Ailing city is poised to reclaim its fallen leader : Marion Barry is back from the political dead. Washington voters could make the convicted drug abuser their mayor again.

Forget Bill Clinton. Forget Oliver L. North. In this city’s political boxing ring, there’s only room for one true “Comeback Kid.” Marion Barry is taking a shot at that title and trying to regain another one: mayor.

After serving a six-month jail term for cocaine possession, the former mayor and current city councilman is aiming for a fourth four-year term. The 58-year-old Democrat, claiming to have overcome his drug addiction, has emerged as the front-runner in the upcoming mayoral primary. But Democrats and Republicans alike are worried that a Barry victory could deliver another blow to the city’s already tarnished image.

Some critics believed he was vanquished forever when the FBI videotaped him smoking crack cocaine in a hotel room four years ago. And Barry acknowledges that traveling the road to recovery has not been easy.

“It’s like a prizefighter,” he says. “You get knocked down and you just know you can’t win if you get up, so why get up? You’ve got to have a winning attitude.”

Residents still smart at mention of the videotape. But two years later, he still enjoys widespread support in most sectors of the nation’s capital.

“We’re taking our message of hope, healing, recovery of our city and guns off the streets to the people, and it’s catching on,” Barry says.

Although the Sept. 13 election is only a primary, Washington’s overwhelmingly Democratic electorate is virtually certain to deliver a Democratic winner the keys to the mayor’s office.

In many cities, Barry almost certainly would be ruled out early. But he always has held a special place in the hearts of Washington voters, who believe his up-from-the-streets background enables him to empathize with common people.

It doesn’t hurt to have God in your corner, either. Barry credits a “god force” with aiding in his recovery from cocaine addiction and emphasizes that he could not have returned to politics without help.

“Most people who go through what I’ve gone through don’t come back,” he said. “Either they just wallow in their own self-pity or they’re in jail or dead or in the hospital.”

More than demographics or faith, however, his mayoral bid is being fueled by bitter voter disappointment in Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly, who after Barry’s fall swept into office promising to “clean house.”

Kelly--who won with heavy support from white and upper-class voters--has presided over the city’s worst-ever public housing crisis, has not been able to slow the urban crime wave and has entangled city finances to the point that Congress is threatening to withdraw federal aid if she does not improve her management skills. One recent poll showed her approval rating in the teens, dropping her to third place in the primary behind John Ray, a city councilman who has lost a slew of previous mayoral races.

Barry is trying to appeal to frustrated voters by vowing to reduce gun-related crime and introduce jobs initiatives.

Cheers may be the last thing he’ll hear on Capitol Hill, however.

“I don’t think anyone in the federal government is excited about the prospect of Marion Barry’s return to office,” one Republican congressman said. “It would not send a clear signal that there is an attempt to eliminate drug use and crime in the district.”

One House Democrat lamented that Barry’s criticism of Kelly’s financial record is somewhat unfair because he created many of the problems during his tenure.

He said a Barry victory would set up prime opportunities for GOP partisans to bash Democrats for being soft on crime.

Barry dismisses his Capitol Hill critics, saying they lack courage. But he wholeheartedly agrees with their assessment that his election would shake things up.

“What I think what bothers the people on Capitol Hill is the fact that the D.C. government is such a mess that it’s embarrassing,” he says. “Since I’m going to straighten a lot of things out and I’m going to be a better manager than the one they have now, they’re going to welcome me coming.”

Even if they do not, many of the voters who first put him in office will. Since he instituted a major summer jobs initiative during his first term, Barry has been able to count on the city’s youth to campaign and vote for him.

Senior citizens and residents of the city’s poorer precincts have also been avid supporters. With promises to establish a gun court to speed processing of firearms violations and to treat alcohol and drug addiction as medical, rather than criminal, problems, he is winning their praises again.

“He’s the common man’s candidate,” said David Williams, 51, a city vendor. “He came from a humble background, and he was active in the civil rights movement. The other candidates just don’t have that background. You’ll see them walking down the street and they’re just not reachable. But I think he is.”