Washington City Paper: Contents for Mar. 17

Tag Team
Need something done at city hall? Call David Wilmot or Fred Cooke, the District's premier power brokers.

Cover Story

When Marion Barry's 1994 election committee ran into trouble, charged with possible violations of the city's campaign finance and conflict-of-interest laws, Barry asked two longtime friends to protect his newly redeemed image and help avert significant sanctions. Calling David Winston Wilmot and Frederick Douglas Cooke Jr. to the rescue was not surprising.

Wilmot, an enigma whose paradoxes far outnumber Barry's, has known the mayor since his days as a rabble-rouser and consummate outsider. The men play tennis together; Wilmot has swapped birthday gifts with Barry's former wife, Effi. And in 1990, when others thought Barry too drug-crazed to run for re-election, the loyal Wilmot stood at his side.

Cooke, corporation counsel for the Barry administration from 1987 through 1989, is a versatile lawyer with an intricate understanding of how the District government works and a reputation for playing strictly by the book.

This dynamic duo deftly manipulated things for their friend the mayor. They defied the Office of Campaign Finance's (OCF) order to appear at a public hearing last November, arming themselves with an obscure city law that prohibits District government funds from being used to pay acting appointees who occupy their post for more than 90 days. Victor Sterling, then acting OCF director, fit the bill. In fact, if the law had been followed by then-Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly, Sterling should have hit the unemployment lines in July. Wilmot and Cooke had Sterling, a former federal elections official, by the short hairs.... Continued

Issue of Mar. 17 - 23, 1995

News and Features

Tag Team
Need something done at city hall? Call David Wilmot or Fred Cooke, the District's premier power brokers.
Cover Story By Jonetta Rose Barras
Real Things Considered
If Public Radio's So Great, Why Can't It Support Itself?
The City By Randall Bloomquist
Hello, Mr. Chips
Gambling as a Solution to the District's Woes? You Bet.
The City By Alan Green
The District's Escheating Heart
Government Officials Rob From the Poor and Give to the Girl Scouts, Greeting-Card Companies, etc.
The City By Clara Jeffery
Esteem Queen
Woman's Way Founder Rosalind Wiseman Prepares Girls for Battle
The City By Nathalie op de Beeck
Power Ties vs. Cat Hats
The Mail By John Mueller
Almost Heaven
The Mail By Judy LaPrade
The Slack Strikes Back
The Mail By Gregg Foreman
X-cellent
The Mail By Marc Schulhof
The X Men (and Women)
The Mail By Rachel Gorney
The X Files
The Mail By Julie Dunne
Generation Gap
The Mail By Kenya Brunson
Brat Pack
The Mail By W. Patton Hahn
The Meaning of Life
The Mail By Brian D. Wall
Labor Intensive
The Mail By Ellen Wilds