Aides Urge Barry Against Reelection Bid : Drugs: Following his cocaine arrest, the mayor reportedly agrees with his top advisers. But sources say he has not indicated any willingness to resign.

Mayor Marion Barry, reeling from his arrest on a federal drug charge, has been strongly urged by top political aides to abandon his reelection bid and has at least tentatively accepted that suggestion, those advisers said Saturday.

One adviser said that Barry has been convinced of the futility of running for reelection in a city plagued by drug abuse and drug-related homicides.

“He is resigned to it,” said one adviser, who urged the mayor to scuttle his reelection effort during a tense two-hour session Friday and in a strategy meeting later. “It is a foregone conclusion, and the mood in there was like that of an Irish wake.”

The adviser said he was uncertain when Barry’s decision would be made public.

Barry’s reelection announcement, which had been scheduled for today, “was postponed, obviously,” the aide said.

“Maybe that postponement will just go and go and go indefinitely,” the aide said.

Barry, who was arraigned in federal court Friday on a misdemeanor cocaine possession charge, has already turned over the running of his government to a deputy.

The Barry adviser, who spoke only on the condition that he not be named, said he is confident that the mayor will honor his pledge to drop plans for a fourth four-year term in November.

However, Barry has frequently changed his mind on city issues without informing his aides, particularly on budget matters, after first having agreed to accept another course of action.

“If he is willing to go back on minor decisions involving the day-to-day operations of the government, he could certainly do so here,” said a longtime associate of the mayor’s. “But when he has time to reflect on this, he will realize that there really is no way he can run again. The decision he apparently reached Friday is one that eventually he will have to honor, even if he tries first to go back on it.”

Even if Barry does not run for reelection, he has not yet indicated any willingness to resign, the sources said.

“We haven’t talked about whether he will resign yet,” said one adviser who participated in Friday’s meeting. “These things will all be dealt with, in time, but the immediate concern was making a change for now.”

Jeff Gildenhorn, a fund-raiser for the mayor who participated in Friday’s meeting, stopped short of saying Barry had agreed not to seek reelection.

“These are very trying times, and we want to direct the mayor in the right direction,” Gildenhorn said. “At this point, we have suggested that the mayor re-evaluate his position, and . . . we want him to be thinking clearly and lucidly.”

Delano Lewis, president of the local Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. and a longtime Barry associate, attended Friday’s meeting but would not comment on the mayor’s reaction to the group’s recommendations.

However, Lewis, who urged Barry to reconsider his plans for reelection just days before the mayor was arrested, said he would issue another statement “on local political matters” Monday. Lewis did not say whether his remarks would address Barry’s plans.

Barry spokeswoman Lurma Rackley said Barry would issue a statement today but did not indicate if the subject would be his decision on whether to seek reelection.

Meanwhile, a Washington Post survey said that a majority of District of Columbia residents polled Friday said Barry should resign immediately, while three in four said the mayor should not run for a fourth term.

But nearly half of the 661 randomly selected district residents questioned also said they believe that federal law enforcement officials were “out to get Marion Barry any way they could.”

WRC-TV, citing law enforcement sources, reported that the cocaine possession charge Barry faces, which carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine, will not be dropped unless the mayor resigns.