Adrian Fenty
By July 2006, public and private polling gave Fenty a roughly 10-point advantage. Political observers have debated whether it was Fenty's unprecedented door-to-door campaign, in which he and his campaign workers visited virtually every block in the district, Cropp's lack of engagement in the campaign, or the electorate's desire for a new direction after eight years of Anthony Williams. Cropp's campaign began a series of negative attacks during the last month of the campaign. In direct mail and television advertisements, Cropp painted Fenty as unfit for the job and a careless lawyer who had been admonished by the D.C. Bar; in 2005, he received an informal admonition from the Bar Association for his role in a probate case in 1999. The attacks, however, backfired; the reaction, coupled with the endorsement of the Washington Post newspaper, increased Fenty's lead in the campaign's final weeks.