FORMER WASHINGTON,DC MAYOR, MARION BARRY, REMEMBERED BY FLORIDA RESIDENT, WHO CAMPAIGNED AGAINST HIM IN TWO MAYORAL ELECTIONS, AS A BENEVOLENT ROGUE AND ROBIN HOOD
Hernando County, Florida resident Brian Moore ran as Independent candidate for Mayor of Washington, DC, in the 1986 and 1994 elections, both times against the infamous former "Mayor for Life," Democrat Marion S. Barry, who died Monday in the nation's capital, at the age of 78. Moore has "ambivalent memories."
Spring Hill, Florida, Wednesday, November 26, 2014 [Greater Tampa Bay Metro Area, Florida]:
Brian Moore, a local civic activist in Hernando County, and a recent candidate for county commissioner in the 2014 elections, expressed sorrow and wrote condolences to the Barry family and social media blogs in Washington, DC, upon hearing the news Monday on the death of former Washington, DC Mayor, Marion S. Barry.
Moore expressed "profound sadness" on hearing the news of Marion Barry's passing due to heart failure in a DC hospital. Moore also wrote in the
Portside.org blog for the Greater, Greater Washington, that Barry "was a benevolent rogue, a rascal and Robin Hood, in his own way."
Moore, now 71, was a civic activist in the SouthWest quadrant section of Washington, DC, from 1978 to 2000, before moving to Hernando County, Florida in early 2000. Moore was also a former outspoken critic and Independent mayoral opponent of Marion Barry in the 1986 and 1994 DC mayoral elections.
Upon Moore's arrival in Washington, DC in 1978, as a health care Marketing Director for the George Washington University Health Plan, he immediately volunteered for Marion Barry's first race for mayor that same spring. Barry won the first of four separate four-year mayoral terms, from 1979 through 1999. Moore was rewarded for his initial campaign efforts with a boat ride down the Potomac River in a campaign celebration with Marion Barry and his young attractive wife, Effi Barry, who gave Moore a kiss on the cheek out of appreciation.
Moore quickly became disillusioned with Mayor Barry's big money dependence and subsequent rewarding of big city contracts; plus, obvious actions of nepotism, cronyism, and managerial incompetence in city government services, to name a few. "Barry ruled the city with an iron fist underneath the cover of his calmness," wrote Moore. "No one who had any vested interest, including the newspapers, dared challenge or criticize him (Barry)," Moore added. "Barry had enormous power in the city, and the city seemed full of silent fear of this tyrant," Moore lamented.
The then 38 year-old civic activist became a strong, outspoken and consistent critic of the Barry Administration, and within a year or two Moore supported two other Democratic mayoral candidates running against Mayor Barry's re-election effort in 1982. In 1984, Moore declared his own independent candidacy for city council out of frustration with a "rubber stamp council" that approved almost everything the mayor wanted. Moore lost despite his almost 20,000 votes for city council in a predominantly black and one-party (Democratic) town.
Barry's four mayoral successes was interrupted by an imprisonment stint after being caught in an FBI sting in a Washington, DC hotel room in 1990 smoking crack cocaine with a young long-time female friend, Racheeda Moore. "That bitch set me up," was the infamous phrase that Barry repeated over and over again shown on the video in the government sting.
Moore wrote on the Portside blog how he initially "liked" Mayor Barry's liberal policies and respected his ability "to reach the poor and outcaste," despite Barry's emerging corruption and unethical ways. "It was the world that only Marion Barry knew," Moore added. The civic activist said that he and Barry "got along" on the campaign trails, and "respected each other," despite Moore's criticisms of the mayor and the choices Barry made. Moore wistfully acknowledged that Marion Barry "never took his criticisms personally."
Moore also wrote that "In a way his death is a sad day." Moore said that "Marion Barry was a major part of my life for many years, and now he is gone." "I am left with ambivalent memories, despite being proud of what I did," said Moore. I feel proud of having challenged Mayor Barry's "rein of terror," Moore concluded, especially when the Washington Post "remained silent for so long" and even endorsed Marion Barry for second and third DC mayoral terms "in light of all that they knew."
Finally, in 1994, the establishment turned on Barry over his drug use and short imprisonment. But Marion Barry won the mayoral post in Washington, DC, again, for the fourth time, against all political wisdom, as the man of the people!
To the voters and residents of Hernando County: How much longer are you willing to be second-class citizens and put up with four county commissioners who continually thumb their noses at you? What does it take to show you that these same commissioners will always vote with the power brokers rather than the people?