Saturday, May 15, 2010

What Does $8 Million in City Funds Buy?

The Washington Post reports today that Peacoholics co-founder Ron Moten has established an anti-Vince Gray website, http://vincegray.info, aka "The Gray Files."  The website attempts to cast a cloud over the current Council Chairman and mayoral candidate's ethics and service. 

[UPDATE 5/17]: Dorothy Brizill reports in The Mail that Moten and Peacoholics cofounder Juahar Abraham "brought a large number of young people" to the Ward 8 Democrats Mayoral Election Straw Poll held Saturday. "Although most of these young people were not registered voters prior to the forum, the insisted on being allowed to register at the forum and to cast challenged ballots. Outside the church, the young people bragged about how they had been paid $100 to attend the forum."  In the initial tabulation, Gray received 59 votes to Fenty's 49.  After the challenged ballots were added, the result flipped to Fenty 69, Gray 61.

Peacoholics reportedly received $8 million from the DC government during the Fenty Administration, even more than the $4.5 million documented here.  The DC Council, chaired by Gray, finally cut off the faucet (spurred by an investigation related to Marion Barry's earmarks to organizations that he set up and to a girlfriend).  That ultimately led to a downsizing of Peacoholics.  Ah, dirty politics at its worst.

1 comment:

progressive black man said...

It's so sad that someone would stoop so low as to insult the character of D.C youth. One thing that the Obama campaign did for the African American youth was that it inspired them to become more involved in the political process. I was there on that day and was very moved by the presence of young people that came out not just to vote but they questioned politicians about their future plans in office. They made an informed decision based on the information they were given and there was no monetary gain. Again I think that it is a direct insult to our youth,our future,to state that the only interest they had on that day was to get paid.