Marion Barry has a batch of candidates to promote today: Muriel Bowser for mayor, Karl Racine for attorney general, Anita Bonds and Elissa Silverman for the two at-large D.C. Council seats. If only he could find enough voters to promote his slate to.

Standing outside Ward 8’s THEARC community center this morning, Barry predicted that turnout would be depressed.

“We still have a problem getting people excited about this campaign,” the mayor-for-life-turned-Ward 8 councilmember said.

That could change. Barry predicted that Ward 8 voters would cast their ballots late in the afternoon. He made a similar claim during the primary when he was campaigning for Vince Gray during the primary, only to be disappointed—-Ward 8 had the lowest voter turnout in the city. (As for the difference between his primary and general election picks? Bowser’s campaign has “more energy” than Gray’s did.)

Campaigning with Bowser and Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker, Barry declared Bowser ready to be mayor and remained pleased with his promise to “kick David Catania‘s ass,” despite his quote’s appearance on a Catania mailer.

“I think it’s great,” Barry says. “That’s how we talk out here.”

Despite his recent passion for endorsements, though, Barry suspects that a whole lot more people would be enthusiastic if there was another candidate in the race: the mayor-for-life himself.

“If I were running, it’d be a different story,” Barry said. “It’d be nothing but excitement in this campaign.”

Photo by Will Sommer