Four years ago, Senator Barack Obama buddied up with then-Mayor Adrian Fenty as he chased the Democratic Party’s nomination for president. Fenty did fundraisers for Obama here in D.C., and even hit the campaign trail in North Carolina as an Obama surrogate.

Don’t expect a repeat of that by D.C.’s current mayor, WUSA’s Bruce Johnson reports. Obama’s campaign this year is trying to keep itself distant from Mayor Vince Gray as the president runs for a second term.

But the Obama campaign’s reasoning shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, Obama’s Justice Department is still investigating Gray’s 2010 campaign and three campaign aides are awaiting sentencing for their role in a “shadow” campaign that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on political activities without any reporting to D.C. elections officials. Reports Johnson:

But local sources tell 9 News Now’s Bruce Johnson that the Obama National Campaign in Chicago has put DC Democrats on notice: The campaign won’t be making the President, First Lady or any of their surrogates available for fund raisers here in DC. See the above video for more details from Bruce.

The cover story out of Chicago is all resources are needed to do battle in swing States. Local Democrats who’ve sought more clarification say they have been told “its because of the federal investigation into DC corruption.”

One Democratic Party leader Johnson spoke with said the Obama campaign would like to avoid any photo ops between Obama and Gray at a time when D.C.’s local political infrastructure is mired in controversy.