DC mayoral candidate Marie C. Johns received a public show of support from a prominent Democrat yesterday, hoping the endorsement would convince doubtful voters that she is electable.

Alice M. Rivlin, former chairman of the DC financial control board, declared Johns the "best candidate" in the race. She said that recent "sniping" between the mayoral front-runners, DC Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) and council member Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), motivated her to speak up.

"Marie has run a positive campaign. She's not trashing anybody, and nobody is trashing her," said Rivlin, speaking in front of the John A. Wilson Building yesterday. Rivlin led the federally appointed financial authority and is currently director of the Greater Washington Research Program at the Brookings Institution.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083003030.html

Declining to Debate Mano a Mano

By Nikita Stewart and Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 31, 2006; Page DZ02

Mary Cheh is a wanted woman.

It seems lots of folks want to debate her one-on-one. Or two-on-one. Or in some other combination.

That's because Cheh is ahead in a nine-way race for the Democratic nomination for the Ward 3 council seat. With less than two weeks to go until the Sept. 12 primary, Cheh has the support of council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), who is stepping down to run for chairman, and the endorsements of The Washington Post and the Northwest Current.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083001272.html

Hostility Simmers In Chairman Debate
Candidates Go After Each Other's Records

By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 30, 2006; Page B01

The Democratic candidates for DC Council chairman traded charges over qualifications yesterday, with Vincent C. Gray accusing Kathy Patterson of failing to foster cooperation on the council and Patterson saying that her opponent lacks the experience to be chairman.

Gray, a first-term council member, said in a radio debate that he would be a "consensus builder" and that Patterson was known for being a stubborn council member who does not work well with her colleagues. Patterson said that if Gray is elected chairman, he would need "on-the-job training."

Less than two weeks before the Sept. 12 primary, the morning debate on Washington Post Radio displayed an increased level of hostility.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/29/AR2006082901884.html

Fenty Switches to Offense In Debate Against Cropp

By Lori Montgomery and David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, August 29, 2006; Page A01

Mayoral candidate Adrian M. Fenty lashed back at his chief rival, council Chairman Linda W. Cropp, in a one-on-one debate yesterday, casting her as a central player in the "troubled old DC government" that "let the schools fall apart and let the city fall apart."

With two weeks until the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, Fenty abandoned his strategy of ignoring Cropp's repeated allegations that he was incompetent as a lawyer prior to winning the Ward 4 council seat and ineffectual as a lawmaker thereafter. He matched Cropp blow for blow in a tense and, at times, hostile exchange that was aired live on cable television and radio, the first and perhaps only public showdown between the campaign's leading contenders.

Fenty accused Cropp of driving public schools "right into the ground" when she was school board president and of voting for "irresponsible" budgets that left the city virtually bankrupt as a council member in the early 1990s. Fenty also blasted Cropp for campaigning against his record instead of emphasizing hers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/28/AR2006082800910.html

Cropp Stakes Her Future On School Improvement

By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 26, 2006; Page B04

DC Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp said yesterday that the city's public schools would begin to improve within a year if she is elected mayor and vowed not to seek a second term if the turnaround failed.

"If you do not see a change, I will not run for reelection," Cropp said during a lunch with Washington Post reporters and editors.

With about 2 1/2 weeks until the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, Cropp has sought to illustrate the difference between her and her chief rival, council member Adrian M. Fenty (Ward 4), who polls show is the front-runner.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/25/AR2006082501280.html

Q2 Commercial/Multifamily Originations Up 17%

WASHINGTON, DC-The Mortgage Bankers Association reports that commercial and multifamily loan originations increased 17.3% in Q2, compared to the same quarter last year. Compared to the first quarter in 2006, second quarter loan originations were up 23.3% and year to date originations are 24.3% higher than at the same time last year.

With a 177.4% increase, health care properties, followed by industrial space and hotels saw the biggest increase in originations in Q2, compared to the same quarter in 2005. Loans increased by 33.7% and 32.4% for industrial space and hotel properties, respectively. Office building loans rose by 12.7%; multifamily by 8.8%; and retail by 6.9% during the comparable year-ago period.

 http://www.globest.com/news/699_699/washington/148705-1.html

First Potomac Makes Two-Asset Grab for Nearly $30M

WASHINGTON, DC-First Potomac Realty Trust has added two properties to its portfolio, bringing its holdings to 10 million sf. The acquisitions--two separate transactions that totaled $28.9 million--were both off-market, value-add deals with local investors in the DC market, Nicholas R. Smith, First Potomac's chief investment officer, tells GlobeSt.com. "They are both well located and their long-term prospects are very good."

One, Indian Creek Court, is a four-building, 186,691-sf flex property in Beltsville, MD that is 84% leased to seven tenants. The purchase was funded with $10.7 million in cash and the assumption of a $12.8-million loan that matures in 2011 and bears interest at a fixed rate of 7.8%. The property is expected to generate a first-year unleveraged return of approximately 8% on a cash basis and approximately 8.1% on an accrual basis.

http://www.globest.com/news/696_696/washington/148636-1.html

WRIT Completes Pending $94M Acquisition

WASHINGTON, DC-Washington Real Estate Investment Trust has closed on a $94-million portfolio acquisition from an undisclosed seller that had been pending since second quarter. In Q2 WRIT closed on some $133.4 million in acquisitions.

