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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2010
NIKKI KAHN/THE WASHINGTON POST Mayor Adrian M. Fenty andD.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray debated at theNewseum early this month. The candidates have similar agendas for the city but very different leadership styles. Style plays substantial part in Fenty-Gray contest contenders from A1
ner, Sinclair Skinner,” right in the mayor’s face, invoking the name of Fenty’s controversial fraternity brother and friend, who has gone from failed businessman to flour- ishing contractor over the past four years. Fenty started this visit with a
big smile, calling out greetings, but now he steps silently through the barrage, the veins in his head bulging, eyes wide, lips tightened. Finally, a man crosses the street, hand extended. “My heart was all out for you
four years ago,” says Yusef Mu- hammad, still pumping the may- or’s arm. “But then you put your back to us.” Fenty doesn’t flinch. But his
voice is dead serious as he re- sponds: “Maybe if I tell you what we’ve done, it will open up your mind.” The mayor recites his ac- complishments right here in Ward 8: four new recreation cen- ters, libraries, school improve- ments, newteachers, fewer homi- cides. “Doesn’t that make you feel a little more open-minded?” No, Muhammad says, it does
not.
Consensus vs. results As D.C. voters prepare to go to
the polls Tuesday to render a verdict onFenty intheDemocrat- ic primary, they face two fairly similar visions for the citybut two very different styles of leader- ship. Fenty emphasizes executive
power. In 2006, as he constantly reminds voters, he promised en- ergy and action; now, he says, voters should focusonthe results, not so much on how he got there. Gray, the D.C. Council chairman, puts more credence in consensus. He believes that progress lies in the process, that successful deci- sions are those that have been methodically vetted by all con- cerned. Elections are as much about
likeability as ideology or even laundry lists of accomplishments, and Fenty in four years has mor- phed from the young dynamo with enough confidence to poke fun at himself — remember the 2006TVad in which he puckishly displayed the hole in the sole of his shoe from walking nearly ev- ery block of the city? — to the stern adult who feels compelled to lecture his flock about why he has to discipline them. The mayor tells anyone who
will listen: I’ve had to fire teach- ers, close schools, bring in top managersfromout of town, all for your own good. You may not like me now, but surely you’ll agree that we’re better off.
A parent would add, “One day,
you’ll thank me.” But in politics, unlike in par-
enting, there is no “one day.” In politics, it’s all about right now.
‘Do you know who . . .?’ Right now, a quiet man who
never held elective office until he was old enough to collect Social Security sidles through the crowd of shoppers at Eastern Market. Most people do not recognize Gray. The candidate sticks his hand out here and there; mostly, he gets quizzical looks. Cam- paigning does not come easily to him. “It is absolutely energy-sap- ping to do this day after day,” he says. “But you hear people, you meet amazing people.” Gray is aware that tomany, he’s
just one more man in a business suit. Sometimes he plays with this. Tall and polite, he interrupts an occasional stranger in his low, rumbling voice to say, “Do you know who Vince Gray is?” “Yes,” replies a middle-aged
blackwoman,eyes focusedonher shopping, not on this stranger. “Have you met him?” asks the
candidate, dressed in a custom shirt with “Vince” embroidered on the cuff, two BlackBerrys on his belt. “No,” comes the reply. “That’s who I am,” Gray says,
and now the woman looks up. He has her cornered against a
poultry counter, and he askswhat she’s concerned about. She says, “Jobs,” and he’s off. Six minutes later, after a soliloquy on “TANF regulations” (a welfare program for families with children) and budget debates, and a mini-les- son onwhat he says is themayor’s failure to consult with the coun- cil, Gray finishes. The woman, once again eyeing the chicken thighs, says, “Thank you,” and slips away. Gray never quite asks whether she might vote for him.
