Marion Barry Democratic Marion Barry Democratic On November 6, 1986, Washington, D.C., held an election for its mayor, with Democratic candidate and incumbent mayor Marion Barry defeating Republican candidate Carol Schwartz.

By this time, his dominance of city politics was so absolute that he faced only token opposition in the Democratic primary in the form of former school board member Mattie Taylor, whom Barry dispatched rather easily.

Barry, who knew that most of Jackson's income came from delivering speeches, used his political clout to arbitrarily disqualify Jackson by getting a law passed that said anyone who made more than a certain amount in honoraria was ineligible to run for D.C. office.

As expected, he defeated Republican city councilwoman Carol Schwartz fairly handily in the November 4 general election.

However, Schwartz won 33 percent of the vote—the first time a Republican had crossed the 30-percent barrier in a general election.