Let’s review: there’s a crisis in leadership at the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, mostly because the Council and Mayor Adrian Fenty have been unable to agree on a candidate to replace the board’s minority party member who left the position seventeen months ago. With the announced resignation of the board’s chairman, the city needs to appoint a new member as soon as possible to make sure that the September 14 primaries go off without a hitch. The Mayor can invoke an “emergency circumstances” clause to unilaterally name new members to the board — a move which, according to the Post, he is considering, as Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) and David Catania (I-At-Large) scramble to bridge the gap with compromise candidates. Fenty’s camp is reportedly negotiating with the Councilmembers about said appointments. But could it be possible that what appears to be shaping up as an incredibly tight mayoral election between Vincent Gray and Adrian Fenty could be certified by a quorum of individuals who were handpicked by Fenty at the last minute while the Council was on summer recess? It sure sounds like it.