Editor's Notebook

Editor's Notebook: End of a Saga, Gray's Woes Continue and Helping Ward 8 Kids

A look at a few of the most notable stories this week on Georgetown Patch.

Can It Be True? The 2010 Campus Plan Process Comes to a Close. With less than an hour of discussion, the Zoning Commission unanimously approved the Georgetown Campus Plan on Monday night, bringing hours upon hours of hearings and years of fraught negotiations between Georgetown University and the community that surrounds it to a close. Lots of Residents Think Gray Should Resign, Do You? The Washington Post released a poll this week in which 54 percent of respondents said Mayor Vincent Gray should step down. The poll was taken to get a pulse on what DC residents think about the continuing revelations and scandals surrounding his 2010 campaign for mayor. According to the Washington Post, "Across categories of sex, ideology, party …

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Post Poll: Gray Should Resign

What do you think?

Mayor Vincent Gray has had a tough ...week? month? administration? Whatever your opinion, the Mayor has been under fire in recent weeks as former campaign aides, friends and donors plead guilty to charges ranging from campaign finance violations to fraud to obstruction of justice. A new Washington Post poll of 1,002 D.C. adults revealed, "Fifty-four percent overall say Gray should resign, while 37 percent say he should not and 9 percent have no opinion." Last week Jeanne Harris pleaded guilty to running a "shadow campaign" that obscured and failed to report some $653,800 in campaign expenses and contributions that benefited Gray's official mayoral campaign. "This is not the campaign that we intended to run," Gray told reporters July 11 …

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Editor's Notebook

Editor's Notebook: Shadow Campaign, Uber and Interim Principal

A look at a few of the most notable stories this week on Georgetown Patch.

Mayor Gray's 2010 Campaign had a Shadow Campaign, Councilmembers Call for his Resignation This week a Jeanne Harris, a top donor to Mayor Vincent Gray's 2010 campaign, pleaded guilty to disguising the source of campaign contributions in federal and local elections and to hiding those activities from federal investigators. Harris was running a "shadow campaign" that obscured and failed to report some $653,800 in campaign expenses and contributions that benefited Gray's official mayoral campaign. Councilmembers David Catania, Mary Cheh and Muriel Bowser have each said Gray should resign. Residents were Uber Perturbed by the Uber Amendment The Uber Amendment died Tuesday, less than 24 hours after an application-based sedan car service Uber …

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Councilmembers Call for Gray's Resignation

Mayor Vincent Gray's 2010 Campaign is under federal investigation

Councilmembers David Catania, Mary Cheh and Muriel Bowser have each said Mayor Vincent Gray should resign after recent revelations of fraud and a $653,800 shadow campaign bring into question the validity of his election in 2010. Gray donor Jeanne Harris pleaded guilty to running a "shadow campaign" by obscuring and not reporting campaign expenses and contributions. In an interview with Fox 5 news Wednesday, Councilman David Catania was the first to call for Gray's resignation. Catania said if he were in Gray's position. "I would have said 'Regardless of whether or not I knew anything, and I didn't, such a cloud has been placed over my government and my legitimacy as mayor that I believe it's in the best interest to end this distraction and…

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Gray Donor Pleads Guilty to Violating Campaign Laws, Obstructing Justice

Eugenia C. Harris, 75, says she funneled monies and donations to Vincent Gray's 2010 Mayoral Campaign.

Vincent Gray donor Eugenia "Jeanne" Harris, 75, of Washington, DC, pleaded guilty Tuesday to disguising the source of campaign contributions in federal and local elections and to hiding those activities from federal investigators. According to the FBI, Harris used her business and that of a co-conspirator to funnel and obscure some $653,800 in campaign expenses and contributions to the Vincent Gray Mayoral campaign. Harris pleaded guilt to three charges in court Tuesday, according to a release from the FBI: "The 2010 election for D.C. mayor was tainted by the infusion of massive sums of corporate money that were illegally concealed from voters. This conviction begins to dismantle a conspiracy which for too long subverted our federal and …

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Gray Campaign Official Admits to Paying Sulaimon Brown

Thomas Gore pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

Thomas Gore, the former assistant treasurer for Mayor Vincent Gray's 2010 campaign, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and campaign finance violations in court Tuesday. Gore, 56, appeared in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Tuesday. He pleaded guilty to "one count of obstructing justice by destroying records in a federal investigation and three counts of making a campaign contribution in the name of another person," according to a press release from the FBI. Though the obstruction charge could carry up to 20 years in prison and a fine, the agreed upon sentencing range would be between 12 and 18 months in prison and a possible fine of $3,000 to $30,000, according to the FBI release. In a sworn statement, Gore …

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Thomas Gore First Charged in Gray Campaign Investigation

Mayor Vincent Gray's 2010 mayoral campaign is under federal investigation

The first charges in the federal investigation of Mayor Vincent Gray's 2010 mayoral campaign were filed today against former campaign aid, Thomas Gore. Gore, as assistant treasurer, was charged with "providing a campaign contribution in the name of another person and with violating a federal law that prohibits the destruction of records needed in an investigation" according to The Washington Post. The Post speculates that Gore might have been involved in transferring monies from the Gray campaign to that of Suliamon Brown. Brown claims that the Gray campaign paid him for attacks on Mayor Adrian Fenty during the 2010 election. He also says that Gray promised and gave him a job in his administration; Brown spoke out when he was …

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