Schools and jobs Gray is not the kind of politi-
cian who lights up a room. But he connects with voters through his instinctive understanding of just howtightly knit the city can seem. So Gray’s first question to most black voters he approaches is, “Where’d you go to school?” Whenthey say, for instance, “Spin garn,” he replies, “Dunbar,” and then asks them to name great alumni from their high school. If they hesitate, he joyfully reels off names such as Spingarn’s Dave Bing and Elgin Baylor, both of whomplayed in theNBA. (Bing is now mayor of Detroit.) In contrast, although Fenty is
alsoWashington-born and -bred, voters say something about him feels disconnected.
“I have not been a good communicator.”
—Mayor Adrian M. Fenty “Power changes people,” says
Regina Snead, a Gray supporter. She says she worked in a city public school before Fenty’s schools chancellor, Michelle A. Rhee, eliminated her position. “He only cares about his friends and people in Georgetown and uptown, instead of our babies who can’t read and write.” Many black voters approach
Gray with the greeting, “Lifelong Washingtonian!” What often fol- lows is talk about the city’s schools, with Gray saying that teachers deserve better treatment than Rhee and Fenty have given them. Gray also talks about his proposals to boost preschool pro- grams and community college offerings — plans that his critics say would run smack into the District’s harsh budget reality. Fenty, on the other hand, de-
lights in telling Rhee’s admirers about her achievements, includ- ing new Advanced Placement courses, new athletic facilities and hundreds of young new teachers. But if voters push back about fired teachers or shuttered schools, the mayor explains that he was elected to make change, and that involves pain. “I apologize to anybody who
lost a job,” Fenty tells Jackeline Maynard, who complains at a rally in Brookland that she was laid off by the parks department. “I apologize to any of the 2,500 people who’ve been laid off since I’ve beenmayor.We’dlove to keep everybody employed, butwehave to run the government and make responsible decisions.” Gray tells voters that he’s com-
mitted to school reform, but he avoids specifics about whether he would try to keep Rheeonthe job. Mainly, he focuses on the pride many blacks feel in the schools they attended and on the need to improve schools using people al- ready in place. “I have to sendmy daughter all
the way to UpperMarlboro to get her a good pre-K program,” Caro- lyn Solaru, who lives in Ward 8, tells Gray. “I pay $200 every Fri- day because I can’t send her to Ward 8 schools to pick up all those bad habits, but it’s worth it
because she’s reading and learn- ing Spanish.” Gray tells Solaru she doesn’t
“need to go to Upper Marlboro. There are a lot of good schools in Ward 8, good teachers.” He sum- mons an aide to take thewoman’s contacts and get her a list of “excellent preschool programswe alreadyhave right nearwhereyou live.”
The black community The mayor’s apologies run on
TV nearly round-the-clock, Fenty looking directly into the camera, wide-eyed and penitent. But out on the trail, Fenty can grow flus- tered by the heat from voters, especially in black neighbor- hoods. “I have not been a good com-
municator,”FentysaysoveraVita- minwater at a Georgetown Star- bucks. “That is particularly upset- ting intheAfricanAmericancom- munity,”which still accounts for a slight majority of the city’s popu- lation. He runs through a list of early, top-level appointments that raised hackles of some black vot- ers: his police chief, fire chief, schools chancellor, city adminis- trator, attorney general, not one of them black. But Fenty doesn’t talk about them in terms of race; rather, he focuses on their D.C. roots (Police Chief Cathy L. Lani- er, with 17 years in the depart- ment; Fire ChiefDennis L.Rubin, Washington-born and -bred) and their excellence and energy. “I told people that it was time
to shake things up,” Fenty says. “As a candidate, I said we’re going to run the government as a pri- vate business: You hire the best talent, reduce positions where you can and hold people account- able.” Fenty says he feels the sense of
betrayal around town and has concluded that “wedonot need to completely reinvent ourselves. What I am hearing is that a very critical piece hasbeenleft outand that is direct involvement with the people.” That means that in a second
term, he would not slow down, but speed up: “We will manage time better to move even faster
“It’s the quality of each encounter that matters.” —challenger Vincent C. Gray
while listening to everyone.” But don’t expect a new Fenty.
