "The Berkeley of the East", the commuter suburb right on the border of the District is not only charmingly beautiful, but the people who live there wear their political proclivities on their collective sleeves so seriously they...

Tireless Prince George's County beat reporter Rosalind Helderman writes in today's Washington Post about a growing movement to have bronze statues depicting Chief Justice Roger B. Taney removed from the State House in Annapolis and Frederick City Hall this year. Taney was the justice who delivered the majority opinion in the Dred Scott case, which declared the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to be unconstitutional and ruled that slaves were personal property and therefore not citizens...

Steve Eldridge over at the Examiner notes that fewer Washingtonians are driving themselves solo to work than they were three years ago. According to the unfortunately titled “Preliminary Draft Commuter Connections State of the Commute Survey 2007 Survey Technical Report,” the number of those in the region driving by themselves to job locations outside the home was 71 percent, compared with 74.1 percent in the 2004 survey. This survey is put together by the Metropolitan...