Former Mayor Barry Loses Bid for At-Large D.C. Council Seat

Former Washington Mayor Marion Barry, who is appealing a six-month prison sentence and $5,000 fine for a drug possession conviction, lost his bid to secure an at-large seat on the District of Columbia City Council Tuesday night.

Barry was receiving 19% of the vote, badly trailing two rivals. Democrat Linda Cropp had about 39% and incumbent Hilda Mason of the local Statehood party was collecting about 30%.

“Although the election didn’t go our way, our campaign has been successful,” he said in a concession speech.

Meanwhile, Democrat Sharon Pratt Dixon, who promised to sweep out all remnants of the Barry Administration, defeated Republican Maurice T. Turner, the city’s former police chief, to become the new mayor. Dixon becomes the first black woman mayor of a major U.S. city.

As expected, the Rev. Jesse Jackson was elected as one of the district’s two “shadow” senators, non-voting positions designed to press the district’s efforts to become a state.

Barry’s defeat may end his roller-coaster political career. The former civil rights activist rose from a dashiki-wearing street organizer in the 1960s to the well-tailored mayor of the nation’s capital during the 1980s. But last January, Barry was tried on drug charges. The trial--which polarized the city and led several black leaders across the nation to accuse the federal government of a vendetta against elected black officials--ended with a hung jury on several counts and a conviction on one misdemeanor charge.