Barry Reclaims D.C. Mayor’s Office : Politics: His inauguration comes four years after drug arrest. He says he will conquer the city’s problems as he conquered his own addiction.

Marion Barry completed his remarkable political comeback Monday, retaking the mayoral office he left in 1991 after being caught on videotape smoking crack in a downtown hotel room.

As the nation’s capital faced a $500-million budget deficit that will force severe cuts in municipal services, Barry pledged in his inaugural speech to “shape a government that is compassionate but yet efficient.”

“I know we can do this, because I’ve done it,” the mayor told a crowd of 2,500 at the University of the District of Columbia. “If Marion Barry can do it, then my city can get off its feet and rise up and believe in itself again.”

Just four years ago, Barry, 58, ended his first three terms as mayor in disgrace.

He was convicted of misdemeanor drug possession stemming from his 1990 arrest during an FBI undercover operation that lured him to the downtown hotel room of a former girlfriend. He served six months in prison.

The comeback trail began in 1992 when Barry, saying he had conquered drug addiction, won election to the City Council.

In the fall, Barry campaigned successfully for a fourth mayoral term on a platform of personal redemption. He defeated incumbent Sharon Pratt Kelly in the Democratic primary and easily won the general election.

In his inaugural speech, Barry promised to apply the determination used to overcome his drug habit to end the city’s drug violence, rebuild a deteriorating school system and expand an eroding tax base.

But Barry inherits a city government troubled by fiscal woes that his critics argue have their roots in his first three terms as mayor.

While the crime rate dropped 8% last year, Washington still has one of the highest murder rates in the country.

“I see myself as a modern-day Nehemiah, facing an inner city where too many of our teen-agers are killing one another, where the quality of life seems to be deteriorating, violence on every hand, spirits broken,” said Barry, referring to the biblical figure who returned to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Elsewhere, other newly elected officials also took office.

* Michigan Gov. John Engler was sworn in for a second term, taking credit in his inaugural speech for the state’s economic rebirth.

* Phil Batt took the oath of office in Boise as Idaho’s first Republican governor in 24 years.

* In Wisconsin, Republican Gov. Tommy G. Thompson began his third term with new political strength--a GOP majority in the state Legislature for the first time in nearly 25 years.

* George Pataki took over as New York’s 53rd governor Sunday with a promise to recover “the revolutionary spirit of Saratoga” and the nation’s founders.