Photo by muohace_dc.

Good morning, Washington. After you dry yourself off (and hopefully that’s all you have to do), think about this: in four weeks, we will either be settling in for another four years of Adrian Fenty or preparing ourselves for the Vince Gray transition. Time flies, eh? Well, a it’s a big day for the two candidates — they will duke it out on the Kojo Nnamdi Show at noon today. Meanwhile, the latest poll results from Clarus show that Gray currently holds a very small lead over Fenty — 39-36 among all voters, 41-36 among those “very likely” to vote on September 14, and 44-38 in a head-to-head — but with so many undecided voters, it will certainly be an interesting few weeks. We’ll have more on the Clarus numbers later today.

Meanwhile…: There’s a juicy little brouhaha developing regarding a $400,000 payment (or a “no-bid contract,” if we’re getting technical) that the Fenty administration was going to funnel to Peaceaholics…or not. No one’s really sure. Over the last few days, both the City Paper and the Examiner reported that the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services was about to pay Peaceaholics that money, but neither could nail down exactly what for. (Both claimed that it was simply Fenty looking for a loophole to funnel cash to the organization; a Fenty spokesperson ducked The Examiner, while telling City Paper that Peaceaholics “has provided work for…DYRS, which would result in payment from both agencies.”) So here comes the Post, which quotes Councilmember Tommy Wells, chairman of the Human Services Committee that oversees DYRS, confirming that he had “been assured by [DYRS Director] Rob Hildum that no check would be written for past work.” But Wells later clarified his remarks to note that he didn’t necessarily mean that Hildum wasn’t asked to cut a check, just that he refused to do so. All we know is that Vince Gray and his people have to be lapping this up like a kitten presented with a bowl of warm milk.

Speaking of Tommy Wells: Despite the headline, Mike DeBonis’ profile about the Ward 6 campaign paints Wells as the uber-modern politician at the center of the District’s most dynamically shifting ward. Wells’ challenger, former Williams chief-of-staff Kelvin Robinson is running on a campaign that Wells has sacrificed the broader issues at hand in the outer edges of the Ward — read: crime — in favor of quote-unquote less serious issues. But based on the vitae lined out in the profile, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more invested politician in D.C. than Wells — from the disposable bag tax to streetcars to the “difficult and thankless” chairmanship of the Human Services Committee to the numerous massive redevelopments that are currently reshaping the face of the ward. Too progressive or not, it’ll certainly be a tough list of accomplishments for Robinson to overcome.

Quote of the Day: “We literally stole the whole 311 system from New York,” said Fenty during yesterday’s little love-in between him and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (or Papa Smurf). Fenty seemed pretty excited about the photo op, but that was about as interesting as it got. And yeah, plenty of press were there mostly to ask the Ground Zero mosque. We’ve got plenty of our own zoning issues to worry about, so we couldn’t really care less.

And…Relax: I realize that this morning’s roundup has been quite politics-heavy. For those uninterested in such matters, here’s the most adorable image I could find in the DCist Flickr pool. Enjoy!

Briefly Noted: Really, here’s all you need to know: the Mall will be crowded on August 28…Breaking: D.C. resident finds Fenty to be a “bonehead“…Pepco defends itself to Maryland Public Service Comission, says they responded properly to storm issues…JetBlue’s All-You-Can-Jet pass is back…Marbury Plaza tenants end their two-year rent strike…”The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control thinks the problem is likely caused by seagull droppings that have been flushed into the water.”