By July 2006 polls showed Fenty with a roughly 10-point advantage; political observers debated whether it was due to Fenty's door-to-door campaign, Cropp's lack of engagement in the campaign, or the electorate's desire for a new direction. Cropp's campaign began running negative attack ads during the month before the primary, painting Fenty as unfit for the job and as a careless lawyer who had been admonished by the D.C. Bar, (in 2005, he received an informal admonition from the Bar for his role in a probate case in 1999). The attacks backfired. Fenty won all 142 district precincts in the Democratic Primary—a feat unparalleled in earlier mayoral elections—defeating Cropp by a 57 to 31 percent margin. He received 89 percent of the vote in the general election and became the District's sixth elected mayor since the establishment of home rule.