DCGOP in this Week's Current Newspaper

The Northwest Current

August 3, 2009

By: Tom Sherwood

 

ShamWow Politics. We had to laugh when we learned the D.C. Republican Party had sent a ShamWow cleaning cloth to mayor Fenty. If you don’t watch cable TV, the ShamWow is a miracle cloth for cleaning and soaking up water on even the hardest jobs.

 

D.C. GOP chair Robert Kabel said Fenty should use the ShamWow on the 2010 budget. “The Mayor’s ShamWow has a warranty, and it can be used for the house, the car, the boat, the RV, and we hope it will work on the D.C. Council’s budget,” Kabel said.

 

But that’s not all. Paul Craney, the Executive Director of the D.C. Republican Party, also has compiled a chart of mayoral salaries. “The mayor likes to compare himself to big-city mayors,” Craney said in an email. So, the GOP did. Fenty’s salary is $200,000 in a city with just under 600,000 people.

 

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg technically earns $225,000, although as a wealthy man he doesn’t accept it. New York has more than 8 million residents.

 

Chicago is just shy of 3 million people. Mayor Richard Daley earns 216,210.

 

And Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa earns 205,561. The city has nearly 4 million residents.

 

Say what you will, the GOP knows how to throw a few good political darts.

 

Craney got a call into the WAMU “Politics Hour” on Friday, asking if the mayor would support a salary cut. No, was the answer. Mayor Fenty says he and the Council earn their pay.