by july 2006, public and private polling gave fenty a roughly 10-point advantage. political observers have debated whether it was fenty's unprecedented door-to-door campaign, in which he and his campaign workers visited virtually every block in the district, cropp's lack of engagement in the campaign, or the electorate's desire for a new direction after eight years of anthony williams. cropp's campaign began a series of negative attacks during the last month of the campaign. in direct mail and television advertisements, cropp painted fenty as unfit for the job and a careless lawyer who had been admonished by the d.c. bar; in 2005, he received an informal admonition from the bar association for his role in a probate case in 1999. the attacks, however, backfired; the reaction, coupled with the endorsement of the "washington post" newspaper, increased fenty's lead in the campaign's final weeks.