Fenty's loss in DC was a big one, but as I noted earlier, it wasn't primarily due to his embrace of genuine reform and support of Rhee, as Andy Rotherham points out in this Time article:

It's worth noting, however, that although pundits frequently described the mayoral primary as a referendum on Rhee — whose high-profile efforts to clean up the school district included her much criticized decision to pose, broom in hand, for a cover of TIME in 2008 — she was not the only factor in the Sept. 14 poll results. Fenty's loss turned on a number of issues, including his managerial style; the Washington City Paper had endorsed him, begrudgingly, as "the jerk the city needs."

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School of Thought