You might think At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown and Mayor Adrian Fenty have reason to be political rivals. After all, Brown was a co-chair of the Linda Cropp for Mayor campaign. His father was a field operative for Cropp. Brown also spiked the nomination of one of Fenty’s fundraising wizards, lobbyist Max Brown, who was up for a plum post on the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission.

But relations between the mayor and Brown can’t be too bad. Fenty’s campaign strategist, Tom Lindenfeld, is among a select group of voters to have planted a Kwame Brown in ’08 sign in their yards.

Lindenfeld calls reports of tension between the two young politicians “overblown.” He doesn’t consider any differences between the mayor and councilmember so intense that he would back off from his political loyalties. “I’ve supported Kwame from the beginning,” says Lindenfeld. “Why should anything change now?”

Photograph of Sign (Not Lindenfeld’s) by Darrow Montgomery