D.C. Mayor Is Fined for Petition Fraud

City election officials ordered Mayor Anthony A. Williams’ reelection campaign on Wednesday to pay $277,700 in fines for submitting thousands of fraudulent signatures on election petitions.

The violations ranged “from massive forgeries to excessive fraud,” said Stephen G. Callas, one of three members of the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics. The panel voted unanimously to levy the fine.

Last month, Williams was barred from the Sept. 10 Democratic primary ballot for failing to collect the required 2,000 valid signatures. About 10% of the fine will be suspended if Williams agrees to have his volunteers and campaign workers trained to avoid future violations of city election laws.

“The mayor has suffered public embarrassment,” said Benjamin F. Wilson, chairman of the panel that could have hit the mayor with more than $1 million in fines.

“There were 5,465 obvious forgeries,” Wilson said. Names appearing on the petitions included actor Kelsey Grammer, singer Billy Joel and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The names of petition circulators were also forged.

According to the district’s registrar of voters, the petitions included thousands of signatures she characterized as “kitchen table forgeries.”

Those petitions have now been turned over to the U.S. attorney’s office, which is pursuing a criminal investigation of about a half dozen petition circulators.

“I believe this fine is an excessive fine under the circumstances,” said Williams, noting that he has already been removed from the ballot.

The mayor said he has no plans to appeal the ruling to the D.C. Superior Court and instead plans to move on with the write-in campaign that now provides his only chance of winning the Democratic nomination.

Although the Democratic primary ballot will feature the names of four virtually unknown candidates, Williams’ strongest challenge will come from the Rev. Willie Wilson, a charismatic minister who is known for his work with the homeless, drug addicts and ex-convicts.

Wilson, whose Union Temple Baptist Church claims more than 8,500 members, is mounting his own write-in campaign, citing what he describes as Williams’ insensitivity to the poor.

“I think I’d make a horrible preacher, and Rev. Wilson should not be mayor,” Williams said.