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Yesterday, that man above on the right, Don Peebles, announced his intentions of running for mayor. He’ll make a final decision by the end of the year—-and likely go for it, as long as D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray doesn’t decide to run first. (Oh what do you know: Peebles actually showed up to City Paper’s holiday party last night in Adams Morgan. When I asked him about Gray, he said that his decision wasn’t contingent on the Chairman’s.)
Peebles has appeared a time or two on this blog, and quite a few more times over at City Desk. Despite these various posts, a random survey of people on my G-Chat contact list revealed that no one’s really familiar with him. So a few more details to recap: Peebles lives in Florida, for the most part.
But he grew up here, and spent years in the 1980s toiling away on the city’s tax appeal board, and occasionally doing political favors for then Mayor Marion Barry before becoming a prominent developer (more on that later). The guy has been around.
Oh, also, Forbes magazine says that he is the eighth richest African American in the country, with a net worth of about $350 million.