INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 4 -- Mayor Anthony A. Williams won election Saturday as president of the National League of Cities, becoming the first D.C. mayor to assume the top post in a national organization of municipal officials.
The league has more than 18,000 member cities and towns and lobbies for their interests on Capitol Hill and throughout the federal government. At his swearing-in, Williams (D) promised to pursue "an advocacy agenda" focused on homeland security, education, public safety and affordable housing.
"This is an historic time for us as local officials," he told more than 2,000 league delegates at the Indiana Convention Center for a five-day conference that ended Saturday. "After decades of decay and depopulation, our cities are undergoing a second renaissance. People are moving back. They are feeling safer in our streets, more confident in our leaders.
"Yet, in the wake of such progress, the most difficult issues remain. We must be their chief advocates in Washington next year."
Williams called on his colleagues to help him change the District's status as "the only capital in the entire world that doesn't have representation in its national legislature."
"I ask you to join me in saying that . . . it's wrong that we pay more federal income tax than most states, that we sacrifice more lives in combat than most states, and yet we don't have a vote in Congress," he said.
Williams's presidency promises to take him away from the nation's capital with increasing frequency even as political difficulties are mounting at home. Despite the city's progress under his leadership, 42 percent of city residents disapprove of how Williams is handling his job, according to a recent Washington Post survey. One complaint: He's not around enough. Records show that the mayor has spent more than a quarter of his second term away from the city.
An array of potential challengers is lining up to replace Williams in 2006. The mayor has not announced whether he will seek a third term.
At a news conference, Williams defended what is likely to be a heavy travel schedule during his year-long presidency, saying his trips will benefit the District.
As league president, "I can go across the country and preach the message of full democracy for our city," he said. "I think we should seize that opportunity."
Outgoing president Charlie Lyons, a selectman from the Boston suburb of Arlington, Mass., backed Williams up.
"I just hope people realize the important benefits this brings to the residents of the city of Washington, D.C.," Lyons said. "Now you've got 18,000 cities and 49 municipal leagues all talking to their representatives about representation for the city of Washington, D.C. We've been really sensitized to this issue."
Lyons praised Williams as an "ingenious" leader who has lifted the nation's capital out of bankruptcy and transformed it into "the city on the hill that we all seek to duplicate."
Since arriving in Indianapolis on Wednesday, Williams has basked in a friendly adulation of a sort he rarely encounters at home.
Everybody laughed when Williams passed out black bow ties Saturday and decreed them mandatory attire among league officials and staff.
Hundreds of people complied when he asked them to say happy birthday to his 89-year-old Aunt Julia on the convention's Internet telecast.
Late Friday, at a martini reception thrown in Williams's honor by the municipal leagues of Maryland and Virginia, a steady stream of well-wishers embraced the mayor and shook his hand. Several lured him onto the dance floor, where he cheerfully participated.
"He is a mayor that is, quote, engaged, and that's what we need here," said William A. Aleshire, a Bowie City Council member. "We don't need someone who's sitting in the back row."
Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.
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