“It’s too late for a change of strategy,” he says. “I don’t think what we’re doing now is as much an overhaul as an adjustment. It’s not even an adjustment. It’s add- ingonekey item to the list ofwhat we’re doing.”
Different speeds Moving through a crowd, Fen-
ty’s encounters with voters can be measured in seconds. If someone asks a policy question, they’ll get a list highlighting a fewactions. Gray’s answers are more de-
tailed, prone to including a com- prehensive legislative history of the issue at hand. His answers often go on for several minutes. Fenty says his campaign style
reflects his approach to govern- ing. “As a council member, I was omnipresent, aggressive, brash, never slept,” he says. “The whole point ofmy administrationwasto bring that energy to the whole government. What’s the Fenty style? Identify a problem, charge straight ahead into the problem, solve the problem, people are happy.” But now the mayor says he
realizes that the last piece of the sequence has gotten lost too of- ten: “As mayor, if I go full speed ahead and I make the final deci- sion, it looks like I didn’t listen.” Gray says going too fast pre-
cludes listening andmaking peo- ple feel involved. “Saying you’ve touched 50 people is irrelevant,” he says. “It’s the quality of each encounter that matters. It isn’t a question of pace. It’s a question of process, and I think having a process is important. People have to see themselves inthe outcome.”
The anti-Fenty To be liked right now, it seems,
all Gray has to do is be not-Fenty. “I thought Fenty was going to
be the best thing for the District,” saysEugenia Jenkins,wholives in Southeast, works for Marriott and is devoting a big chunk of her weekend towaving signs forGray. “But once he got in office, he got all arrogant. He doesn’t care about certain wards. If you ask him a direct question on the news, he evades the question. It got to where every time he comes on TV, I cut him off. Now he’s all ‘I’msorry.’ ” But what about Gray? What
would he be like as mayor? “Tell you the truth, I don’t
hardly know anything about the man,” she says. “But I know he’ll listen to people and do what needs to be done.” The worry Gray hears most
often is that as mayor, he’d turn back the clock to a time when the
District was the employer of last resort, when the government was so unresponsive that people in nearly every neighborhood were dead certain that the folks across town were getting all the services — to the era associated in the public mind with Marion Barry’s long tenure as mayor. An undecided voter, Lonnie Solomon, who lives in the Trini- dad section of Northeast, tells Gray that he voted for Fenty last time and respects the progress he’s made, “but I really don’t care for him personally.” Still, Solo- mon doesn’t want Washington going back to the “bad times.” “We’re not going to go back-
wards,” Gray promises. Then he asks, “What would help you de- cide?” “Jobs, jobs, jobs,” says Solo-
mon, who has worked in security but is unemployed. Gray does six minutes on his economic plan. He says he’ll “de- mand that those who get con- tracts with the city hire people from the city. A lot of people say that people in certain parts of the city aren’t getting what they de- serve, and I agree.” Later, Gray says the city is
deeply divided, but “it’s really an economic divide. Yes, that falls disproportionately by race, but what’s really happening is that east of the river, people are exer- cised about being left out.”
Running out of time With just a few days left, Fenty
holds a rally at Turkey Thicket Recreation Center, an early vot- ing site in Northeast. Gray sup- portersshowup, too, taunting the mayor as he addresses volun- teers. A man in Gray regalia repeat-
edly shouts a paraphrasefromthe mayor’s closing statement at the last big debate: “If you choose not to givemeanother term, Ihaveno one to blame butmyself.” Fenty stares at the man, to no
avail, then asks him not to inter- rupt. The chanting goes on, and eventually workers from both sides exchange insults while the mayor, his voice now cracking from constant campaigning, tells supporters that “nothing will ever drive me as hard as seeing the people who were brokenhearted by the city I grew up in. I’m fired up.”
And then his voice softens, and
he adds, “We don’t have all the time in the world.”
fisherm@washpost.com
l Fenty’s campaign accuses Gray’s
campaign of buying votes. C5
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