Mayoral candidates must collect 2,000 signatures of DC residents to place their names on the September 12 primary ballot. Council chair Linda Cropp’s campaign paid some workers $1 for each signature they collected—a tactic that has backfired for others.

Adrian Fenty: The Ward 4 council member has built a strong record for defending DC’s disabled residents. When a coalition of disability advocates held a campaign forum, he declined to attend.

Marie Johns: The July 4 parade in DC’s Palisades neighborhood is the season’s premier political campaign event. Cruising MacArthur Boulevard, Johns waved to the crowd from the seat of a 1961 Cadillac soft-top—with Virginia plates.

Mary Cheh: DC Council seats are “part-time” jobs, though they pay $92,000 a year. Most candidates pledge to work full-time, but Ward 3 hopeful Cheh told a forum she would keep her teaching job at the GW Law School because teaching would require only as much time as does jogging three hours a week—angering both voters and her GW colleagues.