So how's D.C.'s new Mayor Vincent Gray doing at restoring trust, transparency, and accountability to our cherished political institutions just a few months into his administration?
District Mayor Vincent C. Gray on Sunday acknowledged "missteps" and said he wants the city attorney general and the D.C. Council to investigate allegations that aides to his campaign paid mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown last summer to continue his attacks on then-Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in exchange for a city job.
Gray (D) also accepted the resignation of Talib Karim, the chief of staff of the Department of Health Care Finance, where Brown worked as a $110,000-a-year special assistant until he was dismissed.
"I acknowledge we have made missteps," the mayor said, referring to the vetting process for administration jobs. "We have taken steps to address those missteps."
Here's why I wouldn't have voted for Gray: Politicians almost always promise to restore transparency and accountability to their political office. Gray's platform didn't consist of much else. The problem is that politicians almost always fail at their ethics goals, so if the person running on ethics reform hasn't promised anything else, you've essentially been promised nothing. Barack Obama promised accountability and transparency, too, but at least Americans actually got the Affordable Care Act.