The REIT has acquired West Gude Office Park, the Ridges, and Crescent, office buildings located in Montgomery County that total 442,467 sf. The deal had been pending based on the assumption of two mortgages on the properties, which are located in Rockville and Gaithersburg. During last quarter's earnings call chairman and CEO Edmund B. Cronin, Jr. told listeners this transaction would close in August. The entire portfolio is 95.6% occupied.

http://www.globest.com/news/694_694/washington/148605-1.html

Marshall Management Enters Beltway

WASHINGTON, DC-Marshall Management, a mid-sized hotel management company, has signed a management contract to operate the Kalorama Guest House in Washington, DC. It is the company's first contract to manage a hotel that is located inside the Beltway, Michael Marshall, president tells GlobeSt.com.

The Guest House has 47 rooms in six converted turn-of-the-century Victorian homes that are located in the 1800 block of Mintwood Place NW and the 2700 block of Cathedral Avenue NW. It is also the fifth property added to the company's portfolio this year.

http://www.globest.com/news/693_693/washington/148590-1.html

REGIONAL NEWS

A Backwater's Incoming Tide
Condo Development Brings a Sea Change to the Quiet Eastern Shore Town of Crisfield

By Kim Hart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 26, 2006; Page F01

CRISFIELD, Md. Each morning before dawn, Chesapeake Bay watermen gather for coffee and gossip at Gordon's Confectionery, an 80-year-old diner in this tiny fishing village that once bustled with three dozen crab-packing houses.

For years they have watched the sun climb above Crisfield's shoreline, which for decades consisted only of sailboat masts, seafood restaurants and a few storefronts.

Now the sunrise is obscured by high-rise condominium complexes that lure a steady stream of vacationers, retirees and baby boomers seeking second homes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/25/AR2006082500550.html

Home Builder's New Incentive: A Flexible Price

By Tomoeh Murakami Tse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 30, 2006; Page D01

And now, in the latest sign of the cooling home sales market, a luxury home builder in Rockville has begun resorting to the kind of tactic usually reserved for screaming electronics discounters -- the Lowest Price Guarantee.

To ease buyers' worries about declining prices, Mid-Atlantic Builders will adjust its sales contract if the price it is charging for one of its houses falls from the time a customer signs an agreement to 45 days before settlement. So, the thinking goes, jittery buyers shelling out $500,000 to more than $1 million for one of the builder's single-family houses can rest assured that they're not sinking money into a depreciating asset.

"That's a very real fear," said John J. Lavery, director of sales and marketing for the home builder. "Obviously, there's been a big correction in the market. Our view is that it's the lowest point in the market cycle now."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/29/AR2006082901486.html

The Housing Crisis Goes Suburban

By Michael Grunwald
Sunday, August 27, 2006; Page B01

In the past five years, housing prices in Fairfax County have grown 12 times as fast as household incomes. Today, the county's median family would have to spend 54 percent of its income to afford the county's median home; in 2000, the figure was 26 percent. The situation is so dire that Fairfax recently began offering housing subsidies to families earning $90,000 a year; soon, that figure may go as high as $110,000 a year.

Seventy years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that the Depression had left one-third of the American people "ill-housed, ill-clothed and ill-nourished," Americans are well-clothed and increasingly overnourished. But the scarcity of affordable housing is a deepening national crisis, and not just for inner-city families on welfare. The problem has climbed the income ladder and moved to the suburbs, where service workers cram their families into overcrowded apartments, college graduates have to crash with their parents, and firefighters, police officers and teachers can't afford to live in the communities they serve.

Homeownership is near an all-time high, but the gap is growing between the Owns and the Own-Nots -- as well as the Owns and the Own-80-Miles-From-Works. One-third of Americans now spend at least 30 percent of their income on housing, the federal definition of an "unaffordable" burden, and half the working poor spend at least 50 percent of their income on rent, a "critical" burden.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/25/AR2006082501197.html

Wrap-Around Financing Can Help Make a Sale in a Slow Market

By Benny L. Kass
Saturday, August 26, 2006; Page F05

In a slow real estate market, would-be sellers and potential buyers begin to think about creative financing.

Last week, I wrote about transactions in which the seller holds the entire mortgage, a type of arrangement that is treated as an installment sale for tax purposes. This type of creative financing works best when the seller has no mortgage or a small one.

There's another approach, known as a wrap-around mortgage, that can be used in some situations where the seller has a larger existing mortgage.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/25/AR2006082500535.html

Dems Fear a Backlash

Friday, Sept. 1, 2006

BALTIMORE -- Maryland Democratic leaders are beginning to worry about a general election backlash from African-American voters if Kweisi Mfume and Stuart O. Simms are both defeated in the Sept. 12 primary.

