Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty to Run as Republican? Don't Hold Your Breath

In a curious quirk to Washington's Democratic mayoral primary, defeated incumbent Adrian Fenty has resurfaced as . . . the Republican nominee in the fall campaign for City Hall.

That's right. Fenty, a Democrat who lost Tuesday to D.C. Council President Vincent Gray, won the Republican primary that same night without even trying. Turns out 822 Republican voters wrote-in his name on ballots, making him the nominee since there was no other declared GOP candidate for mayor, according to the Washington Post.

It is highly unlikely Fenty will take the opportunity for a second-chance campaign. He's a lifelong Democrat who has already endorsed Gray and said he would not accept the GOP nomination or run as an independent. No Republican has come close to winning the mayor's race since this overwhelmingly Democratic city was granted home rule by Congress in the 1970s.

Even so, the idea that Fenty's name could be on the ballot in November -- the Post's information comes from "unofficial results" provided by the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics -- is an ironic postscript to Fenty's fall from grace. Elected as a an eater young reformer four years ago, he had a string of accomplishments, but his abrasive personality and the perception, fair or not, that he tilted toward white voters in affluent neighborhoods (some of them Republicans) were blamed in part for his downfall.