D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray wants to convince voters that he’s no mere Mr. Nice Guy.
Despite his promises to be a caring, considerate leader, Gray says he’s not afraid to make tough decisions.
“This has been an action-oriented council,” he said, sipping what he calls a ginger ale and grenadine and what everyone else calls a Shirley Temple. “I think being deliberative is important, in terms of thinking through issues, but it has never deterred me from taking action.”
In his late middle age, Gray has emerged from relative obscurity and could be the District’s next mayor. He is in this position partly because Mayor Adrian Fenty has alienated vast swaths of the city with what critics say is an abrasive, imperious style. Gray, on the other hand, speaks in a near-monotone and focuses — sometimes obsessively so — on the nuts and bolts of legislation and policy.
His council meetings sometimes run into the wee hours.
But friends and supporters say there is a strategic depth to Gray that is often obscured by the personalities in the mayoral race.
“He’s thoughtful. And he cares about the issues facing the city,” said Councilman Phil Mendelson, D-At Large.
Mendelson first encountered Gray when Gray was running Covenant House, a Southeast nonprofit group that helps homeless families. A woman in Southeast was on her way to work when she was struck and killed by a youngster who had stolen a car. Trying to get help for the woman’s stricken family, Mendelson reached out to Gray.
“He got personally involved and tried to help them,” Mendelson said. “He understood the pain and grief process for the family.”
Aides, friends and supporters say that Gray’s sense of empathy drives him furiously.
“We’d get to work at 9 in the morning and there would be an e-mail from Vince … sent at 2, 3 o’clock in the morning,” said Covenant House’s Vernell Payton.
His slow but steady approach is paying dividends. Last week, Gray trouncedFenty in the Democratic straw poll in Ward 4 — the mayor’s home turf. Fenty allies have downplayed the results, trying to say it was merely the workings of the “disgruntled,” but those were the same allies who crowed when Fenty beat Gray in a Ward 8 straw poll earlier this summer.
Gray’s opponents say that deliberation can lead to debilitation. The Fenty team has blasted Gray for his stewardship of the city’s human services in the 1990s, when his agencies were subject to class-action lawsuits and the District went bankrupt and was placed under a congressionally appointed control board.
“If you look at it, it’s not nice,” Attorney General Peter Nickles said of Gray’s record.
This is part of the reason why Fenty’s television ads promise “results, not rhetoric.”
Gray responded to Nickles’ criticisms in typical wonkish fashion. He suggested the attorney general had violated laws prohibiting city officials from electioneering.
Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations, sums up the fears of many younger Washingtonians when he says that Gray’s promises of “inclusiveness” offer “a back-to-the-past vision.”
Gray’s task is to persuade younger voters that he is committed to reform. In essence, he’s trying to convince the young, wealthy families who have moved to the District but haven’t committed to raising their families there that they can have a city that works without the continual conflicts that surround the Fenty administration.
“In a democracy, it’s important to know what people think and what people feel and then you make a decision,” Gray said. “Now, after all that discussion, is everyone going to be happy? Of course not. But at least people will have an opportunity to feel like they’ve been involved in how the city moves forward.”
