COOKOUT INVITATION HEATS UP FEUD (2024)

Allen, a former aide to the mayor, took on his political organization in May, running against the candidate Barry endorsed for the Ward 8 council seat, Eydie Whittington. Allen lost to Whittington by a single vote. But the defeat hasn't quenched her thirst for politics: She is now running for president of the ward's Democratic organization.

There's been no love lost between the Allen and Whittington camps since the election, and Barry himself has been the object of ill will from many in the Allen camp. Late last week, however, Barry appeared to be trying to make peace. According to Allen, she and Barry bumped into each other on the street and she mentioned the crabfest at his house on Saturday.

"I didn't get invited to your cookout," Allen said she told the mayor. "He said, Come on.' "

But when Allen showed up, a gatekeeper at the Barrys informed her that she was not welcome. Karen Jones Herbert, head of the D.C. Taxicab Commission and a friend of Cora Barry, delivered the bad news.

Allen said Herbert told her, "I know he invited you, but Mrs. Barry uninvited you."

Herbert remembers the incident somewhat differently. "I might have said, That means you're uninvited, because your name's not on the list,' " Herbert recalled. "I might have said Mrs. Barry, me or whatever, her name was not on the list. I did not say Mrs. Barry uninvited her."

Cora Barry did not return telephone calls to her office.

The incident is now hot gossip among Ward 8 politicos and has heated up the race for Democratic Party offices.

"There's a lot of animosity," said Philip Pannell, a former chairman of the Ward 8 party organization and at-large member of the Democratic State Committee. "Unfortunately, that type of behavior does not make for unity in this ward. It's so petty, so ill-mannered."

"I don't see any unity in this ward," said Robert Yeldell, the Democratic state committeeman from Ward 8, "as long as Cora is calling the shots."

Allen is unhappy with the way she was treated. "My feelings were hurt because he invited me," she said. "The {D.C. Council} race is over. . . . It's time to bring everyone back together."

The election for Ward 8 Democratic offices will take place Saturday at 11 a.m. at Savoy Elementary School, 2400 Shannon Pl. SE. Allen is heading a slate of candidates called the Progressive Democrats; they are opposed by the Unity Slate, headed by activist William Lewis, and by some independents.

Allen's ticket includes candidates Ron Dennis, first vice president; Mary Parham Wolfe, second vice president; Michelle Pendergraph, recording secretary; Teresa Gibson, corresponding secretary; and Roderic Liggens, treasurer.

Lewis's slate has only one other candidate, Trent Tucker, for treasurer. James Little and Gloria Thurman are both running independently for second vice president. Statehood Activist Acquitted

D.C. statehood activist Mark Thompson is excited. After being jailed for 20 days in May, he recently was acquitted on charges stemming from a statehood protest he helped organize. He considers this not just a personal victory but also proof that residents of the District haven't lost faith in the statehood movement.

"The pendulum swings so much on statehood. Sometimes you're led to believe that people don't support the movement anymore," he said. "But this jury was with us the whole time."

Thompson has been through three trials on minor charges resulting from different statehood protests. Unlike most other participants in the protests, he has refused to pay a fine and plead guilty. Each time, he has demanded a jury trial. And each time he has won.

But he landed in jail because he once showed up late for a court hearing and D.C. Superior Court Judge Russell Canan found him in contempt of court. After Thompson failed to perform community service that Canan ordered, he did almost three weeks behind bars.

Thompson admits that the statehood cause is not enjoying the best of times, with the city government under the watchful eye of a financial control board and Congress controlled by Republicans. But he says the movement still has life. Citizens for New Columbia will be hosting its annual statehood summit Sept. 30.

"This is a long-term movement," he said. "We don't expect statehood in 1995, but the movement should not be idle. We don't want to have to keep resuscitating the movement. In the summit, we may talk about statehood by 2000. We've got some work to do." D.C.'s New Top Lawyer

Charles F.C. Ruff finally began work Monday as the District's top lawyer, leaving a high-paying job as a partner at a prestigious law firm to represent a city mired in financial and legal problems.

Although Ruff, 56, was nominated in June for the job of corporation counsel and confirmed shortly afterward by the D.C. Council, he needed extra time to wrap up business at Covington & Burling, where he specialized in white-collar criminal defense. So he got a big welcome Monday when he joined the Barry administration after a brief ceremony at the D.C. Court of Appeals. Among those on hand: the mayor, who said he was counting on Ruff's legal advice during what he called "a critical period of downsizing and reengineering."

Ruff will lead a staff of 350 that handles the city's legal work, which includes complex civil litigation, juvenile matters and traffic and misdemeanor cases. He said a top priority will be to help neglected and delinquent children, within the juvenile justice system and in the community.

Ruff said he was looking forward to his new job but admitted that it felt "strange" last Friday bundling up his papers after 13 years at Covington & Burling. Before joining the law firm, he was a U.S. attorney and a top Justice Department trial lawyer. He once generated headlines as the fourth and final Watergate special prosecutor.

He'll be paid $81,885 a year. The job has not been filled permanently since Vanessa Ruiz left in October 1994 to be a judge on the appellate court.