Don Peebles to Run for Mayor if Vincent Gray Doesn't Decide to Run in 2009

Loose Lips has the latest. Don Peebles says he will run for mayor if council chair Vincent Gray doesn't declare his intentions to run by the end of the year.

It's all on Vince now: R. Donahue Peebles gave an interview to WUSA-TV's Bruce Johnson yesterday, in which he announced his intention to run for mayor, so long as D.C. Council chairman Vincent C. Gray doesn't announce himself before year's end. (Perhaps that's what their breakfast rendezvous was about.) More than that, Peebles wasn't shy about needling his potential opponent: 'Adrian Fenty has never been a success at anything he's done,' Peebles says on camera. 'He has been an average to below-average city councilmember...and he's been a poor mayor.' The megadeveloper went on to call Fenty 'very petty' and 'not mature' before reiterating his pledge to spend as much as $5 million of his own money on a campaign. 'I don't need anyone to finance my campaign for me,' he tells Johnson. 'I'm gonna eliminate this environment of pay to play'---for everyone but him, anyway

Don Peebles Seventy Percent Sure He will Run Against Fenty

Developer Don Peebles told WTOP radio he is 70% sure he will run against Mayor Adrian Fenty according NBC Washington.

NBC states: "The biggest news may be the big bucks that Peebles can bring to any effort. Peebles told NBC4 and WTOP that he would probably need to spend $3 million to $5 million of his own money to challenge Fenty. That kind of private funding would wipe out Fenty's fundraising head start of the past year. Fenty has worked hard to collect almost $3 million. Peebles could simply write a check."

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