A mysterious figure is waging a lone campaign to revamp the city's arrangement with professional baseball on the Washington National's new stadium.
"The baseball deal is outrageous enough to bring [Joe] Ruffin out of the shadows." A sometimes political advisor, Ruffin is apparently running this campaign on his own, without and support or outside direction. "He says other cities that built stadiums got a big chunk of change from baseball owners and thinks D.C. deserves a similar deal."
"Ruffin is waging a one-man assault against the government's agreement with MLB to build a ballpark in Southeast. Ruffin's Ward 3 address has appeared on two slick mailings to likely voters. He purchased an ad in the Washington Post and bankrolled a poll showing that D.C. voters think baseball owners should kick in more cash for a stadium. Ruffin also crafted a recorded phone message urging residents to tell their councilmembers to vote no on the stadium lease agreement. The message concluded with the tag line, 'Paid for by Joe Ruffin.'"
FULL STORY: One-Man Show
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