Some fund-raising and polling data suggest that Mfume may not be successful in his bid for the U.S. Senate and that Simms could be defeated in the race for attorney general. If both go down, the Democratic Party would lack an African American among the top candidates on the statewide ticket-- except for Del. Anthony G. Brown (D-Dist. 25) of Mitchellville, the lieutenant governor candidate.

This could present a dicey situation for Democrats in motivating the largest and most powerful element of the party's base for the general election.

http://www.gazette.net/stories/090106/polia%20s194940_31946.shtml

A Scramble to Replace the Old Guard
Rare Open Seats And a Big Field Are Producing A Robust Election

By John Wagner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 31, 2006; Page T03

With two lions of Maryland politics leaving office this year and a third threatened, this fall's election could usher in a new generation of officeholders who could dominate state politics for decades to come.

U.S. Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D) and Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. (D) are stepping down after decades in their posts, and another fixture, Comptroller William Donald Schaefer (D), is in a tough battle for reelection with two members of his party.

The upshot is an election year unlike any in recent decades, with several candidates running for each seat and millions of dollars being spent. The Sept. 12 primaries will go a long way toward shaping the story line for the November general election.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083000086.html

O'Malley Seeks $200,000 Principal Bonuses

By John Wagner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 29, 2006; Page B01

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley today will propose paying signing bonuses of $200,000 -- believed to be the largest of their kind in the nation -- to principals hired to lead dozens of Maryland's lowest-performing schools.

The hefty bonuses, designed to lure seasoned educators from across the state and country to jurisdictions including Prince George's County, are included in a package of "new ideas" on education that the Democratic gubernatorial hopeful plans to present this afternoon.

O'Malley will also call for shrinking the state's largest middle and high schools and expanding a program aimed at reducing school suspensions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/28/AR2006082801239.html 

Executive Race Tops Full Ballot

By Rosalind S. Helderman and Ovetta Wiggins
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 31, 2006; Page T01

Prince George's residents going to the polls for the Democratic primary on Sept. 12 had better arrive ready for some big-time voting.

With more than 100 candidates running in 21 local races, plus a bevy of state and federal races, this election season has brought an unprecedented flurry of political activism.

The top race for local officials is the campaign for county executive.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083002048.html

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Virginia To Weigh Impact Of Projects
Land-Use Studies Crucial, Kaine Says

By Amy Gardner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 28, 2006; Page B01

The state government has a huge stake in local development decisions and is going to become increasingly involved by measuring traffic impact and other effects before large-scale projects are built, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said in an interview last week.

Kaine said his administration will be looking for more opportunities to gauge the effects of local land-use decisions, such as the study he ordered on the traffic impact of building about 30,000 homes west of Dulles International Airport in Loudoun County.

Kaine (D) brushed off criticism from developers and local officials that his administration's direct management of the traffic analysis was politically motivated and meddlesome in the affairs of Loudoun government.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/27/AR2006082700909.html

Allen To Begin TV Blitz Today
Republican Deploys Financial Edge to Target N.Va. Voters

By Tim Craig and Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 31, 2006; Page B05

Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) will launch a statewide television advertising blitz today, campaign officials said, taking advantage of his sizeable financial advantage over his Democratic opponent in the Nov. 7 election.

Allen, who could spend more than $10 million on his campaign against James Webb, will start airing two commercials in the expensive Washington media market and one that will reach voters in every part of the state.

The ads will air as Allen and Webb prepare for the traditional Labor Day start of the fall campaign at stops across the state.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083003032.html

Plans Change for Housing Near Bridge
Developer Offers Fewer Units in Mix of Luxury and Affordable Apartments

By Brigid Schulte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 31, 2006; Page VA03

A developer who has promised to preserve hundreds of units of affordable housing on Alexandria's desirable waterfront unveiled a new scaled-back proposal last week.

Giuseppe Cecchi originally sought to buy two properties on either side of South Washington Street: Hunting Towers and Hunting Terrace, aging apartment complexes along the Potomac River near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

He planned to raze the Terrace and build 400 units of luxury condominiums in two 15-story high-rises. With the money he made from that project, Cecchi promised to refurbish the 500-plus units in the Towers, keep prices affordable and sell the units as condos for the local workforce.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083000958.html

Development Debate Escalates in Loudoun
30,000-Home Dulles South Plan Advances

By Amy Gardner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 30, 2006; Page B01

A plan to open up a vast stretch of southeastern Loudoun County to roughly 30,000 new homes is prompting a fierce debate reaching all the way to Richmond over how best to guide growth and prepare for its inevitable effects on traffic, taxes and quality of life.

On one side are those who believe that so many new homes -- equivalent in number to four Fredericksburgs -- would hopelessly paralyze a region already struggling with traffic congestion. On the other are those who see an opportunity in Dulles South to coax hundreds of millions of dollars from developers to build roads, schools, parks and utilities that government can't afford.

Both sides agree on one crucial point: Too little has been done for too long to address Northern Virginia's mounting traffic troubles. What they can't agree on is what should come next: a major slowdown of residential growth -- or a partnership with developers to exact unprecedented contributions to the road network.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/29/AR2006082901384.html