About Marion Barry ... he's corrupt, so are most big city politicians. But (1) nobody in the Ward 8 cares about a rock cocaine offense decades ago (cocaine has

About Marion Barry ... he's corrupt, so are most big city politicians. But (1) nobody in the Ward 8 cares about a rock cocaine offense decades ago (cocaine has been such a big problem in that part of the city, it's likely every voter has has been close to an addict or otherwise touched since the early 80's), and (2) the other stuff about personal tax cheating, getting busted with weed, etc. is just water under the bridge to most Ward 8 voters. At the end of the day, none of those things (apart from the expected corruption) affect how Barry does his job. And the voters in Ward 8, far and away the poorest part of the city, know that when the shit hits the fan, Barry looks out for those who usually don't have much of a voice in DC. While Ward 3 residents were patting Fenty on the back for putting up bicycle lanes and dog parks, the Ward 8 voters were pissed to see a mayor basically pandering to the wealthy voters and screwing the poor. These are the same voters who voted for Gray and his crony, corrupt administration in the last mayoral election. They know very well that Rhee's "No Child Left Behind"-style reforms were just going to screw up the school system worse for their kids. And they sure as hell didn't want to re-elect Fenty, who never showed that he was willing to work on the tough problems that cause DC's entrenched poverty. The Fenty approach to poverty (which was really Anthony Williams' approach on steroids) was to price out the poor folk until they have to move to some hole like Temple Hills or Capitol Heights, no longer being DC's problem.