For Kathy Patterson and Vincent Gray, the race for the second most powerful position in District government is not about where one stands on education, public safety or health care. Both candidates are tried-and-true Democrats who differ little on the issues.
Most important is who is best able as the next D.C. Council chair to work with a new mayor and marshal 13 voices into one potent, efficient legislative body.
Of the candidates, one has more legislative experience, the other more time in management. They both claim to be strong consensus builders, though one has picked up a reputation as an aggressive maverick.
They both say their campaigns resonate from Northwest to Southeast — though they represent divergent areas of the city.
Patterson, 58, has served on the council for three terms on behalf of affluent Ward 3, leading the push for legislation prohibiting smoking indoors, banning chemical shipments through neighborhoods, modernizing schools and protecting protestors’ rights. A graduate of Northwestern University, she has lived in the District for 29 years, originally moving to Washington as a newspaper correspondent.
“It is not a job for on-the-job training,” Patterson, currently chairman of the council’s education, parks and library committee, said during a recent debate. “It isn’t a job for business as usual. It’s a job that requires experience, that requires integrity, that requires having proven to deliver.”
Patterson also has been saddled with a reputation as unyielding and a lone wolf. But she said she’s secured majority support for her initiatives many times over the years, which “puts a lie to this little whisper campaign.”
“I think you’ll find, often when a woman is in a position of responsibility and is both aggressive and effective, that kind of charge will come,” Patterson said. “Ask any professional woman and she will have heard that. It’s also fair to say that I have pushed my colleagues to be better, to be more accountable.”
Gray, 63, is the first-term Ward 7 council member, though he came tothe council as a well-regarded community leader with 30 years of social service management experience inside and outside government. He is a District native, having graduated from the D.C. public schools and The George Washington University. He has served as director of The ARC, of the D.C. Department of Human Services — from 1990-94 — and of Covenant House.
During his 18 months on the council, Gray has secured a reputation as personable and as a leader able to strike accord among competing interests. He dismisses any notion that he lacks legislative experience, having worked in the public policy arena for years, and touts his clear endorsement and fundraising leads as evidence of strong support for his “One City” message.
“People have looked at the breadth of my experience and what it has entailed,” he said.
As for Patterson, Gray said she’s “not the easiest person to deal with.”
“When you treat people with respect and in a warm way, you’re likely to be more successful than if you just blow them over,” Gray said, referencing a moral lesson he learned long ago.
That Gray is black and Patterson is white has not gained traction as a major campaign issue. But not surprisingly, polls show Patterson has strong support among white voters, and Gray has the backing of the black community.
“Neither one of us has sought to inject race,” Gray said. “People have not asked the question. We’ve tried to stay on issue.”
To learn more
» Visit www.grayforchair.com
» Visit www.kathyforchairman.org
