In Prince George's, Baker has big plans to improve schools, make government accountable

Rushern Baker III, who won the Democratic nomination for Prince George's County executive, watched as his friend Adrian M. Fenty made bold and sometimes controversial changes as D.C. mayor, especially school reform, which Baker, too, has promised.

Then, on Sept. 14, as Baker won in Prince George's, he saw Fenty, criticized for having lost touch with even his closest supporters, get booted out of office.

But Baker, who has no Republican opponent on the Nov. 2 ballot and is soon to take the reins in Prince George's, is optimistic that his pledges to remake his county's political and fiscal culture and improve its lagging public schools can be accomplished without alienating his reform-minded political base.